Exiting

TOUCHPOINT FOLLOW-UP EVALUATION

30 minutes

Paper, minimum size A3, or a flipchart or whiteboard
Markers of different colours, and pens
Sticky notes

What is this tool and what is its purpose and benefit?

Maintaining the level of service requires continuous follow-up and improvement as to keep it up-to-date. Besides continuous customer feedback, different contact points between the customers and the organisation can be monitored.

Touchpoints are the points of interaction between the organisation and the customer. These can be for example buying a ticket on a museum’s website or visiting a customer service information desk. Active monitoring of these touchpoints after the service release is important. A touchpoint follow-up evaluation is a useful tool for this purpose especially when combined with user and customer feedback.

Steps how to use this tool in practice

The same steps apply when working individually, in pairs or in a group.

STEP 1

Take a big sheet of paper, minimum size A3 or a whiteboard or a flipchart and write your service on the top of it. You can also use a computer file, but a tangible paper that is fully visible and on which you can move elements around may stimulate your thinking more. Add the name of your service on the top of this.

STEP 2

Define the touchpoints of your service. Add a row for the touchpoints and add the touchpoints of your service on this in a sequential order. Add first the main actions and under these more detailed descriptions of these actions including what happens during each touchpoint on the side of the customer and organisation. You can use sticky notes for this purpose as they are easy to move around. If you have prepared a customer/user journey map, you can take touchpoints from here. You can also create a customer/user journey map that you will use during this activity.

STEP 3

Define how you will collect information on touchpoints. The best data is obtained from observing service situations and making notes of customers' actions and feelings in that situation, noting down what worked and what did not, and informal discussions with customers, and social media and discussion forums. Interviews and surveys can be used too but in such the response performance might bias the responses and the situation is not realistic.

STEP 4

Add regularly the obtained information onto respective parts of your board under the respective touchpoints and analyse the information observing what works, what needs to be changed and at what stage the service is at. Alter the service according to the results. You can create a touchpoint evolution plan for this. Remember to consider your own professional identity and that of your organisation when analysing the results and deciding on actions to take.