Toni emphasized the importance of a business' "touchpoints" with its customers. They can be common things like signs or business cards. But broadly, touchpoints are any opportunity to influence a future buying decision. Collectively we scrambled up our grey matter and came up the the following as ways to potentially influence a future buying decision (we couldn't believe how many of them there are; remember, some are off the wall but that is the kind of thinking we need to encourage if we are to be not just better, but different):

Roadside signs, posters, cheques, Christmas cards, thank you cards, complementary passes, staff clothing, sky writing, stationery, carry cases & folders, vehicles, napkins & placemats, landscaping, sponsorships, badges, flowers, music, smiles (!), jingles & slogans, charitable donations, shopping bads, furniture, reading material, traditional media advertising, websites, email signature, youtube videos, other social media, business reception area, decor, customer washrooms..... the list goes on.

There are so many points at which you can "touch" a customer. If one of them is not up to snuff, there is a disconnect and customers are likely to remember that one disconnect more than all the other successful "touches". Toni gave an example of a fabulous spa experience she had at a top ranked resort, but then found the cheapest, grittiest toilet tissue imaginable in the washroom! Guess which "touchpoint" gets remembered and commented upon.....