Customer engagement: 6 tactics to improve it

It’s one of the first things you learn in marketing: retaining your customers costs much less than acquiring new ones. Have a portfolio of committed customers, who have complete confidence in you and appreciatecustomer experience, is essential for any business: these loyal customers provide you with both income, but also promotion, within their own networks. Developing customer loyalty and engagement are key success factors to integrate into your commercial strategy. But how to do it? And what exactly are we talking about? hipto tells you everything!

What is customer engagement?

Customer engagement is what defines a customer’s involvement with a brand, a company, a product or a service. In other words, it refers to the degree to which a customer is aligned with the values ​​and objectives of a company, and is willing to adhere to them and promote its development. It is therefore a process by which a company creates alasting and mutually beneficial relationship with its customers.

Customer engagement is based on three main pillars: loyalty, value and satisfaction. By focusing on these three aspects, businesses can create a strong and lasting relationship with their customers, which in turn generates considerable benefits.

Loyalty is one of the key elements of customer engagement. Loyal customers are those who have a close relationship with a business and are willing to stay there for the long term. They are loyal to the brand, which meets theconsumer expectations, and tend to consume more and talk about their products and/or services more easily to those around them.

Value is also an important part of customer engagement. Customers must perceive high value from the company, whether in terms of the products and services offered, their qualities, or the way in which they are treated as customers.

Finally, satisfaction is another crucial element. Customers must be satisfied withthe way the company maintains its commercial relationshipwith them, and the quality of the products and services they received. Satisfaction is usually measured through customer reviews and ratings.

This commitment can be made at several levels. It can be monetary: with each new product release, the customer is present, ready to buy and test said product. It can also be social: we often talk about brand ambassadors, who defend it on social networks (for example). Finally, engagement can be participatory: the customer participates in events and competitions organized by the brand.

Customer engagement is a concept that has grown as the relationship between businesses and consumers has become more complex. As customers have access to more and more information and choices, businesses have had to findnew ways to stand outand create stronger connections with their customers.The concept of customer engagement has evolved over time, in response to changes in the relationship between businesses and customers. However, the underlying principles have remained the same: a business mustunderstand the needs and desires of your customers, and provide products and services that meet these needs.

Why implement a customer engagement strategy?

By its very definition, we understand the interest of customer engagement for companies. Building customer loyalty, ensuring their loyalty and being sure that they will be there for each new product or service release is important. But the benefits of high customer engagement are broader and more numerous.

First, because loyal customers are often great ambassadors for a brand. Whether with their loved ones or on social networks, they will be the best salespeople for your brand: it is always easier to believe someone you know, who you know and who has actually tested the product, rather than a salesperson who praises a service to justify their salary and receive their bonus. We also find this notion in the AARRR matrix dear to growth hackers: the notion of Referral focuses on a brand's natural ambassadors. The entire brand image will benefit from this word of mouth.

Second, because these highly engaged customers generally care less about promotions and will be more likely to spend to try your products or services. The average basket of engaged customers tends to increase.

Customer engagement also has positive impacts on your marketing R&D. By interacting regularly with people who are passionate about your brand, you better understand their expectations, their profiles, their aspirations: you are therefore better able to respond and satisfy them.

How to improve customer engagement?

If customer engagement is so important, there remains one question to ask: how to improve it? Here are someconcrete stepsthat you can put in place to increase your customer engagement:

Define your strategy and indicators

The first step to improving customer engagement is to define your strategy and in particular the indicators that you will monitor. How to measure customer engagement? Many KPIs can be used: it's up to you to choose those that seem relevant to you.

Number of orders per customer, average rating on Google and third-party review providers, mentions on social networks, comments and reactions on your publications, opening of your newsletters, users on your website... There are all kinds of KPIs that you can use to measure the effect of your actions and check that they really have an impact on the engagement of your customers.

Set up preferred communication channels

In the digital age, there are multiple ways to communicate with your customers. Whether through newsletters, to keep them informed of your news and new developments, via a blog, to provide them with information and news regularly, or via thesocial networksand community management, to interact directly with them,all digital channels are good to take! Depending on your business and its industry, some will of course be preferred, but good communication with your loyal customer base allows you to ensure their commitment and loyalty.

Use data and feedback

Use your data and the feedback received to understand what your customers really expect, understand who they are and why they are attached to your company. Is it your values, your image, the quality of your products/services, your communication? It's up to you to determine by analyzing the data at your disposal, to give your audience what they expect. This data will help you, for example, to create yourdiscovery plan.

To analyze the data, however, you must collect it: customer interviews, collection of opinions, requests for feedback, notes are all sources of data that you can exploit to properly meet the needs and desires of your customers.

Implement loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are a great way to increase… loyalty. And through this, the commitment of your customers. Rewards, discounts, recognition: all this encourages customers to invest and remain loyal to you.

Get them involved

UGC (User-Generated Content), competitions on social networks, sharing of opinions… By including customers in the operation of your business, you encourage them to engage with you. Get them to vote for projects, create photo or video content related to your business and share them on your media, let them win prizes and rewards: all these techniques will allow you to engage your most loyal community, while promoting your brand image to their networks.

Set up an effective after-sales service

Customer engagement and loyalty also involves satisfaction. And who says satisfaction says after-sales service: you must be able to respond to their requests, their complaints, and provide them with information. You must respond to reviews, both negative and positive, to show your customers that their opinion matters to you (and of course, take this feedback into account!).

hipto, your lead generation solution to create your customer base

Beforeretain your customersand to unite your community, you will however have to create it. To achieve this, the most effective method remainsleadgen: the continuous collection of qualified leads, which your sales force must contact and convert. At hipto, we are a pioneer in Conversociads© lead generation: we provide you with exclusive, ultra-qualified and GDPR compliant leads, all at a fixed cost, so that you can calmly develop your business. Would you like to know more?Contact us!