Customer Engagement and Why It Is Important

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Businesses can no longer rely on artificial relationships and one-way communications. Today, customers are far more likely to buy products and services that they relate to. It is also not a secret that customers interact with brands and businesses that they find relevant based on personal preferences.

The shift makes customer engagement – and taking steps to develop better engagement – more important. In order to get ahead in a competitive market, you have to invest in building a better relationship with your customers.

Understanding Customer Engagement

What is customer engagement exactly? Customer engagement is the communications and interactions you as a brand or a company have with external stakeholders, particularly those who use your products and services and those who are within your target market.

Customer engagement is more about persuading customers to experience the brand the way you meant it to be experienced. It is also about encouraging customers to share the experience they have with the brand.

Good customer engagement can now be measured, especially with social media allowing brands to interact with the target audience directly. Higher customer engagement leads to better interactions on social media and other platforms.

Benefits of High Customer Engagement

There is no shortage of benefits to gain from investing in customer engagement. For starters, engaged customers are more likely to remain loyal and continue to use your products and services. This means you can boost the customer lifetime value of your avid fans to a new level.

At the same time, you get more customer reviews, especially when they are happy with the products and the whole brand experience. Positive reviews from actual customers are considered highly credible (and valuable), and they will convert more viewers into customers.

It is also worth noting that high customer engagement is good for product development. You can get customers involved in providing insights and input. The whole process even strengthens the bond between the brand and its customers even further.

Customer Engagement Done Right

There is no instant way to boost customer engagement. As mentioned before, raising the engagement level is very much the same as building a more personal relationship with the customers. You have to be genuine and put in real efforts to connect and engage the customers.

There are, however, ways to optimize the process. Adding more touch points is a good start. Instead of limiting your reach by communicating only through your social media pages, work with review sites like Extensively Reviewed to get information about your products out there.

Influencers help too. By working with influencers whose target audience is in line with your brand’s, you are expanding your reach and touching more potential customers. The close relationship you have with influencers will also affect the way their followers interact with your brand.

Last but not least, engage first. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, respond to negative reviews, and be more proactive in delivering a seamless customer experience. In most cases, the little things you do – such as helping customers with their product-related problems – matter in more ways than you can imagine.