Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

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SOCIAL T

ECHNOLOGY AND B

USINESS D

ECISIONS

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important and talkworthy, touchpoint analysis provides a method to analyze and pri-

oritize how you go about applying what you learn on the Social Web to building your

business.

Look more deeply into touchpoint analysis. The experience I opened the book

with involving Continental Airlines and separately the Bengaluru International Airport

are great examples of touchpoints done right. Add to that the Freshbooks’ example

and the general “customer delight” practices at Zappos. It’s important to understand

that across these very different businesses—of very different sizes and operating envi-

ronments—the same basic practice exists: an emphasis on creating specific, tangible

moments of delight that customers are very likely to talk about.

In the discipline of touchpoint analysis, I encourage plotting these two specific

measures—performance and talkworthiness—against each other, prioritizing focus

and action on the correction of lowest performance, highest talk-value touchpoints

while ensuring the preservation of the high performance, high talk-value touchpoints.

Figure 5.4 visualizes this concept.

Possible waste of resources

maintaining this low-talk-value

touchpoint.

Likely source of negative conversation:

This touchpoint should be prioritized

for review and possible action.

Website Performance

Talk-value

???

???

Figure 5.4 Touchpoint Analysis and Response Prioritization

In the case of Freshbooks, they sent flowers—$50 and change—to a customer

who may spend $500 on Freshbooks services. In the case of Zappos, they provide free

shipping—maybe $10 plus an occasional upgrade (at a cost of perhaps $20) for cus-

tomers with an average purchase of $100 to $200. In the case of Continental, change

fees and fare differences were waived that may have totaled $1,000 or more, given a

customer who has spent something like 20 times that with Continental in six months.

None of these are trivial decisions, and all require an understanding of business fun-

damentals: objectives, capabilities, constraints, and similar. Yet each drives—measur-

ably—favorable brand sentiment and purchase consideration.