Customer engagement is the key to a brand’s success. Today, experience counts more than goods and services purchased, which is why we need to focus on Customer Engagement, the set of interactions, through various channels, aimed at creating and strengthening the relationship with the customer. It is a process that begins with the first contact and continues well beyond the sale.
What Customer Engagement is and how to do today
Obtaining Customer Engagement is a difficult task, which puts Marketing managers to the test every day, which has a lot to do with the production of content. Therefore, with Content Marketing, i.e., with the sending of personalized and relevant messages to clients. Content that interests and hits the mark has high engagement power; that is, they involve customers and make them feel connected.
Why has all this become extremely relevant? Because in a few years, with digital innovation and new technologies, customer expectations, both in B2C and B2B, have profoundly changed: not only is it increasingly difficult to impress, but an innovative approach is needed because innovation technology is one of the aspects that most attracts people to a company.
Customer engagement: connected and “tailored” experiences are needed
The most cutting-edge brands have invested heavily to offer customers innovative experiences through multiple physical and digital channels, with the result that today the level of expectations is higher than ever. A clear reading of the current trends comes from a report published by Salesforce resulting from a global survey in April 2018. 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations, and 80% believe that the customer experience is more important than the goods and services purchased. Furthermore, 57% said they had abandoned a company and turned to a competitor because it offered them a better experience.
We are talking about an omnichannel, or multi-channel customer, who uses on average ten different channels to interact with companies, with whom he expects not only to be connected but to have a relationship that takes into account his previous experiences: 59 % of customers say that a “tailored engagement” is essential to convince them to buy.
An opportunity to differentiate themselves and offer the wow effect comes from artificial intelligence, which according to the survey, is viewed positively by consumers, ready to experiment with it to improve their shopping experiences in 59% of cases.
Customer Engagement Success Examples
The most well-known brands have long understood the importance of customer engagement and personalization. Among the most successful examples is the campaign launched by Coca Cola in 2014, which then arrived in Italy, which printed the most common names of people on cans, and launched a series of events in the area, all over the world. Everyone could get a box with their name, effectively associating themselves with the product, which was then proudly shown to friends and shared by any means.
Other successful initiatives concern retail brands, which offer channels of interaction with experts for product customization, advice on outfits, and combinations through eCommerce sites. Statistics show that chat interactions with dedicated staff, an option naturally reserved only for those who show a high propensity to buy, generates much higher conversion rates than self-service options.
