People nowadays are used to hearing about customer engagement. The internet is flooding with articles and blogs that stress the importance of customer engagement. But unfortunately, even after reading these information-loaded articles, people are leftover with thousands of questions. The reason is customer engagement is a tough term and honestly, even tougher to measure.
To end this discussion once and for all, this article is going to state what customer engagement truly is, and how valuable is it in today’s market.
Let’s start by digging into the basics.
What is Customer Engagement?
The internet is cluttered with numerous definitions. But talking simply, customer engagement is all about nurturing the interaction between the consumers and the respective brands. With vast digitalization, the interactions are no more restricted to just one channel. A brand can now strengthen its relationship with customers over multiple platforms and channels.
But they must ensure to deliver content that adds value to the customers. This helps to establish meaningful engagements. The moment the customers feel satisfied with a particular brand or a service, they connect.
With consistent engagement, brands can figure out a couple of important things, like:
• Customer Expectations
• Customer Grievance
• Communication Hurdles
• Customer Loyalty
• Benefits of consistent engagement
• Brand experience
• Sales velocity
• Customer insight
These are the few things that help brands to make an informative decision. In the long run, it helps them to build strategies that further contribute to the engagement process.
Well, enough of theoretical value, let’s check out what the statistics have to offer!
- Over 63% of marketers believe that customer engagement contributes to repeat purchases, retention of customers, and renewals.
- The process of engagement is driven by quality (80%), price (81%), likability (86%), trust (83%), and convenience (55%).
- Millennial consumers have fully engaged customers whose engagement is dependent on technology.
- On average approximately 29% of the B2B consumers are fully engaged.
- Over 72% of the big brands believe that improving customer engagement experience is their top priority.
- More than 40% of the consumers purchase from a particular brand due to their reputation.
- 81% of the top-tier companies believe that social customer-service strategies in connected to the overall strategy of the company.
This gives an insight into how important it is to focus on evaluating how the consumers feel about the experience they receive.
So far we have learned that active customer engagement is crucial to a brand’s success. And, everything comes down to how well a brand fulfills a customer’s expectations.
Now that every brand and company is trying to level up their customer-oriented services, it is tough to retain customers without any high-level strategy. Therefore, one must seek professional help to delight the users in the best way possible.
Here are a few best picks that the best of experts employ to offer the most effective customer engagement:
1. Grab the potential of Social Media
As the world knows now, social media has all the power to make or break a brand’s value. It plays an enormous role in the lives of people, both commercially and personally. Businesses worldwide tap into its power and credibility to communicate. In terms of customer engagement, social media platforms make it tenfold easier when compared to the traditional form of marketing.
Certain ways in which the brands can utilize the benefits are:
- Offer exclusive deals
- Aggressive Promotion for more followers
- Build relationship encourage more sales
Moreover, it is a great way to save some money!
2. Build Brand Value
Branding is important to any company. It casts an overall impact on the business, be it small or big. Poor branding can change the way people view a particular product and vice-versa. Reasons to consider this step are:
- Drive new opportunities
- Boost brand awareness
- Gain recognition
- Increase value of the business in the market
- Gain new customers
Once a brand is well-established, there is no going back. The power of word of mouth is unmatched. Therefore, once a brand successfully creates its value and reputation, the consumers themselves advertise for the particular brand.
3. Implement Incentives
Who doesn’t love receiving some extra money, offers, or benefits? Implementing incentives in the form of special offers or offering exclusive rewards can double the interest of the consumers to stick to a particular brand. In return, the brands can ask for feedback.
For example, while launching a new product or service, a brand can excite the audience by letting them know there is something in it for them!
Be it a 10% off on their next purchase or an exclusive chance to win a gift card, these small rewards can win people’s hearts. This way the brands can drive an impressive amount of traffic.
4. Win with an amazing Customer Service
In this competitive era, no business is lacking to offer the best services. And honestly, it gets increasingly tough to retain customers. But there is one thing that has a major impact on the consumers based on which they cast their vote!
The customer service arena is something that makes all the difference now. When brands are competing to offer the best deals it is the humble customer service that plays the key role.
Imagine being on a call for half an hour only to get disconnected. It sounds unimaginable, right? A consistent high-quality and superior customer service helps develop active relationships. It shows how well the brand is invested in ensuring a hassle-free experience for its customers.
5. Shoot an Email
Still considered to be one of the cheapest yet very effective means of engaging with the customers, Email marketing is indeed a powerful way. Brands can direct an email at regular intervals updating them about the new strategies and products.
In their busy schedule, customers might fail to invest time to enquire about a particular brand. But does that mean it is the end? Well, no. Brands can email them about both the old and the new products. This directly brings them to the online store.
Moreover, email marketing is a golden way of attracting the new audience’s attention. Not only does it build trust but also loyalty among all the customers, both new and old. It just needs some time and creativity to keep the audience hooked!
