High-touch refers to the involvement of personal attention and service.[1] In business, the term often refers to situations where trust between the customer and employed individual(s) is necessary.[2] High-touch areas include: medicine, wealth management, real estate, and legal.[2] Stock trading done by humans, as opposed to automated trading or using online brokers, is also referred to as high-touch.[3]
The term was coined in 1982 by John Naisbitt in his book Megatrends.[4] It was explored further by Naisbitt in his follow-up book High Tech/High Touch.[5]
High-touch may also refer to the frequency in which a surface is touched.[6]
In pharmacology, high-touch may refer to medicines that require temperature control, ongoing drug management, or compliance monitoring.[7]
High-touch was coined as a term in response to "high tech."[5] High-tech, as opposed to high-touch, is when customers don't need human interaction to perform activities such as onboarding, ordering, and account management.[8] High-tech services, such at chatbots, allow customers to get what they want on-demand.[8]