In today’s extremely competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd is no longer just about what you are selling, it’s also about how you are selling it. To secure long-term business success, it is essential to deliberate which customer engagement and customer follow-up strategies to adopt.
89% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service. Therefore, the importance of providing an outstanding customer experience cannot be overstated.
Get ready to discover proven client engagement strategies that will revolutionize your customer support system and take your business to the next level.
What is a customer engagement strategy?
A customer engagement strategy is a well-planned approach for creating a consistent positive experience that keeps customers coming back to your product or service.
Customer engagement strategies involve creative and well-timed interactions with customers in order to:
- Grab their focus.
- Provide them with the best possible experience.
- Keep them interested in your brand.
Top customer engagement strategies you should try
A thriving business has a strong customer engagement plan at its core, which focuses on fostering emotional connections, loyalty, trust, and advocacy among customers.
So, how does a business achieve this? Let’s explore eleven smart customer engagement strategies that you should leverage:
1. Know your customers and their journeys
Before initiating any customer engagement plan, it is essential to understand who your customers are and how they interact with your brand.
Start by identifying key stages like:
- How they discovered your product.
- Their assessment of your product.
- Any problems they encounter.
- The resolution of those problems.
This will reveal the overarching customer needs and behaviors, as well as identify opportunities for engagement. Gain insights into your customers’ behaviors by examining factors such as purchase history, browsing history, product preferences, and frequency of purchases.
This understanding enables you to develop customer profiles and devise targeted client engagement strategies that effectively engage each customer demographic in a way that yields results.
2. Share your story
55% of people say they would consider purchasing from a brand after reading a compelling story. Share authentic and relatable stories about your brand and its values to establish an emotional connection with your customers and create a sense of community.
Let your customers know:
- Your personal experiences.
- The various obstacles you have encountered along the way.
- The innovative strategies you employed to overcome obstacles.
Present this information in a manner that is both engaging and relatable, allowing your customers to identify with your story. To see how this works, read BoldDesk’s story.
3. Improve the appearance and user experience of your website
A well-designed website with a visually appealing interface, clear navigation, and engaging content is an important customer engagement marketing strategy. It not only attracts more visitors but also encourages them to spend more time exploring your offerings.
Improve your website’s look and feel to:
- Reinforce your brand’s image.
- Build trust with potential customers.
- Drive organic traffic.
- Increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Apart from highly ranking in search engine results, a well-designed website will offer:
- An optimized performance
- Fast loading times
- A seamless functionality
- Multi-device compatibility
4. Create a customer loyalty recognition and reward program
Recognizing loyal customers is a strategic customer engagement plan to foster a strong sense of connection and value between a company and its clientele.
Develop enduring relationships with customers who continually engage with your brand by offering redeemable points, discounts, and exclusive offers.
5. Provide personalized customer experiences
A study conducted by Twillio revealed that 60% of consumers become repeat buyers after a personalized purchasing experience.It is therefore imperative to make your customers feel valued and understood by creating personalized experiences that cater to their individual preferences.
By tailoring content, recommendations, and interactions based on past purchases, browsing history, and demographics, you can build deeper relationships with your customers.
Customization will not only distinguish your business from others, but it will also improve the customer experience, leading to greater satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
6. Set up convenient support channels for your customers
Long gone are the days when it was enough to provide customers with a support line. Modern-day clients desire various modes of interaction, and above all they seek prompt responses.
Having an omnichannel plan in place to provide 24-hour support is a vital customer engagement plan that will allow customers to easily access assistance and communicate with your business.
Provide customers with multiple support options, including live chat, email, phone, and social media.
By setting up various support channels, you can:
- Allocate agents to manage inquiries from each channel.
- Address problems swiftly.
- Accommodate a wide range of customer preferences and requirements.
- Collect crucial customer feedback.
- Obtain a deeper understanding of customer behavior.
These advantages will help enhance the overall customer experience and boost customer engagement.
7. Add value at every interaction you have with your customers
It is essential to approach each interaction you have with your customer as distinctive.
Make every interaction you have with your customers count by:
- Communicating effectively
- Actively soliciting feedback
- Understanding their needs, preferences, and expectations
- Providing prompt responses
- Offering personalized and relevant experiences
- Consistently refining deliverables based on customer input
By cultivating a culture centered around customers, you can establish an emotional bond with them, which consequently enhances customer engagement and overall business success.
8. Encourage customers to share ideas
Establishing a collaborative environment with your clients is an important customer engagement plan that will help you:
- Establish a sense of community
- Foster open communication
- Promote innovative thinking
- Offer targeted customer experiences
- Stay ahead of customer needs
- Boost customer satisfaction levels
- Build lasting relationships
Acknowledge and appreciate customers whose recommendations were feasible and have been implemented, to encourage more customers to share their ideas on enhancing their experience.
9. Provide conversational customer support
Conversational customer support should be one of the top customer engagement strategies for businesses looking to enhance customer satisfaction and nurture lasting, fruitful relationships.
To encourage transparent communication across all your channels, give customers the impression that they are speaking to a real person.
To achieve this, you can:
- Initiate brief casual conversations.
- Adopt a warm, friendly tone.
- Incorporate client-specific details in chats and canned responses.
- Avoid using overly formal language.
- Pose questions to stimulate conversations.
Creating a sense of concern and familiarity builds customer trust and satisfaction, which results in increased customer retention and brand advocacy.
10. Offer an exciting customer onboarding experience
63% of customers believe that the onboarding period plays a vital role in determining whether to subscribe to a product or not.
Therefore, it is important to offer an engaging onboarding experience to induce strong customer engagement and establish a foundation for a long-lasting business relationship.
An excellent approach for achieving this is to:
- Provide a captivating introduction to your product or service.
- Set up transparent communication with new clients.
- Follow up on their progress.
- Complement the process with educational materials.
- Customize experiences according to the user’s preferences.
A well-executed onboarding experience:
- Serves as a powerful marketing tool.
- Facilitates seamless product adoption.
- Sets the right tone for subsequent engagements.
- Enables you to cultivate a loyal client base.
11. Boost customer engagement by empowering your support staff
Empowering your support staff provides them with the autonomy, skills, and resources to effectively address the diverse needs of your clients.
Promote a culture of ongoing learning and growth to enable your staff can acquire a deep knowledge of your products and services, allowing them to offer proactive, customized, and efficient solutions to customers.
Additionally, empowered support staff are more likely to take responsibility for their work, show greater job satisfaction, and actively participate in enhancing processes.
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Conclusion
Taking proactive approaches in enhancing the interactions you have with customers can significantly impact your business’s overall success. It is, however, pointless to have customer engagement strategies with no tools to help you implement them. Check out BoldDesk, which presents robust tools that will help you execute and evaluate these strategies effectively. Get in touch with our support team to schedule a 30-minute live demo to see how BoldDesk’s features can be customized to accommodate your business’s needs. You can also begin a 15-day free trial today.