What is Customer Engagement?
Customer engagement is defined as “the means by which a company creates a relationship with its customer base to foster brand loyalty and awareness. This can be accomplished via marketing campaigns, new content created for and posted to websites, and outreach via social media and mobile and wearable devices, among other methods.”
Although there are many variations of this definition, the premise remains the same. A company aims to foster a positive relationship with their customers to help promote their brand, generate more sales, and provide an amazing experience for their customer on a more personal level.
Why is Customer Engagement Important?
Customer engagement is one of the most important aspects of a successful company. According to studies, a customer that is totally engaged with a specific company is likely to generate 23% more revenue than a customer who feels less connected to that company. Therefore, more consumer engagement means more profits for your company, and who doesn’t want that?
If your company does not have a specific plan for improving your consumer engagement, you could be missing out on a lot of money and opportunities to interact with your valuable customers and potential customers. Building a relationship with them won’t just make more money initially, but it will help a company establish trust and loyalty with their customers as well. Having customers that trust a business will keep them around for the long-term, making them repeat customers.
The correlation between customer engagement and customer loyalty are profound. A loyal customer will show their loyalty by repeat buying from your company, spreading the word about your business through social sharing, and referring other people like friends and family to your business and/or product.
A current customer spreading the word to other people is perhaps the most important tool in a company’s arsenal. Communicating with your current customers in a positive way will make it much more likely they will go out of their way to help promote your business socially and through word of mouth. This communication can also help control what other people are saying about you on third-party websites.
How To Improve Customer Engagement
There are many different ways to improve customer engagement. In fact, there are no one-size fits all when it comes to improving your communications with your consumers.
One of the most popular things to tackle first is bettering customer experience. Your customer needs to love your company and the product or service you are selling them. This includes things like awesome customer service teams, great buying experience, fast shipping, easy to use website, and so much more. A positive and fun experience will generate more sales and more repeat purchases.
You also want to take the opportunity to put a name, face, and personality to your brand. You want to humanize your company. A customer wants to know who is behind the product or service they are buying. Perhaps you can find someone within your company with a fun and passionate personality that can be the face of your company and help customers connect with him or her on a more personal level.
It goes without being said that social media is imperative to company success and improved customer engagement. Create posts that people will love to read, respond to, share, and even laugh at! A funny or inspirational post that also relates to your company is much more likely to be shared and gain more attention than a boring, generic post about the services or product you offer.
These few examples just scratch the surface of how you can use various tools and outlets to improve customer engagement in a simple, cost-effective, and rather a hassle-free way. If you take so time and appoint the appropriate team within your company, you can develop a killer strategy to improve consumer engagement, increase sales, and create a more loyal customer base.
