5 Customer Engagement Strategies to improve Retention

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Customer engagement is one of the most important metrics for achieving customer success. In the digital era, where the customers have information and details on their fingertips, companies need to integrate a smart technology that can retrofit their old methods of customer interaction. Research shows that “customers who get an engaging and a positive customer experience are more likely to stay with the company.”

The role of “customer engagement” in co-creating interactive customer experience is gaining a lot of traction in today’s dynamic business world. Engaged customers play a major role in viral marketing activity by providing referrals and by becoming brand advocates. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the customer engagement strategies that your organization follows are built around customer centricity that generates growth in sales, competitive advantage and enhanced profitability. According to a research, “more than 63% organizations said that engagement is manifested in customer renewals, retention, and repeat purchases.”

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Organizations need to provide real-time and personalized experiences to customers as per their requirement. For this organizations need to design strategies which can be best leveraged to enable meaningful interaction with the consumer. So, here are a few customer engagement strategies that can help you in creating excellent customer experience to improve retention:

Active Listening: The most efficient way of engaging with customers can be done by actively listening to them and then acting accordingly. Post purchase feedbacks and surveys are the most effective method to uncover the information that is critical to customer satisfaction. By implementing a comprehensive feedback solution, companies can analyze customer base in depth and can identify opportunities for improving customer satisfaction.  On the other hand, customer service reps are another great source of customer insights. So always ensure that you include their feedback in any customer-based initiatives too.

Simplifying customer interactions: The best method for engaging customers is simply by measuring the way in which they are gathering and navigating information about a brand, the level of trust they have on the information received and their readiness of weighing it with other options. The decision simplicity score of a customer completely depends upon the effort of a company to simplify the purchase decision journey. By using a customer engagement technology that simplifies interactions, companies can power optimal customer journeys consistently across all touchpoints, channels, and interactions to nurture customer retention and advocacy.

Social media optimization: Social media should not be just considered as a simple platform, rather it is a tool for creating successful customer interactions. When used effectively social media can be one of the greatest assets for improving the company’s website search results. By interacting with people online, companies can extend the reach of their business and increase the opportunities for people to link to their main website page. Social media optimization (SMO) provides companies with a single platform to connect all their social media accounts in a cohesive network that directs the prospective customers to the next level of engagement. Listed below are few steps by Joshua Berg (the leading advocate of SMO) to revamp the social media optimization strategy:

  • Reputation – build your reputation as a reliable qualified source

  • Engagement – encourage more engagement, sharing & reciprocate

  • Authority – become a notable authority in your field of expertise

  • Leadership – harness originality & creativity, be a Thought Leader

  • Social – be social, find and engage sociable experts in your field

  • Media – know your social media platforms to maximize influence

  • Optimization – improve technical aspects to increase optimization

Creating value for customers: Customer engagement has become a key differentiator when it comes to building strategies for improving customer experiences. Anticipating customer’s need for reliability and speed, organizations can develop new tools and processes that sets it apart from competitors. Added value, after purchase service, product and offer notifications are important tactics that can be used by small businesses for creating awesome customer experiences. This will help organizations in acquiring and retaining customers, increasing brand awareness, and differentiating themselves from competition.

Analyzing data: Organizations deploying an in-memory database and a business intelligence tool for tracking the trends being followed by their prospective customers. This will ultimately help in discovering patterns and useful information which can be further used for improving the customer experience. Organizations will also be able to increase their operational performance by providing real-time information to customers for improving their knowledge base, so as to enhance their buying journey.

In the words of John Russell “The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.”

So, are your customer engagement strategies worthy to build healthy relations with your customers?

Related Articles:
Customer Engagement Matters More Than Ever in 2017: 4 Strategies for Success 

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