The touchpoints you do not control but are judged on

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A journey map drawn from the inside contains the website, the phone, the quote and the job. A map drawn from the buyer's side contains those and a dozen other things: a conversation with a neighbour, a review on a platform you have never logged into, a directory listing somebody else created, an old profile, a comment in a local group, a competitor's comparison page.

Several of these carry more weight than anything you produce, because they are not controlled by you and are therefore believed. Listing them is uncomfortable and it is the fastest way to find out what your market actually encounters when they consider you.

1. The touchpoints you do not control are frequently the persuasive ones

The reason to take them seriously.

Independence is what gives them weight. A review or a recommendation is trusted precisely because you did not write it, which means these carry more influence than your own material. Your website is discounted for being yours; a stranger's account is not.

2. Search for your own name and list what appears

The first exercise.

Logged out, from a phone. Every result on the first page is a touchpoint, and businesses are routinely surprised by two or three of them. Do the same for your service plus your area.

3. Find the listings you did not create

The common discovery.

Directories, aggregators and map entries generated automatically. These frequently contain wrong hours, an old number or an address you left years ago. A wrong phone number in one of these can be costing you enquiries indefinitely.

4. Check the platforms where people discuss your trade

The invisible conversation.

Local groups, forums, community pages. You cannot control these and you can know what is being said, which is a considerably better position than not knowing. Ask a customer where people in your area discuss this kind of work.

5. Include the physical touchpoints

The half that gets omitted.

Your vehicle, your site, your team's appearance, a neighbour watching a job. In local businesses these are among the most frequent encounters anybody has with you. They are also entirely within your control, which makes them the cheapest to improve.

6. Account for the conversation you are not in

The most influential one.

Somebody asking a friend. You cannot attend it, and you can influence it by being easy to describe and by doing work that people talk about. Making yourself describable in one sentence is the practical lever.

7. Claim and correct what you can

The practical response.

Listings can be claimed, details corrected, reviews responded to, old profiles removed. An afternoon here resolves most of what is factually wrong. Start with anything showing a wrong number or address.

8. Respond where responding is visible

The partial control.

A calm reply to a review or a comment is read by everybody who arrives later. This is influence rather than control and it is worth exercising.

9. Check them on a schedule

The maintenance.

Quarterly, in fifteen minutes. Listings drift, new profiles appear, reviews accumulate, and none of it notifies you.

Be careful about attempting to remove or dispute genuine criticism. Buyers weigh a well-handled complaint more favourably than a spotless record, and pursuing removal of honest feedback tends to produce a worse outcome than responding to it.

Conclusion

List everything a buyer encounters that you did not create.

Search your own name logged out from a phone and treat every result as a touchpoint, find the listings generated without you and correct them, know what is being said in local groups even though you cannot control it, include vehicles, sites and staff appearance as physical touchpoints, accept that the conversation with a friend is the most influential and that you influence it indirectly, claim and correct what you can, respond visibly where responses are read, and check the whole set quarterly.