“Service touchpoints are the tangibles; for example, spaces, objects, people, or interactions” (Moritz 2005), that make up the total experience of using a service. Touchpoints can take many forms, from advertising to personal cards; web, mobile phone, and PC interfaces; bills; retail shops; call centers, and customer representatives. In service design, all touchpoints need to be considered in totality and crafted in order to create a clear, consistent, and unified customer experience.

This definition comes from Livework Studio. Quite technical.

I would like to simplify the notion of touchpoint as being a specific moment in a channel. Remember channels? It’s these communication tools we use to get in touch with our users. So, a channel can be something like emails. For example, the confirmation email you receive after having bought something online.

So, the channel is the communication tool, while the touchpoint is a specific interaction between a channel and a user.

If I’m a bit romantic, I have to say that I like the wording of these two elements. Channel is a word that sounds technical. To me, a channel is just a technology or a way of communicating. But a touchpoint is the moment you get personal and close with your customer. It’s a moment in time where the communication from your service finally touches the customer life. Poetic, isn’t it?