What are customer engagement strategies?
Simply put, customer engagement is encouraging your customers to interact with your company or brand. Customer engagement strategies are company-planned strategies for ways to engage your customers or get them to interact with you. Have you stopped to think recently about how much you include your customers?
Customer loyalty happens over time when a customer feels heard and appreciated. Many things go into forming a loyal relationship with your customers, such as great service, timely support, quality products, and allowing them to provide feedback on all phases your sales process.
But why is customer engagement important in the first place? Think of it like this: when a business focuses on including customers – especially by making them feel welcome and that their opinion is valued – they are creating a stronger relationship between the brand or company and the customer. These strategies will also humanize your company. If your customers are engaged, they’ll be more apt to continue purchasing from your company.
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Who plans the customer engagement strategies?
While customer engagement strategies are often discussed by a company’s marketing department, remember that it’s great to include some of your sales team to ensure that the strategies created will, in fact, involve past, present, and future customers.
There are many benefits to creating a mixed team of marketing and sales staff who can analyze current trends and create new strategies for making customers feel included.
First, both groups come from different professional backgrounds allowing them to bring diverse skills to the planning stage.
Second, both groups understand customers during different levels of their engagement. Marketing departments have a great understanding about potential customers, like leads. Sales departments are familiar with current clients, and what makes them willing to close a deal. These different perspectives are complementary when making decisions that effect all customers.
What are some beginner’s steps for utilizing customer engagement strategies?
If the idea of creating strategies to involve your customers – especially potential customers who have no history with your company – seems daunting to you, start small.
The best place to start if customer engagement is a new priority to your company is with your customer service team. Do you have one? If so, what was their training like? Customer service employees need to be motivated, optimistic, and always willing to go the extra mile to please your customer.
Another cost-effective strategy to engage customers would be stepping up your company’s social media communications. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms are no longer considered “trends.” In fact, they’ve grown to be part of our normal human existence. Customers find extreme value when they can engage with brands and companies on their favorite social media platforms. What does this mean for your company? Well, if you don’t have a social media presence, it’s time to build one. If you do, make sure your presenting yourself in the best light. Also, be sure to update regularly your pages with relevant information on sales, new products, and even old products. Social media is a free platform for your to boost your company – use it!
After you’ve created the best customer service team possible and engaged with your customers on social networks, it’s time to take your customer engagement strategies to the next level.
If you’re still unsure what the next step is, poll your current customers! Taking the time to directly ask your customers how they’d like to get involved or what types of company changes could make them a more loyal customer is one of the best customer engagement strategies.
By giving them the opportunity to speak up, you’re telling your customers, “we trust your opinion and value what you have to say.” Just don’t stop the engagement momentum with the customer poll. Have a team of employees ready to take action on the items your customers discuss.
While you’re busy planning the best strategies to engage and include your customers, let Blitz automate your systems with our customer relationship management system. We can follow up with leads and touch base with current and past customers without you ever having to pick up the phone or send an email.
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Keep current customers happy and engaged without spending your whole day in email. Sign up for a FREE 30-day trial of Blitz lead management and sales automation software, and automate customer follow-up.
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Have you implemented any customer engagement strategies that increased your sales? Tell us your tips in the comments section. We’d love to learn more from you!