It is often said that while businesses change, customers stay the same. While this may be true, the way in which businesses reach their customers looks radically different than it did even a few years ago. As business and engagement strategies change, it can be easy to get lost in the whirlwind of new ideas and customer retention techniques that are out there.
In doing our part to help you sort through these various engagement strategies, we have put together a list of the most powerful ways to reach your customers and keep them around. It is our hope that by reading through this list you will have a better understanding of your customers, your business, and how best the two interact. Let’s get started.
Deliver value with everything you do
The first concept you should understand when seeking to reduce churn rate and improve customer engagement for your business is that you need to deliver value with everything you do. Whether it is an SMS message or an email, an in-person meeting or a chatbot, every interaction with your company should deliver value into your customers’ lives.
When customers come to associate your business with valued added to their lives, they are much more open to engaging with you in new ways. Each of the other engagement strategies we will review are simply different ways of doing this. However, we feel that you should understand the mindset with which you should approach each new scenario to engage with your customers.
Customer service at every turn
Part of providing value means that customer service needs to be high on your list of priorities. This doesn’t just apply to when customers complain or are in need of assistance, but at each turn in their customer journey. This is something that will need to be taught and trainings may be necessary, but the effect on your customers that it will have will be more than worth it.
One area where customer service can make a huge different is with mass text marketing campaigns. Customers are used to receiving automated messages that seek to accomplish a goal, but these same messages can have an even bigger impact with a human touch and added flair. Make sure that you are trying your best to remind customers at each step that you value them and are there to help, should they need anything.
Create useful content
Another engagement strategy that many have used to reach their customers is to create content that is useful to them. With customer retention marketing, the more ways in which you can deliver value to your customers, the better. If you can create content that is not only engaging, but can help your customers solve a problem, you will have it made in the shade.
However, we should mention that timing and the way in which this content is deliver will have an impact on its success. Obviously, you will need a place to house the information, like a blog. This will allow your customers to discover it on their own should they need to, but you should also be ready to meet them with a quick text blast linking to the article that best solves the issue they are facing.
Listen to your audience
While delivering value is a hallmark of customer engagement strategies, it’s not always easy to know what your customers value. This is why it is important to listen to your audience. Unfortunately, when you are struggling to improve customer engagement, it can be difficult to facilitate a productive conversation.
Thankfully, there are a few ways to listen to your audience other than actually talking about it. For instance, you should always be monitoring user engagement metrics to see how your customers are interacting with you. Oftentimes these metrics are more actionable than customer reviews. Our tip: go by what your customers do, not just what they say.
That being said, you should also be open to and even encourage a dialogue with your customers. Make sure there is a place on your website where customers can come with comments and complaints. Dealing with things like this directly is always preferable to doing so publicly on less-formal platforms like social media.
Read also: Customer Satisfaction and You
Learn from past campaigns
A running theme of customer engagement is seeing what has worked before and what hasn’t before launching into a new engagement strategy. Think back to previous campaigns you have run and try to imagine what could have gone differently to improve engagement with your customers.
By taking a hard look at previous work, you will not only be able to learn from past mistakes, but better understand the audience you are hoping to serve. This might also be a good chance to find ways to incorporate new mobile marketing tools to boost your retention and engagement strategies.
Personalize your messaging
Speaking of new tools and technologies, a recent engagement strategy that many businesses are using is personalization. Each time you send an SMS, email, or push notification, you can make it personal to that customer by adding their name and any other information you might have. This sort of engagement strategy builds on relationship marketing and shows your customers that you care.
Not only do customers enjoy when brands personalize their experience, but studies show that it increase their likelihood of making a purchase as well. In fact, most customer engagement strategies are simply about taking things that extra step to improve the lives of your customers.
Bring human insight to the customer experience
Our final word on customer engagement strategies comes from an unlikely source: The Bible. In Luke 6:31, it is written “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” More commonly referred to as the Golden Rule, this piece of advice can transform your customer engagement campaign.
By simply asking yourself “Would I want this kind of service?” before running a campaign, you are able to bring human insight to the world of customer engagement. This is really all it takes to create a loyal customer base, to treat them with respect. Remind yourself of this at each stage of the process and you will soon have no problem finding ways to engage customers.
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