Capitalize on your touch points!

Recently I bought a grinder from a store. Made the payment, got the grinder and a receipt. The receipt spoke of the store details, the representative who served me, date, amount etc and a long return policy statement. Just for one item I got this receipt which was like a page long with most of its part talking about the return policy. What does this indicate? No doubt these details are important, but how far are they good to support out mission/market our business or promote our products/services?

There was not a single line used in the receipt that did the job of promoting the store’s products/services or rather even appreciating the customer’s purchase. Normally I see them on a white paper, black ink. We preserve the receipts if they are for costly commodities/services otherwise we barely look at them once we leave the store/restaurant or any other place. I have a few smart examples to share, from which we can take some inspiration.

The reason for writing this post is to rediscover the power of touch points (the points of buyer-seller interaction) by capitalizing on our interactions/marketing material/receipts as a bounce back marketing tool. Checkout counter is one such touch point. Let us study some examples here.

Extreme Pita: I often visit this place and with the meal, I get a receipt showing the complete nutrition chart, giving the details of the food I am going to eat- the calorie intake, protein, carbohydrates and a measurement of how much calories we need a day/how much we are having there on a meal. We do see these nutrition facts in Ads (few minute Ads that cost a lot of money), but this receipt works as a smart simple form of advertisement which the customer can read at his own time.

Isn’t this a creative medium to pass on the same message at a very little cost? The receipt also thanked the customer, appreciated the purchase and offered a discount (bounce back offer) for the next purchase.

Another creative use of Receipt is done by Ralphs. On the back of receipt, we can find many attractive discount coupons. I personally preserve Ralphs receipt for car wash and hair cut discount coupons.

Great clips: Get a haircut, and preserve your receipt for a discount on your next cut.

Which other businesses are you familiar with, that are capitalizing on their touch points?

Now that we have recognized its importance, let us start our home work. Let us study the touch points where customers get in touch with us, and generate ideas on how we can capitalize that interaction. Let us examine our marketing material/receipts that we have been presenting to our customers/clients, and play with our imagination and creativity to make it work for us.

Ask questions like: How about putting a bounce back offer to our marketing material/receipts? We can come up with unique bounce back offers suitable to our business and mission. How about having colorful receipts? Loaded with coupons? Receipt made of a paper which is sticky and the customer can preserve it by simply putting it on the refrigerator, like the one we get on pizza box.

We may dedicate budgets for advertisement, branding and promotions, but we should not forget that the key to successful business is at the touch points-where we interact with our customers.

Take away: Success doesn’t need big budgets, it simply asks for our Imagination and Creativity which every one of us is blessed with.