Why Touch Points Matter to Automotive Design
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To your customers, you are what they touch.
Whether consciously or sub-consciously touch points form the foundation for customers to perceive and make decisions regarding the products they choose. Touch points drive the quality of customer experiences, and serve as the basis for the resulting relationship. This is why it is so important to understand the impact that touch points can have on Automotive design.
What Are Touch Points?
A touch point is defined as all of the communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship with your products and organization.
Touch points can take many forms – from the sound a car door makes when it shuts to the operating effort needed to access the centre console. Touch points form the basis of customers’ perceptions of a business, its brand and level of quality.
Fortunately, Automotive OEMs have the opportunity to shape their experience. By understanding and utilizing Automotive touch points, Automotive manufacturers can directly influence the experience of your customers. Enhanced customer experiences lead to better results for both customer and company, delivering greater brand advocacy, customer loyalty and ultimately, improved sales.
Enhancing Brand Perception
Within the Automotive industry, differentiation is key to building, creating and maintaining a unique selling proposition and the smallest component can often have the biggest impact on the overall design. Knowing where and how the consumer interacts with a product is vital; it may not be the ultimate decision-making factor, but if the touch point quality does not meet expectations it will be a contributing factor in the consumer buying process.
A company’s brand image is key—it creates expectations. It defines who they are, how they operate, and what makes them different from their competitors. For Automotive manufacturers, brand is reliant on a number of trustworthy and reliable suppliers that can be depended on from concept development through to production.
At Southco we understand how our products are our customers’ touch points, and we invest heavily in creating proven solutions that provide a quality experience for the end user. Our versatile design and global engineering capabilities support allow us to deliver consistent quality and an enhanced end user experience through touch points that meet your business objectives.
Southco’s relationship with the Automotive industry spans decades of experience and innovation. We manufacture highly engineered access hardware components for a variety of interior and exterior vehicle applications, including glove box, centre console and load floor latches, positioning hinges for headrests and armrests, as well as special fasteners for noise shielding and other engine applications, all creating a quality and comfort feel that ensures the ultimate touch point experience.
To learn more about how our touch points can differentiate your Automotive design, visit our Automotive industry page.
by Charlie Barrett, eCommerce Marketing Strategist, Southco, Inc.
www.southco.com
