Customer engagement is an ongoing practice that seeks to improve the relationship between the company and its customers, not only for transactions but also for ideas, needs, and more. It's an intentional, consistent approach by a company that provides value at every customer interaction, which in the end, increases loyalty.
On a recent virtual roundtable hosted by DigiLive Events, our attendees had the opportunity to discuss how organisations can deliver a high-value customer experience. Here are some points of what they have mentioned:
· Understand our customer needs and work with partners to satisfy their requests.
· Have the proper foundation first to move on and build on.
· Business employees understand and want to help customers' issues nowadays more than in the past.
· Younger generations are more open to new ideas but still have high expectations from the brands.
· When a business knows its employees and believes in their abilities, it's more likely to see them work harder to keep a customer.
· Getting back to the customer is crucial.
3 Benefits of Customer Engagement:
Each organization aims to increase sales. Customer Engagement is more than increasing sales, though. Its benefit will position each brand for long-term success and improve its ROI. In addition, by simply applying proven tools and practices, the brand can implement a Customer Engagement plan that will improve your customer relationships, boost your customer's loyalty and retention, and increase your users.
1. Customer Relationships:
Nowadays, technology can be an excellent friend for an organization to discover its new leads, but sometimes it can become a burden when maintaining customer relationships. Regular communication with customers across platforms helps builds rapport.
2. Loyalty and Retention
An effective engagement strategy will ensure that the business will always know how its customers feel about its products or services, the qualities that they value, and any areas of improvement needed to provide a better experience. In addition, the business must always keep in mind that its customers need to feel heard and appreciated to return and prefer their products.
3. Increases Users
Consistent engagement will help attract more customers to the business and its services/products and, of course, win over customers. When it comes to retaining customers, discounts and promotions are fast ways to attract potential leads, but the business must ensure that what it is offering is valued.
Businesses that offer to their customers relevant content, especially when it comes to answering their key questions, automatically have an increase in users.
Customer Engagement is also related to High-Quality Customer Service. Excellent customer service means following best practices like valuing customers' time, having a pleasant attitude, and providing knowledgeable and resourceful resources to meet customers' expectations which are changing rapidly.
The 3 Ps of High-Quality Customer Service:
1. P for Professionalism:
Professionalism in customer service refers to the attitude that a business takes towards its customers. No matter how the customer is treating an employee of the company or its products/services, it's up to the business to diffuse the situation and try its best to represent the business positively.
2. P for Patience:
Patience is about every customer, who is different, and needs a different treatment. They might have in common some "do" s and "don't" s; each customer learns at a different pace and may respond to a common practice in a way you didn't expect. Consequently, providing high-quality service means being creative and flexible.
3. P for People-First Attitude:
The final P builds off of professionalism and patience. Using the people-first attitude as the business's customer service strategy will improve the highest customer service with the customer. When marketers use the term' exceptional service,' it doesn't include only the transaction part of the customer cycle but, most importantly, the relationship that the business creates with its customers.
Sources:
Outreach. (n.d.). What is Customer Engagement? Definition, Best Practices, and…. [online] Available at: https://www.outreach.io/blog/what-is-customer-engagement#:~:text=Customer%20engagement%20is%20the%20ongoing
Briglia, C. (2020). Why Customer Engagement Is Important. [online] Gartner. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/digital-markets/insights/why-customer-engagement-is-important
Amaresan, S. (2021). The ultimate guide to customer engagement in 2020. [online] blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-engagement-guide
Website. (n.d.). What is Customer Engagement? A Complete Guide for 2020. [online] Available at: https://vwo.com/customer-engagement/
Scout, H. (n.d.). 10 Ways to Deliver Consistently Great Customer Service - Help Scout. [online] www.helpscout.com. Available at: https://www.helpscout.com/blog/good-customer-service/#:~:text=Great%20customer%20service%20means%20following