If you are here to learn how to improve customer engagement, it shows that you are serious about growing a successful business. Really, customer engagement is one of the potent ways to get repeat customers and increase revenue.
See Also: How to acquire new customers for your business and make them stay
So, a customer just ordered your product and you are super excited; of course, this is a pleasant experience for every business owner. But, what happens after the purchase? Do you just forget about the customer and instantly move to the next customer? Or do you keep communication line open for a repeat purchase? Your choice at this point determines the future of your business. After all, business revolves around customers.
Most times, entrepreneurs go the extra mile to gain customers but do little or nothing to engage and retain them. This has savaged the growth and lifespan of many small businesses.
In this article, you will learn 10 ways to improve customer engagement and grow your small business into a billion dollar company.
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10 Ways To Improve Customer Engagement
1. Measure Your Customer Engagement Level
According to Peter Drucker, “you can’t improve what you can’t measure.” The first step to improving your customer engagement is to measure your current customer engagement.
How do you measure your customer engagement? Some of the things to check include: customer feedback, revenue, referrals, repeat customers, how people engage with your online content and website etc. The result will help you know what to improve on.
See Also: Building Customers – How To Build A Brand Not Just A Business
2. Solve Your Customer’s Problem Excellently
Customers are key to the growth of your business, so, treat them as such. When a customer part with their money to buy from you, make sure they get real value for their money. Customers pay you to help them solve a problem they may not be able to solve themselves. So, ensure your user guide are well-tailored to proffer the exact solution they need.
Besides that, send a follow up email to further help them make the most of your product or service. Remember not to spam them with unnecessary junks. Let them look forward to receiving your newsletters because they are certain it will deliver value to them.
Actually, to do this well, you must put yourself in your customers’ shoes. The more you are able to deliver value to them through problem-solving, the better you will become at customer engagement.
In addition, put systems in place for customers to ask questions if they have any. And, ensure your turn around time is as fast as possible.
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3. Embrace The Power Of Feedback
Sometimes, take out time to call your customers to get their feedback about your product or service. More than that, you can get their general overview about your brand, team and industry at large. You can schedule a time that’s best for your customers and allow them air their views. This will make them feel they are part of your company and that their opinion matters to you.
Importantly, address the good, bad, and ugly comments they give to you. Some customers may have misconceptions about your product or service and you will not find out until you interact with them. During this process, you can educate them about your product or services. Also, ensure you put quick measures in place to correct all their complaints.
On the other hand, you can explore social listening. You can come online and tell your customers to ask all their questions and concerns about your product or service. By doing so, you are improving your customer engagement.
See Also: 100 Profitable business ideas to start now for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors.
4. Good Customer Experience
Good customer experience is the foundation upon which good customer engagement is built. This should reflect in your company’s culture. And, your team must be well trained to deliver great customer service. If you fall short in this area, this may just be the best time to revisit your business model and include a system that best serves your customers.
Your business model should include treating customers well, exceeding their expectations, answering their questions, making good first impression, showing empathy and the likes. Remember that keeping loyal customers is way less expensive than getting new ones.
Furthermore, research has it that customers prefer to pay higher where they are treated well than paying less where they are treated badly or devalued.
See Also: Customer service – Is good customer service a favour or due?
5. Make Your Brand Fun
When putting plans in place to engage customers, don’t forget to add some element of fun to it. Really, customers don’t care about your business, they are only concerned about the value you can offer them. And, they can sure make do with some level of fun. So, while giving value to clients, let them also have good time patronising you.
Customer engagements require varieties and innovations. For instance, you can include a reward if your customers sign up for your event or training. You can as well find a fun way to guide your customers through the tedious process of using your product.
See Also: How to use branding to commoditise a product or service
6. Use Social Media To Your Advantage
A 21st century entrepreneur must understand that social media is a powerful tool for customer engagement. Many think that social media is just a place to connect with people.
More than that, brands now use these platforms to get customer’s views of their product, interact with them and use their insight to improve on their product and services.
As a matter of fact, these platforms make it easy and cheap for you to gauge how people engage with your content and brand as a whole.
For example, Instagram shows the number of engagements your post attracts. With this information, you will have a better idea of what your customers look out for, so you can push out more of such content.
See Also: How to optimise your customer experience using social media and boost revenue
7. Go The Extra Mile To Know Your Customers
To get to know your customers, put a form on your website and encourage them to fill it. By doing so, you will be able to keep the database of some of the people visiting your website. On the other hand, you can have sign-in booklets for physical customers where they enter their details: name, company name, phone number, email address, how they got to hear about you, and so on.
With this information, you can run further research on your client, so that you will know the best way to engage with them and how best to sell to them.
Send special messages on their birthdays, follow them on social media, engage with their posts and celebrate their good times with them.
When you make effort to know your customers, you are showing them the human side of your brand and they will be thrilled by it. Nobody cares about you until you show you care.
See Also: 21 Ways to acquire new customers for your small business
8. Give Back To The Evangelists Of Your Brand
Another way to improve your customer engagement is to reward your business advocates. Usually, there are special customers that are just committed to your brand. They sing your praise, refer other people to you, engage with your content and keep buying from you.
When you find such customers, rewarding them is not out of place. The result is that they will do more and you will have their loyalty. Besides that, if your reward system is attractive, other customers may want to do the same, so they can be rewarded as well.
Importantly, the type of customer will determine the kind of reward you will give. So, it’s important you study your customers well. Some of the rewards you can give include: discount, free use of your facility, or free product or service; as you deem fit.
See Also: 10 Ways to increase sales and win more customers for your business
9. Be Unique
When it comes to customer engagement, you need more than fair price or quality. You must stand for something unique that sets you apart. More than ever, a lot of people are starting their own businesses therefore, customers have several options to pick from. The question is, why should a customer stick to you?
The first step is to identify what your brand stands for and your core values. Once you know what you want to represent, build a customer engagement strategy that suits your identity.
More importantly, try as much as possible to be real in your customer engagement approach. Appeal to your customer’s emotion because emotion, and not price drives engagement.
See Also: Proven ways to validate your business idea with customers
10. Personalise Your Communications
Another way to improve customer engagement is to personalise your communications. Statistically, brands that use personalisation in their campaigns have 82% open rates and 75% click-through rates. Also, personalising your campaigns will help reduce the rate of unsubscribers.
No customer will unsubscribe from your campaign if you are sending them campaigns that appeal to their interests.
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