| Course | BU 242 Creating Customer Value in the Digital Age |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 6 |
| Paper type | Digital touchpoint audit |
| Length | About 840 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 242 Unit 6
Twelve Screens, Texts and Emails Around One Air Conditioner: A Digital Touchpoint Audit of a Same-Day Pickup, Kept to What a Customer Can See
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 242: Creating Customer Value in the Digital Age
Instructor Name
April 1, 2026
Twelve Screens, Texts and Emails Around One Air Conditioner: A Digital Touchpoint Audit of a Same-Day Pickup, Kept to What a Customer Can See
This audit walks the digital steps of the purchase followed through this course: the Sunday, June 22, 2025 pickup order Tasha Morrow placed with Keystone Home Supply (a composite chain) after her window unit died, and the follow-up messages that reached her afterward. It logs what every page, message and notification asked of the buyer, what it returned and how long that took by the clock. The audit keeps strictly to what someone outside the company can see on a phone or computer; it makes no claim about Keystone's systems, staffing or data. After the log, a consistency section compares the touchpoints with one another, and the audit ends by marking the three weakest rows.
Audit Method
Lemon and Verhoef (2016) note that the touchpoints a firm controls directly, such as its website, app and messages, are only part of a customer's journey, but they are the part the firm can change most easily. This audit covers those brand-owned digital touchpoints. Each is judged against three heuristics from a widely used list for interface design (Nielsen, 2024): match between the system and the real world, error prevention, and helping users recognize and recover from errors. The error prevention heuristic matters most here. Nielsen describes it as designing to prevent problems before they occur, which is better than a good error message afterward.
The log records device, time, what the buyer supplied, what came back and elapsed time. Screenshots of each touchpoint, taken by the buyer or reconstructed on the same device the following week, are numbered S1 to S12 in the order below.
The Touchpoint Log
The table lists every digital touchpoint, from the search result that first showed the unit to the review request that arrived two days later.
| No. | Touchpoint, device, time | Buyer supplied | What came back | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Search results card, phone, Sun 2:40 p.m. | Search words: window air conditioner pickup today | Price, star rating, pickup-today label | Seconds |
| S2 | Product page headline, phone, 2:43 p.m. | Nothing | 8,000 BTU, cools up to 350 sq ft, $349 | Seconds |
| S3 | Specifications tab, phone, 2:45 p.m. | Two taps to open | Dimensions, window width range 23 to 36 in, weight; no window type | 2 min |
| S4 | Pickup availability widget, phone, 2:50 p.m. | Zip code | In stock at store 4.1 miles away, ready in about 2 hours | Seconds |
| S5 | Account prompt at checkout, phone, 3:01 p.m. | Chose guest checkout | Guest form | Seconds |
| S6 | Guest checkout, phone, 3:01 to 3:05 p.m. | Name, email, phone, card | Order number and pickup instructions | 4 min |
| S7 | Order confirmation email, phone, 3:05 p.m. | Nothing | Item, price, tax, pickup store; no product details | Instant |
| S8 | Ready-for-pickup text, phone, 4:52 p.m. | Nothing | Order ready, bring ID and order number | 1 hr 47 min after order |
| S9 | Store check-in text link, phone, 5:20 p.m. | Tapped I'm here and parking row | Message that an associate is on the way | Seconds |
| S10 | Receipt email, phone, 5:38 p.m. | Nothing | Receipt, return policy link | Instant |
| S11 | Online return portal, laptop, Mon 9:20 a.m. | Order number, reason: does not fit | Store return required for large items | 6 min |
| S12 | Review request email, phone, Tue 10:02 a.m. | Nothing | Request to rate the 8,000 BTU unit with stars | Two days after pickup |
Consistency Across Touchpoints
Comparing the rows reveals four patterns. First, the same information was requested more than once. The guest checkout at S6 collected the buyer's name, phone number and email, and the ready text at S8 then asked her to bring identification and the order number to the desk, even though the check-in link at S9 already identified her order. This cost little time but told her the systems did not share what she had provided.
Second, the touchpoints disagreed about what mattered. The product page headline at S2 led with a room size of up to 350 square feet, a maximum rather than a recommendation, even though the federal sizing chart matches 5,000 BTU to the smallest rooms, those under 150 square feet (ENERGY STAR, n.d.). The specifications at S3 gave a window width range but not window type, so a buyer could confirm her window was wide enough and still miss that it opened the wrong way. The only touchpoint to show window type was the printed manual inside the box, which is outside this audit because it is not digital.
Third, the tone shifted between channels. The pre-purchase touchpoints, S1 to S9, were fast and encouraging. The return portal at S11 was brief and procedural, offering no way to report a fit problem other than a reason code and no alternative products that would fit a sliding window. Fourth, one touchpoint contradicted the buyer's situation. The review request at S12 arrived after she had started a return and asked her to rate the product she could not use, which shows the review system did not know about the return.
The Checkout Touchpoints Worked
Some touchpoints performed well and should be kept as they are. The guest checkout option at S5 and S6 let the buyer finish in four minutes without creating an account. Across the studies Baymard Institute (2026) compiles, required account creation drives away 18 percent of shoppers who leave for reasons other than browsing, and an overlong checkout drives away 17 percent. The pickup availability widget at S4 answered the segment's most urgent question, whether the unit could be had today, within seconds. The check-in link at S9 was clear and quick. These touchpoints show that the retailer's digital path is built for speed, which makes the missing fit information more noticeable, not less.
The Three Weakest Rows
S3, the specifications tab, is the weakest row. It listed a window width range without window type, failing the error prevention heuristic (Nielsen, 2024) at the one point where the costliest error in the purchase could have been prevented. S2, the product page headline, is the second weakest. It presented a maximum room size as the main capacity claim, which does not match how buyers think about their rooms and led toward an oversized unit. S11, the return portal, is the third weakest. It recognized the error, since the buyer selected does not fit, but offered no help recovering from it, such as showing units that fit sliding windows. Each of these three rows is a single screen the retailer controls, and Unit 8 recommends a change to the first.
References
Baymard Institute. (2026). 50 cart abandonment rate statistics 2026. https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
ENERGY STAR. (n.d.). Room air conditioners: Sizing guide. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.energystar.gov/products/room_air_conditioners
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420
Nielsen, J. (2024, January 30). 10 usability heuristics for user interface design. Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
What the BU 242 Unit 6 instructions ask for
The Unit 6 instructions ask you to audit the digital touchpoints of a purchase or brand. Most rubrics want a log of each touchpoint, such as web pages, emails, texts and app screens, recording what the customer did and what the company provided. Many sections require the audit to stay with what a customer can observe, without guessing about internal systems. You will usually compare touchpoints for consistency and identify the weakest ones. Screenshots are often expected as supporting material. The paper tends to run four to five pages with a table, formatted in APA 7, and it should follow the same purchase used in earlier units.
How the BU 242 Unit 6 example is put together
The sample opens by setting its boundary, only customer-visible digital touchpoints, and naming three usability heuristics as its standard. The log is a twelve-row table with device, time, what the buyer supplied, what came back and elapsed time, and it includes the easily forgotten messages after pickup. A consistency section compares rows and finds four patterns: a repeated request for identification, conflicting emphasis between the headline and the specifications, a change in tone after purchase and a review request that ignored a pending return. A separate section credits the checkout touchpoints that worked. The audit ends by ranking three weakest rows, each tied to a heuristic and to a single screen the retailer controls.
Where the points sit in the BU 242 Unit 6 rubric
The rubric for the touchpoint audit usually scores the completeness of the log, the accuracy of observations, the consistency analysis and the identification of weaknesses, plus presentation. Completeness earns full points when the log covers touchpoints after purchase, not only the website before checkout. Accuracy is judged by specific observations, such as what a screen asked for and returned, rather than general impressions. The consistency analysis is often the most heavily weighted criterion; comparing rows to find repeated requests or contradictions shows real analysis. Weaknesses score best when each is tied to a standard, such as a named heuristic, and to a specific touchpoint. A clear table, numbered screenshots and APA citations support the presentation score.
BU 242 Unit 6 help: mistakes that cost points
Students often audit only the website and forget confirmation emails, texts and review requests, which is where many inconsistencies appear. Another common problem is claiming knowledge of a company's internal systems or data, which an outside audit cannot support. Some papers judge each touchpoint in isolation and miss problems that only show when rows are compared. Others describe touchpoints as good or bad without a standard. Screenshots pasted without numbers or references make the audit hard to follow. Finally, credit what works. An audit that finds nothing good is less believable, and noting strong touchpoints, as the sample does with guest checkout, helps focus attention on the real weaknesses.
Get a BU 242 Unit 6 example written to your instructions
Forward the Unit 6 instructions with the BU 242 rubric and the site or brand your section names. We write a custom example that logs identical fields for every touchpoint, includes the messages arriving after payment, times what can be timed and compares the rows without reaching for numbers nobody publishes. First custom sample free, returned in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 242 Unit 6 questions, answered
Where do the numbers in this audit come from?
From your own clock and your own screen, and from nowhere else unless the company publishes them. You can time a page load, count the fields in a form and record how many messages arrived over the following days. You cannot know how many buyers abandoned a cart. Where a figure is genuinely published, cite it; where it is not, write that it is unavailable and the audit stays honest.
How many touchpoints should be covered?
Every one you actually met on the path you mapped, and the count is normally higher than a first draft carries. Students tend to stop at the website and miss the email sequence, the text message, the packaging insert and the review request. Where the instructions cap the number, choose the rows carrying the most decision weight and say which ones you left out.
Does the audit need mobile and desktop versions?
Check the instructions, since some sections require both and others leave it open. Where you cover both, keep them as separate rows rather than one merged description, because the differences are usually the most interesting finding in the log. Where you cover one, name the device in the opening so a reader knows what was and was not examined.
Where can I find a free BU 242 Unit 6 sample paper?
The whole BU 242 Unit 6 audit, with its twelve-row log and consistency findings, is available above for free. For an audit of a different brand's touchpoints, share your assignment and the desk will write a free custom example, commonly delivered within two days.
Can the BU 242 Unit 6 audit include screenshots?
Yes, and most instructors expect them as supporting material. The sample numbers its screenshots S1 to S12 and refers to them from the log. Keep them in an appendix or attachment and label each one so the reader can match it to a row.