When we arrive there is a line of people waiting to be served.
I get close to the stand and the person preparing lemonade offers us a trial cup.
It is amazing,
a flavor completely different from any lemonade I've ever tasted before.
As we are queuing, we can smell an incredible scent of fresh lemon.
We can even see the lemons being cut and
notice other ingredients which are shown with an incredible presentation.
The people preparing to lemonade are impeccably uniformed and
seem awfully clean, at least to be preparing lemonade all day.
There is a music that reminds me of a beach or a pool.
It is at the right volume, not too high, not too low.
After ordering, we receive our lemonade cups and
he says that there is a full refund, if we don't like the lemonade.
Also, as we are about to leave, he offers us a business card followed by a message.
Remember, if you share your experience in social media, the first one is on us.
The card offered fresh lemonade delivery to our home or
office everyday of the year.
Let's pause our story here.
Have you been able to identify the touch points?
Let's begin with the pre-purchase touch points,
which in this case are word of mouth from my friend, the posters on the street,
and the push message on our phones.
The purchase touch points include the location, the decor of the stand,
the music, the product comprised of the actual lemonade and the cup,
the ingredients and the personnel with their uniform.
The post-purchase touch points are the card that he gave us and
the loyalty promotion.
Let's look at another example now from a real case study that we consulted for.
The client was a young hotel chain with less than ten hotels throughout Spain.
They had little to none brand awareness.
The team was young, energetic, with lots of enthusiasm.
When asked what was their issue, they described that they compete with
other hotels that are in the adequate category and needed some differentiation.
We were appalled.
What does the adequate category mean?
Their team wanted to create a unique and differentiating experience to stand out
and offer an appealing reason to try their brand.
After running some internal workshops and
conducting minor research with guests, we developed a brand strategy.
However, the research yielded issues with specific touch points
that prevented clients from returning to the hotel.
Let's look at one family we interviewed.
These are Peter and Anne from Madrid.
They are a young couple in their thirties with two young childrens that travel
mostly within Spain by car and like to go places where there is lots to do for
the kids, but also fun from him and his wife.
They don't expect to spend a lot of time in the room, so he looks for
hotels that have a convenient location, good rates, and dependable service.
What he really appreciates are small extras for
the kids and rooms that feel updated.
They have set their sight on going to Valencia because of the existence of both
beach and the oceanographic site.
Peter asked a colleague from work who had recently visited Valencia, and
he recommended our client's hotel.
Petey immediately went online, looked at the hotel's website pictures, and
once he get approval from Anne, he decided to go ahead and book it.
It took him 45 minutes browsing through the different booking agents to actually
make the reservation.
Because pricing was different in every website, which really annoyed him.
Let's fast forward to the actual arrival at the hotel.
After the long drive, Peter and Anne began their check in process.
The kids were roaming around the lobby playing with the luggage.
Anne got really nervous that they would knock down some vases
that are part of the decor.
One finished the checking process, they took the elevator up to their rooms,
only to find out that they weren't connecting rooms.
Annoyed, Peter went downstairs and after a long discussion with the reception clerk,
he came up with the keys to connecting rooms.
When they entered the rooms, the decor was updated but the bed was hard as wood.
And the bathroom, it had no bathtub for the kids.
And the shower hadn't been updated in a while.
Now, let's fast forward again to their departure day.
Early in the morning they receive an envelope with the bill under the door.
After revising it,
Peter realizes that there were some mini-bar charges that weren't theirs.
He went downstairs to the reception to find a long queue.
During his wait he decided to write a review of the hotel on the Internet.
After 15 minutes and a bit of discussion,
he finally was able to sort out the bill and complete the checkout process.
Let's pause our story again.
Luis Rodriguez BaptistaProfessor
