Give Every Touchpoint a Purpose, or the Map Is Just an Inventory
When an experience audit treats a complete touchpoint map as the finished result, the map may be comprehensive while leaving everyone unclear about why each touchpoint exists.
Article Experience & Interaction Automotive & Mobility
Assess Both Touchpoint Coverage and Depth
When a touchpoint assessment checks only whether a touchpoint exists, it can overlook whether the experience has enough depth to influence a decision. A stronger approach records both presence and depth, using an assessment checklist to make both part of the review.
Key points
- A touchpoint assessment should go beyond checking whether each touchpoint exists.
- Left unchecked, the same pattern repeats: touchpoints exist, but lack the depth to influence decisions.
- Start with a different requirement: record both whether a touchpoint exists and whether it has enough depth to influence a decision.
- Build this requirement into the assessment checklist, with the experience lead as its owner.
- Assess the work against one question: has a touchpoint’s mere existence been mistaken for an effective experience?
01Who Owns the Touchpoint Assessment?
Without a clear owner, touchpoint assessment slips back into checking whether each touchpoint exists. Everyone contributes, but no one answers for the outcome: touchpoints that lack the depth to influence decisions.
Ownership does not mean rewriting every line personally. It means having the authority to uphold the requirement to assess both presence and depth when priorities conflict.
Record both whether a touchpoint exists and whether it has enough depth to influence a decision. Without this, assessment remains a simple check for presence.
02What Gets Handed Over in a Touchpoint Assessment?
A handover needs more than a conversation. Each stage should pass an assessment checklist to the next, carrying the work beyond a simple check for presence.
Without a clear handover document, each team interprets touchpoint assessment in its own way. The gaps between teams produce the same result: touchpoints that exist but lack the depth to influence decisions.
03Setting the Cadence for Touchpoint Assessments
Set a regular cadence. Scheduled assessment reviews demand less attention than retrospective meetings called after problems emerge.
When every ad hoc initiative takes precedence over that cadence, touchpoint assessment happens only on launch day.
04Putting Touchpoint Assessments to Use
Keep the checklist simple to use. Anyone opening it should be able to judge whether the task at hand should proceed.
If the assessment checklist still needs an expert to interpret it, the process remains a check for presence in a different format.
05When Is a Touchpoint Assessment Complete?
Completion means more than delivery. The test is whether a touchpoint’s mere existence has been mistaken for an effective experience.
Name the experience lead as owner. When that person moves on, the assessment checklist should remain, allowing the practice to continue beyond a single project.
Framework
The Four Layers of Touchpoint Assessment
From non-negotiable principles to practical tools, each layer answers one question, keeping touchpoint assessment from reverting to a simple check for presence.
L1Coverage
This layer defines what is non-negotiable in touchpoint assessment.
L2Depth
This layer turns touchpoint assessment into conditions that can be checked.
L3When Depth Is Insufficient
This layer defines how touchpoint assessment may adapt to different contexts.
L4Which Gap to Address First
This layer puts touchpoint assessment in users’ hands and makes exceptions explicit.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Recommended actions
Action 01
Start from the site
Identify the moments in a diagnostic project when touchpoint assessment is actually needed. Start there, rather than by rewording ‘check whether the touchpoint exists.’
Action 02
Keep it to one page
Use an assessment checklist in place of lengthy explanations. Keep only what supports the requirement to record both presence and enough depth to influence a decision.
Action 03
Judge it by one question
At each assessment review, ask only: has a touchpoint’s mere existence been mistaken for an effective experience? Without an answer, there is no basis for a decision.
Action 04
Name the owner
Name the experience lead as owner. Without someone to maintain it, the touchpoint assessment process will be quietly rewritten whenever conflicts arise.
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