Any idea what is the biggest asset for a business? Well, it cannot be anything other than engaged customers. Here are a few things that businesses need to know related to the engagement and retention of customers.
Those businesses with a strong omni-channel customer retention policy can retain more than 85 percent of the prospects. It is in sharp contrast to those who do not have such a policy in place. More than 60 percent of the profit of a business depends on effective customer engagement. Top businesses usually consider customer engagement as the top priority of the business strategy. Those fully engaged customers represent almost 25 percent higher share in terms of revenue, profitability, and growth.
Therefore, it is clear that if a good customer engagement strategy and system is in place that can provide a customer 360 degree view, it will lead to numerous business benefits. However, a customer engagement strategy must also lead to a customer-centric organization. Such an approach, in turn, will enhance growth and customer loyalty.
Many businesses are still not aware of customer engagement and its relevance. It is the result of ongoing interaction between a business and its customers. Although it may be extended by the company, what works but does not work is decided by the customer. Different businesses may look at customer engagement in various ways. However, the main thing is a lasting relationship and loyalty.
Therefore, it goes way beyond just a transactional relationship if a business can achieve customer engagement goals. To develop a good customer engagement strategy, here are a few tips and tricks:
Knowledge About Customers And Their Journey
No business can implement or develop any customer engagement strategy without first having knowledge about who the actual customers are and how they interact with them.
A good way to proceed is to map the customer journey and keep track of all the vital touchpoints, challenges, and bottlenecks related to customers. It allows knowing more about their requirements and behaviour. It also allows identifying any hidden opportunity for engagement.
At the same time, it would also be a good idea for businesses to start preparing customer profiles or personas. The focus should be on choosing the characteristics that make sense to the business. For example, repeat visitors spending a lot of time on the pricing page reflects a strong customer profile. Review of other important signals such as income motivation location, etc., can be useful for understanding the personas. Going ahead, it can help to determine how to engage with customers in a better way.
Attention To The First Contacts
People often judge a book by its cover. It holds even in business. Businesses need to understand that users do not have the time to hang out on the site and information. Therefore it is the responsibility of a business to communicate clearly and concisely about what they are offering for engaging customers.
Therefore, the first thing is to have a system in place which is designed for the customer and not for the business. It is crucial to make it clear to the customers what a business does and what it can do for its users. The support extended to the customer must be real-time. The system must be proactive enough to start a conversation immediately and uphold the interest of the user.
In the modern scenario, a face-to-face video calling system for life chat will make customers feel good about the business. The trick is not to focus too much on the transactional value of a relationship. Rather than narrative must be created so that customers are able to understand what they can achieve from the product or service extended by a business. The power to make the decision should be in the hands of the customer.
Personalized Service
Among the various customer engagement strategies, personalization is fast becoming the most preferred strategy. It makes sense as well. After all, any customer would always look for a product or a service that has been tailored as per their specific requirements.
There are many ways in which a business can apply the various principles of personalized care. It could be something as simple as showing an advertisement and upcoming event close to customers’ location. Or, it could also be the use of the first name in the email. Or, it could be something complexes such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) extending hyper-relevant services.
In the case of a start-up business, it could be done in a small way. For instance, a pre-chat survey can provide a lot of insights about the user. It will help the concerned team to understand better who they are interacting with. Chatbots and live chat can go a long way to send relevant messages to the target audience.
Proper Use Of Analytics
Analytics happens to be the backbone of any customer engagement strategy. It gives an exact picture of what would work and what would not. It can also answer crucial questions like what exactly consumers like or dislike.
The right customer experience system can easily provide relevant and useful information like exactly how the support team is doing while interacting with the customer.
What Drives The Consumers
Feedback is a precious gift in business. However, it must be used properly. Service must be carried out to understand what values are preferred by the customer and what triggers them to take action.
Learning From Mistakes
Unhappy customers want the business to understand them. An immediate solution might make them feel that there is no human touch, and the business simply wants to get over the issue somehow and move on.
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Use Of Visual Engagement Tactics
Research findings reveal that businesses can leverage a lot from visual engagement. It can help a lot to understand the requirements of the consumer better and connect emotionally. Businesses that use visual engagement tools have achieved more than an 80 percent increase in their annual revenue along with positive growth.
Improving customer engagement implies adopting a model that is more inclined towards customers. The focus should not be on just sales. The connection with the customers should go much deeper. The customer handling teams must have the required technology, whether it is a simple open source CRM or the latest one, and emotional intelligence to extend the best possible customer experience.