Customer Engagement in a Digital Age
Not long ago, businesses solely relied on traditional methods of selling to customers. Customers now however can buy through an array of channels both online and offline.
With the wide variety of ways to shop, businesses need to ensure their method of engagement aligns with the expectations of customers.
In a digitally connected world consumers are constantly engaging with brands through multiple channels. There are great opportunities for you to rethink your customer engagement strategy in whatever way best fits your organisation to join the conversation.
By the time they’ve reached a buying decision, customers have already conducted their research, sought good deals and identified the best product.
Discussed below are some of the most popular customer engagement practices that are applied to businesses in a digital age.
Balancing the human and digital elements
Improved technological capabilities means consumers can engage with brands through new and evolving digital channels. However, customers assume that regardless of the channel chosen to interact with a brand they’ll ultimately get the same result.
Whether a customer wishes to engage with a brand through their social media or in a store, they’re all important elements of the customer experience. These elements help customers perform their desired action as efficiently as possible.
Customers are continuously embracing digital channels and devices, but none of us are wholly digital. Creating a balancing act between both human and digital interaction is incredibly important because of this.
While digital platforms allow marketers to analyse customer data and help with getting a complete understanding of customer personas and preferences, it’s not a substitute for human interaction.
Marketers need to understand that customers wish to seamlessly navigate between physical and online interactions.
An appropriate customer engagement strategy would be to integrate both human and digital elements to create the best possible experience for the customer. True success regarding the balancing act depends on the ability to recognise which way customers want their online and offline experiences merged.
Engaged and empowered staff
For an organisation to be truly customer-centric, a wide variety of channels is necessary. As mentioned previously, this includes a mix of digital and traditional channels. A mix of both means that customers should be able to have a consistent experience throughout the entire customer journey.
While having a variety of channels is key to successful customer engagement, organisations need to have engaged and empowered staff to deliver this great service.
With insights and information gathered, staff in the organisation can have a complete overview of the customer’s needs and preferences.
An engaged workforce results in a higher customer engagement quality that customers currently expect.
Personalisation
Customers tend to appreciate genuine interactions with brands. Technological improvements over the years are allowing marketers to have more personalised engagement campaigns with customers.
Through a more personalised e-dm campaign customers receive more relevant communications. Properly utilising your customer database to personalise your campaign means they’re more likely they are to engage with the content.
The creation of a seamless one-on-one connection with each customer tends to create a more memorable experience.
E-dm innovations have also made communicating with customers faster and more flexible. This allows marketers to react to changing expectations and leverage technology to create more dynamic campaigns.
Well-executed personalisation strategies can lift website traffic, clicks and sales. Similarly, personalisation can create more satisfied and loyal customers for brands.
Speedy Responses
Especially in a digital world where customers spend so much of their time online and researching brands, speed is incredibly important. No customer wants to deal with a company that has long response times for simple enquiries.
A recent study by SuperOffice shows that 62% of companies don’t respond to customer emails at all. The companies that do respond however, have a response time of over 12 hours. This is still well above the customer expectation of a 1 hour response time.
Customers are not ready to wait for 12 hours to get their questions answered, when another brand can do it in 12 minutes.
If a brand doesn’t respond quickly, customers will try to contact you through another channel, eventually significantly adding to your workload. Don’t forget the possibility of them moving on from your brand altogether!
The digital world we live in is constantly changing the face of customer engagement. For most customers that means they’re involved in campaigns that are more engaging, have better targeting and are more inclusive.
Are you interested in finding out more regarding customer engagement? If so, make sure to contact us today on +353 1 8041298, or click on the link below to be brought to our contact form!
