20 February 2014
Customer engagement is a long winded and ongoing process. There is one ultimate goal to go down this labor intensive path - keeping customers happy. Customers these days are not easy to please. The whims and wishes of customers reach dizzying heights every passing day. Yet, a business is set to reap rich dividends if they endure and keep in constant contact with their customers.
Under the wrapper of keeping customers happy is the larger goal of keeping them customers for life. This constant hand holding is the main ingredient to build a loyal and vocal customer base. Repeat sales and positive word of mouth are a given if your business steps up its customer relationship efforts by a few notches.
Internet has changed the way businesses are run. The advent of social networks and smartphones has opened up a bunch of cost effective customer engagement channels. Real time feedback is making things both easier and harder for businesses when it comes to making a connection with their customers.
That said, customer engagement in our Internet centric world faces somes harsh realities. Many age old traditions and myths with regards to customer relationship management have been relegated to the museums. The three prominent customer relationship paradigms of the new era are:
Gone are the days of customer relationship outlets that were open 9 to 5 on weekdays. It’s now a non stop, round the clock effort that’s dished out of digital outlets like Facebook, Twitter or your website. Customers want you to pay attention and pay attention right now.
They demand answers at a moment’s notice or they move to one of your competition who is doing a better job. The designation of a customer relationship manager is becoming a ceremonial position in companies as well. It’s now an all hands on deck job. Every employee has to be better positioned to understand the pulse of customers and aligned to the way they think.
Never ending newscasts, wealth of user generated and professionally created content and the always abuzz social media ensure that customers are more informed than ever. Information they seek is at their disposal round the clock, for free.
A customer’s buying process almost always starts with an online search. From white papers detailing industry trends to articles on an obscure blog, customers have access to more information than ever.
So, it’s a sound strategy to approach customers with a mindset that they know more than what you think when approaching them.
Companies like Zappos have set a high expectation level when it comes to delivering superior customer support and experience. Customers expect to be treated like royalty and that’s a tough act to follow. You can’t ignore them after taking their money only to reach out to them for a feedback survey or a follow up sale.
Customers want you to hold their hands even after the completion of the buying process. So, if you haven’t already, set up a sales CRM and add customer engagement efforts as a new stage to your sales pipeline.
Value creation is easier said than done. However, creating value works wonders to your brand in more ways than one. To start with, positioning a brand becomes far more easier with the quantum of value that you bring to the table.
A static website is something every web designer out there is capable of creating. As a user experience expert, creating a lead generation and management property is the value addition that you offer. That value defines your brand.
Now, customers don’t have any qualms to work with a brand that is respected by others. To build such a brand, your value proposition should be best in the class. The customer experience that your business offers by getting rid of bottlenecks in the purchasing process defines how forthcoming a customer will be to engage with you in the first place.
Adding value to a brand isn’t something that happens in a factory or a warehouse. Market Research and creative messaging play an inclusive role in building a brand identity. Don’t let pricing dictate the value of your offering. It’s the perception that makes all the value that you add count.
Customer engagement is part of the feedback loop that helps to get the brand identity right. Customer engagement and value creation go hand in hand. Only when you engage your customers to understand what they want to see a lot more in your offering will you be able to create a perception that you are a brand that cares.
All well laid plans look good on paper. Only when you hit the ground running trying to implement the plan will you learn about the practical difficulties of making it work. This is true when trying to engage with your customers as well.
Reading a bunch of articles about customer relationship management and brainstorming for hours in a conference room will definitely give you a long list of ideas to interface with the customer. But, to know which ones actually work and to what extent, you’ll have to get out of that cubicle more often.
Sending out targeted emails or asking customers to fill up a form when they walk in are traditional ways to seek a customer’s opinion. When you see a single digit email open rates or a parking lot littered with your questionnaire, you can be sure that there is definitely something wrong with the customer experience at your joint.
There are two ways to get this problem resolved. First up, see for yourself what’s stopping customers from initiating a conversation with you. Don the hat of a customer and go through all the stages in the sales pipeline.
Are your customer support email addresses not working? Is the response time too long? Find the bottlenecks that frustrate the customer and adds to their stress when dealing with you.
The second approach is pretty straightforward. Just go ahead and ask the customer what they think about their comfort level when it comes to dealing with your business. Yes, it’s a customer engagement strategy, but it’s one that could actually solve their problems in the short term. So, the response rate is bound to be higher.
Assess and modify business processes to make room for this feedback. Conducting customer experience audits at regular intervals will help you adapt to changing times. Tracking and benchmarking these audits in addition to other customer relationship efforts is key to make this a well oiled process.
Make room for conversation in your messaging. Conveying an unambiguous and uniform messaging across all channels not just helps in customer engagement, but also in building a credible brand identity.
The tone of the messaging should be warm and inviting. Be it an email blast or a newspaper ad, keep the copy simple and friendly. Create and publicize the ways that customers can use to get in touch with you. A toll free number or a dedicated customer support desk will serve its purpose only when they are easily accessible.
Keeping your messaging fresh and relevant to the times is a brilliant approach to stay ahead of the competition. However, any drastic changes in your messaging will make the customers question their decision to stand by your side. So, the next time you decide to position your brand to attract teens and young adults, ensure that the messaging goes down well with families that make your traditional customer base.
Easily the most obvious suggestion on the list. Embracing all the communication and engagement channels that Internet has to offer is a really smart customer engagement strategy. As an additional perk, they are cost effective by nature as well.
Depending on how you look at social media it’s either a treasure trove or a pandora’s box. If you are open to feedback and suggestions from your customers, then you’ll love the idea of real time conversations. On the other hand, if you are averse to unsolicited feedback in open forums, the pandora’s box analogy is the right fit.
Either way, businesses don’t have a choice. The viral and very open nature of social conversations is very real. You cannot pick and choose the commentary that’s published online. But, it’s easy to get in front of your customers and start chatting them up for some quick insights.
It’s not just social media that you should focus on. Go to places wherever the conversation that you are interested in is happening. Comments in blog posts, online message boards, Pinterest, Reddit - no matter where people are talking about you, make it a point to focus your customer engagement efforts over there.
We for instance, always jump at every opportunity to help people who are confused when it comes to choosing a sales CRM or sales team collaboration software. Set up Google Alerts and you’ll find yourself dozens of customers willing to open up with opinions and feedback.
I’m going to keep this most important suggestion short so that the message sinks in you. Reward people who go out of their way to help your business out. Time is precious and you have to appreciate those who spend it on making your business processes better.
Offer discounts and coupon codes to people who take part in your customer engagement efforts. Even if people aren’t going to use those goodies, it’s a nice little gesture to convey that you appreciate their effort.
It isn’t a new thing altogether. Bargains and referral rewards in return for customer participation have always been around. These strategies have been fine tuned in the Web 2.0 era by companies like Dropbox and Evernote. Our freemium model in itself is a customer engagement strategy that has given us rich dividends in the form of business validation and lead generation!
