In a world where we are spoilt for our shopping choices – marketers often grapple with what do to make that elusive customer come again and shop from his store. Not only that, he also wants that customer to spread the good word about the shopping experience he has had at his store to other people so that they may want to come there too! Alas! His is not the only store in town! The growth of Modern Retail that India has experienced is simply breathtaking. With a USD 330 billion in 2007 to an estimated USD 427 billion industry by 2010 and providing employment to about 8% of India’s population, Retail Sector is a power source to reckon with. So, what worries our marketer here is the unlimited options that his customer has to do his shopping. Whatever he offers in the range of products is available equally well in many other retail outlets, so why would his customer want to come only at his store? Customer is the king and he simply is spoilt for choices these days! The answer lies is ‘engaging’ the customer to fullest and understanding the fact that it isn’t about the soap or chocolate that the customer buys, but about how he ‘feels’ buying these items from the store. All the experiences that our marketer tries to provide to his dear customer is controlled at something called as touchpoints.

Touchpoint has been defined in various ways, but the definition that I like the most is as follows:

Touchpoint is ‘every point in time the customer ‘touches’ or connects with your company throughout the entire product/service delivery; pre-, during and post-purchase’

Hence, touchpoints cover all the interactions that the customer has had during his entire purchase cycle with your brand. Now, it is the marketer’s duty to make the customer feel good about these interactions – be it visual, experiential or any other parameter by which the customer may want to weigh his shopping criteria on.

So, what our big retail store’s marketer has to try to get his customer back again and again along with his friends is to make all those interactions interesting. Purely from the retail store’s point of view – since the customer is there doesn’t mean that he likes your store and the battle is won. It means that he has a need which he has come to fulfill from your store. The real battle begins now, when he goes about fulfilling that need.

Did he get a parking space for his car easily? How was he received at the store? Was the entrance too crowded for him to get to the shelves he wanted to? Did he like the layout of the store? Were the products he was looking for easily available and visible? Were the promotions and schemes running effectively narrated to him? Were his concerns addressed immediately? Were the washrooms clean? Did he have easy access to any information he wanted? Were the sales staff and customer care nice to him? Did he wait for way too long in the queue to get his billing done? Were the promotions and offers good enough to excite him?

Yes, all these things matter! They always do. And if you have mastered the art to do these basic things affectively, your customer would definitely look forward to coming to your store again. After the great shopping experience, he may even smile and say ‘Touché!’ before leaving.