There are 24 hours in a day.
Since customer engagement is your priority, it may seem impossible to communicate daily with your audience. Tara Walpert Levy, General Manager at Google, writes:
"In the whirlwind of chaos, excitement, and yes, sometimes fear, the brands that win will give priority to engagement rather than to the next." They will reverse the traditional approach of using mass reach to connect with the subset of people who rely on his head. "
To increase engagement, your business needs to focus on executing strategies that increase customer satisfaction while saving your team time.
Let's think differently about the expansion of engagement to build quality customer relationships. Here are five ways to step up your efforts.
1. Deliver to the promise of the mark
We live in a very competitive market. Companies, large and small, are all competing to attract the attention of their ideal clientele.
In order to differentiate themselves, companies will develop promises of wild brands. They go from low price guarantee to slogans saying that the customer is always right.
While this may attract new clients, it can become a long-term burden. Most companies learn the hard way that a brand promise is not a catchy phrase, but rather an action that a company must live every day.
Even Walmart, a big box retailer, had to put aside its almost two decades slogan, "Always Low Price". Now their goal is to help their customers save money. Live better. "
If you are trying to increase your commitment, achieving your brand promise is one of the best options. Happy customers will become repeat customers who will tell their family and friends.
But keeping your promise is not easy. It involves meeting (and exceeding) the expectations of your customers. You must provide product value with excellent customer support.
For example, you may have to offer free shipping to an angry customer. Or you may need to budget for a customer appreciation sale.
Building a true connection with your customers helps your business. Keeping promises is worth stimulating commitment.
2. Act on customer feedback
All human relationships are built on the same basis. It focuses on how we communicate with each other.
Communication is a determining factor in whether a customer continues to make purchases with your brand. If their needs are not met after constant interactions, they may decide that your business is not worth the time.
To improve your interaction with customers, start by listening to their concerns and answering their questions. For your sales team, this may sound like a representative paying attention to the needs of the customer before launching a product. Your support team can give more specific answers rather than standardized answers.
Then there are the comments of the customers. When a customer offers ideas for polishing your product, be open to his suggestions and ready to move on.
"The direct relationship between clients and support teams is rich in a source of feedback whereby customers can be better served." Support teams and representatives can be trained to search for information while responding to complaints and inquiries, "says Pius Boachie, marketing consultant and founder of Digitimatic.
Productivity Tool Trello created a Slack community with a channel dedicated to product feedback. This is a chance for customers to offer their feedback and to get advice on new features.
Implementing feedback is an opportunity to grow your business, while showing clients that you really listen to their ideas. So, do whatever it takes to respond to customer feedback.
3. Customize communications
Several decades ago, companies controlled communications with their customers. Large companies have decided what, when, where and how to deliver consumer messages. It was an unbalanced relationship where companies had the advantage.
Now, with advances in technology, the customer is at the center of the conversation. Not only do consumers choose when to connect with brands, but they also control where these interactions take place. For example, consumers may choose to receive your emails and then decide to read them according to their own schedules.
For businesses, this means that generic messaging is not sufficient to establish a connection with a consumer. Your online ad or e-mail will be ignored and you may lose another potential customer.
E-mail segmentation is an effective strategy to help your team send personalized messages. With Kissmetrics campaigns, you can send emails based on certain subscription criteria.
Let's say a subscriber does not buy after 10 days. You can automatically send a special offer to encourage them to come back and buy.
You can also send customer-specific information about your product. The Mint's e-mail subscribers customized their account data.
Do not miss the opportunity to strengthen the customer relationship with personalized communications. This is a necessity to increase your commitment.
4. Giving on Social Media
All businesses flock to social media to tell their stories. Some buy scammy ads to increase leads and the purchase of followers to distort the influence.
Here is the truth: it does not work. And even if they get a few interested consumers, they probably do not close the sale because the buyer learns their deception.
Most companies are turning to social media for the purpose of spreading their products and news. However, we know that it does not work that way.
Social media is an open forum for people to share ideas and talk about the latest trends in a casual setting. That's why it's a fertile ground to boost your levels of engagement.
To connect with more customers, educate and entertain them. You want to publish lightweight messages that humanize your brand.
For example, you can host live shows on Facebook or Periscope featuring your customers. Or you could post silly GIFs on special days, like National Crepe Day.
You want to be part of the community of your audience. So, you must also be ready to give and not just take.
In the example below, HubSpot offers its Facebook fans the chance to win two tickets for a concert. The company has won more than 160 actions, 500 reactions and 62,000 views on this post.
Do you post your message on social networks? If that is the case, try giving back to your followers to gain more commitment.
5. Develop an advocacy program
You'll quickly learn that your best customers hold the key to market your business. These customers act as advocates of a mission to congratulate your brand.
So why not make it official? You can launch a pilot advocacy program by recruiting your most loyal customers. This gives the selected people another reason to connect with your team.
In addition, research shows that it is a win-win situation. A report from Standard Charters states:
"Successful online businesses make users feel excited enough to share products with their networks, and referrals from friends are always the most powerful way to gain customers for a small company or a multinational. "
Trademark advocacy programs are also incubators for experimenting with retention strategies. You can monitor customer behavior to see what makes them excited about your brand.
For example, you can offer your participants a special coupon to redeem a new product. Their reaction can give insight into the response of a subset of your customer base.
Do your research and learn how to start your own advocacy program. This is your next step to increase customer engagement.
It is time to increase
Engagement without strategy is misguided action. Instead, your goal is to create a memorable customer experience.
Exceed your audience's expectations and use their feedback to improve your product. Send personalized messages that speak directly to your customers. In addition, there is nothing better than launching an advocacy program that broadens your relationship.
Connect with your customers. Evaluate your commitment today.
About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.