Customer Experience. No Point Of Entry Strategy? No Point At All. Do You Have One?

I sent a newsletter to my email list on Sunday about a customer experience Point Of Entry strategy. I'm going to share a part of that newsletter with you, because as we transition over the coming weeks, this is something that will help you to create a seamless customer experience, generate more customers and sales.

*I won't typically be sharing newsletter content on social media, but I really believe this will help a lot of people.

A Point Of Entry should be the FIRST thing that EVERY brand and business considers. No matter what shape or size you are.

Service business? this applies to you.

Product business? this applies to you.

So, what is a point of entry?

The Point of Entry is a point where anyone can gain ‘entry’ to your business, gain insight, have a conversation, or experience your brand for the first time. It is a place where they come into contact with you whether that be directly, socially, physically, through a search engine or through word of mouth.

 At this point, a person is not familiar with you, they are about to make their first impression of you and their custom is not a given.

 This is REALLY important to get right. 

The experience you create at each entry point will either be the beginning of a beautiful business relationship or the end of the road! 

 A Point Of Entry Can Take Many Forms: 

 A physical door into a premises.

A Facebook post.

An Instagram conversation.

A telephone enquiry. 

An email.

A Twitter conversation.

A Facebook message.

A Google search.

Word of mouth. 

An exhibition/event.

This list is not exhaustive, but I would be here all day if I listed every point of potential entry and bear in mind, that this will be different for every business. 

ACTION POINT: Take a notepad and write down where anyone can have a Point of Entry into your business. You may be surprised at how many there are. Make sure to list all digital Points of Entry such as social media, search engines, website and physical (real-world) Points of Entry, this could be physically walking into a premises (if you have one) or something like a telephone call or an exhibition/event where you are exhibiting.

When you have those Points of Entry, it is important that you have a process and strategy that ensures that the experience at each point creates an excellent first impression of your business.

 I’m going to share an analogy with you to illustrate Points of Entry. Following this, I’ll give you a very simple example of how you can strategise a Point of Entry. (I’ll be using Facebook communication as an example. I'm keeping it simple because when you start doing Point of Entry work, you can very easily disappear down a rabbit hole as there is so much work to be done. It's important to get into the right frame of mind when thinking about Points of Entry, so I don't want to overwhelm you here, but to give you a simple starting point to begin looking at your own processes.)

 The Department Store Analogy:

 I often talk with my clients about ‘The Department Store’. It is a good example and visual to illustrate what I am trying to put into your mind. 

Imagine a beautiful department store that you have visited (I always envisage Galeries Lafayette in Paris because it is the most beautiful department store I have visited and very visual in my mind).

That department store is now your business (even if your business is a service based business and you have no premises, that department store is metaphorically still your business). 

Each door or escalator that enters into that store is a method of gaining entry to experience the goods. 

If any of those doors (entry points) are locked, it would be one less entry point that a customer could walk in to experience the store. It is the same with your business.

Anywhere that someone can get closer to buying from your business is an entry point to potentially doing business with you.

Hopefully by now, you are starting to see how crucial each of those entry points are. 

Because not all customers are the same, some may choose to enter through a first floor door or the ground floor door, that’s just personal preference. But if any of those doors are blocked, you are blocking their potential relationship and transaction with you. 

You may be thinking: WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO ME?

The answer is because you need to make sure that every one of those doors (entry points) is open AND inviting. If they are not, then there is no point in having an entry point in the first place. A door without a good experience isn’t a door at all.

 So, Back To Your Business: 

YOU are responsible for making sure that those entry points are not only open but also delivering exceptional experiences. 

If you fail to deliver an exceptional experience at any of the entry points, then the chances of someone going on to do business with you will be slim to none.

How can you ensure an exceptional experience at all of your entry points? 

Go back to your list. Take each point one by one and do what I call an ‘excellence in experience’ check.

The idea is that you need to create a solution that works for you and your business capacity for every single entry point to ensure excellence at each point.  

Here’s an example of a very simple digital entry point:

Facebook Page: 

The Problem:

It is all very well having a Facebook Page that your marketing manager/department post content to daily. However, this opens your business up to people actually TALKING with you. I lose count of the number of businesses where I have enquired or commented on a post and there has been no response at all or a response more than 24 hours later. 

What do you think the result of that was? I went elsewhere. No response at all, or no reply within 24 hours, in an increasingly digital world is too long.

Within 2 hours of sending that message, I was already researching other businesses and building relationships with those who were responsive. By the time the initial business had responded to me, I had already purchased another option because the other business showed they cared by communicating.

The Solution:

What action could you take if your business uses a Facebook Page? There are many, depending on your business. A basic rule of thumb is that it is better not to have a page at all if all you are doing is promoting your business. If your page is not manned, then you will miss out on revenue. 

You may be thinking "I don’t have the time to man the page and respond". If you are not going to do something well, don’t do it at all. People expect a response. So guide them on what to expect from you. 

Look at your business and decide what is achievable. Can you alternate your rotas so that you can give employees half hour slots throughout the day to answer questions in your inbox and respond to the comments on the posts on your page? 

If that is still too much time, think about what is reasonable for your business. Is it that you or your employees will be available for an hour or 2 hours a day to respond to all social media enquiries? 

Evaluate what that time and capacity commitment is to suit your business need and then TELL your audience. 

TELLING your audience is key. Communicating availability stops business from disappearing.

You could pin a post to the top of your Facebook page that says something to this effect:

“We love hearing from you here on Facebook, but we are not always here immediately to answer enquiries or respond to comments. We will be here each day between xxx time and xxx time. You can be sure we will reply to you between those hours” 

Job done.

Then make sure someone is available between the hours you have mentioned.

Publicly, you are managing expectations of what people can expect from you. So when they leave you a message or comment or enquiry they know when they can expect to hear back from you, before they go to do business with one of your competitors. 

It sounds so simple, but over 80% of businesses are NOT doing this! By implementing something so simple, you will be in the top 20% of businesses who are communicating with their customers well. 

Similarly, within Facebook Messenger, you can make use of the Auto Responder facility.

When your page is going to be completely idle (i.e through the hours of the night) you can set up a responder that automatically sends a message to let those who enquire know that you will be back the following day with a response.

It may go something like this:

“We don’t monitor our Facebook messages between the hours of xxx and xxx but someone will be back with you tomorrow, thank you for your patience. We look forward to speaking with you tomorrow.”

This acts as a place holder until you are able to respond.

The next and most crucial part is to make sure that someone responds when you say they will.

Two very simple examples of delivering an attentive experience if you can’t be on Facebook full time.  Many know these facilities and features are available to them, but it astounds me how many businesses don’t use them.

Almost all businesses use Facebook to post about their services or products but are missing huge sales opportunities by not being available to talk digitally to their prospects. Start doing this and you will be above the 80% of others in your industry who are not. 

By making a potential client feel like they matter to you, you create trust between you and them from the offset. This can make all the difference and potentially lead to a sale.

Next steps:

You now need to create a strategy for each entry point that you have written down. The best way to do this is to approach each entry point as though you are the customer. Take off your business hat and put on a customer one. Imagine being a customer at each of your entry points. 

On the phone to your business? What is that experience like?

• Are people being passed from department to department when they call you, before they even get any help? THAT needs to change.
• Does your answerphone have a clear message, so that a potential customer knows they've reached the right place? If the answer is no, THAT needs to change. 

Write it down and strategise how you can improve that experience. Then do the same for each entry point. This will bring up all manner of things and you may need to invest time and resource in them. For example, it may be that you need to invest in employee phone training or you may need to overhaul your website structure and experience upon examining your website as an entry point. 

What I can tell you is that it is work well worth doing. 

If any of your entry points are blocked, or not providing a great experience, you are undoubtedly losing business. A Point of Entry strategy is perhaps the most crucial thing to beginning a good customer experience with your business.

I would love to know how you get on once you have strategised all of your entry points, so please feel free to let me know. This could take you a few days or a number of weeks to complete. Know that it requires work, but that the work will be worth the end result.

Of course, if you would like to book a Point of Entry strategy session to look at all of your Points of Entry in detail, I can work with you on a personalised strategy and approach for each area. You can book a Customer Experience Strategy Session direct with me here: 

 https://calendly.com/victoriatayluk

I hope this helps you to think about your customer experience strategy as we transition through the next few months. It is deep and detailed work. but work that leads to better experience for your customers and potential customers and ultimately sales for your business.