How good are your Touchpoints? You know the saying you’re only as strong as your weakest link? When it comes to the success of your design business, you’re only As Strong As Your Weakest Touchpoint. What is a touchpoint? Touchpoints happen every time someone interacts directly with your brand. Touchpoints are the pivotal gateways when a potential client decides whether they want to take the next step towards working with you or to back away and look elsewhere. It doesn't matter how good a designer you are, if you have touchpoints that fail, you may be losing potential clients before they even get a chance to discover how great you are. Take inventory of your touchpoints. There are many touchpoints to ever business. They include everything from your website to business cards, flyers, any blog posts you write, and any advertising you do. They also include your voicemail message, your tradeshow presence, and the clothing you wear. Touchpoints include anything a potential client comes in “touch” with before, during and after they meet you. Simply having touchpoints is not good enough. Each one of them must properly represent your brand because they are where potential clients will form opinions of you and your business. In order to evaluate your touchpoints, it may help if you take a step back and look at your brand from an unbiased perspective. You are used to seeing your business from your side. But how does the world see you and your business? All touchpoints matter. When it comes to your business, every touchpoint matters. But if every touchpoint matters, then how do you manage each touchpoint so that it properly reflects your brand? The answer can be found in a three-step process. List Evaluate Take Action Managing your touchpoints through this formula will make sure each touchpoint is optimized, satisfies its need, and is inviting to clients. Step 1) List your touchpoints Start off by listing all of the current touchpoints you can think of. The key word here is "all." Include things like; your website your emails address and email signatures your marketing material including business cards and stationery Any advertising you do your voicemail and phone greeting your vehicle your office space your personal appearance any others you can think of Once you’ve listed all your touchpoints, you then need to evaluate each one based on your brand. Step 2) Evaluate your touchpoints Once you have your list, you need to evaluate each touchpoint individually. It might be easier if you have someone else do this for you because the goal is to find the weaknesses in your touchpoints. If you do it yourself you may tend to overlook any failures. The purpose of this discovery phase is to help you to find the opportunities so you can make improvements. Remember, a touchpoint may not be bad, but it may have room to improve. Step 3) Take Action Once you've discovered which touchpoints are your weakest links, you can now take the necessary steps to improve them. Keep in mind that any deficits you found are actually opportunities to better your brand image. The smallest details can influence someone’s decision on whether or not they want to work with you. Evaluating touchpoints is an ongoing task Now that you have your list of touchpoints, set yourself reminders to revisit them on a regular basis to see if there are new ways to improve them. As technology changes, so will the effectiveness of each touchpoint. Some helpful, powerful tools you can use are customer evaluations and site surveys. Ask your current clients for help evaluating your touchpoints. Remember that this is not about a single touchpoint, but about all of them. Take the time to evaluate them individually and as a group. When it comes to marketing yourself and your design business, every touchpoint is an opportunity to attract new clients and grow your business. When was the last time you evaluated your touchpoints? Let me know your thoughts on this subject by leaving a comment f