article
Effective customer engagement strategies for CX teams
July 25, 2024 • 5 minutes
Customer experience (CX) is the number one anchor for brand loyalty. Whether your business is product or service-based, customers expect a personalized, convenient, and engaging experience across multiple channels and at every touchpoint. This is where a well-defined customer engagement strategy comes in.
What are customer engagement strategies?
Customer engagement strategies are proactive approaches that build long-lasting relationships with customers. They go beyond solving problems — they encourage repeat business and foster high-value relationships.
Here’s the core idea: you foster trust and loyalty with key decision-makers, understand their specific challenges, and tailor solutions accordingly. You then gauge success by retaining valuable customers, increasing contract renewals, and demonstrating a clear return on investment.
Why CX teams need to prioritize customer engagement
Happy customers are a top priority for any CX team. Customer engagement strategies are powerful tools designed to achieve exactly that. Here’s how these strategies go beyond just keeping customers:
- Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Engaged accounts are more likely to expand their usage of your products or services and become a long-term source of business.
- Better Brand Advocacy: When people feel valued and their challenges are understood, they become vocal advocates for your brand. Positive word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful and cost-effective way to attract new business.
- Reduced Customer Churn: By addressing complex needs proactively and fostering positive relationships, you can significantly reduce churn rates, saving valuable resources and protecting existing revenue streams.
- Deeper Customer Insights: Through ongoing engagement, you gain valuable insights into your customers’ specific needs, preferences, and challenges at various stages. This data can inform product development and solution tailoring.
Increase customer engagement with these 8 strategies
Here are eight key customer engagement strategies to empower your CX team and supercharge your efforts to keep customers engaged:
- Personalization is king
People crave relevant and personalized experiences along the customer journey. Leverage the power of consensual customer data to personalize interactions across all touchpoints. This could include addressing customers by name, recommending products based on browsing behavior, and tailoring communication to their preferences.
- Omnichannel messaging engagement
Today’s customers are present across multiple channels. In fact, eight out of ten consumers say they are more likely to purchase from brands who are available across phone, messaging, and email. Be there to meet customers where they are — implement omnichannel CCaaS solutions to boost customer engagement across all channels.
- Proactive outreach
Don’t wait for customers to reach out with problems. Anticipate their needs and offer proactive support. This demonstrates your commitment to their success and can significantly improve brand perception. Proactive messaging engagement activities could include push notifications with personalized offers or account maintenance reminders.
- Community building
Create a sense of community around your brand. This goes beyond simply having a social media presence — create forums for a positive brand experience where customers can connect with each other, host engaging contests or giveaways, or launch a loyalty program with tiers and benefits that incentivize repeat business.
- Customer feedback is fuel
Your existing customers are a valuable source of insights. Use surveys, email feedback forms, and social media sentiment analysis tools to gather feedback and demonstrate that you value their input. Make sure you analyze the voice of the customer within the actual conversational interactions, too. Through conversational intelligence you may discover pain points like login difficulties, online billing failures, specific product searches, and more.
But don’t just collect feedback — act on it! Show you’re listening by communicating any changes.
- Gamification power
Gamification can be a powerful tool to boost customer engagement. Integrate gamification elements like points, badges, and leaderboards into your loyalty program or mobile app. This can motivate customers to complete tasks, learn about your products and services, and deepen their connection with your brand.
- Reward loyalty
Engaging customers can also include recognizing and rewarding loyal customers. Offer exclusive discounts or early access to new products for loyal customers. Send personalized thank-you gifts for continued patronage or celebrate customer anniversaries. These small gestures can have a significant impact on building customer loyalty.
- Empower your team
Your contact center is on the front lines of customer engagement. Equip them with the technology and training they need to excel. Invest in agent-facing generative AI tools that can help agents manage customer interactions more efficiently.
Measuring CX success
The key to a successful customer engagement strategy lies not just in implementation but also in measurement. Track relevant metrics to understand what’s working and what needs improvement in order to boost sales and meet more business goals. Here are some key customer engagement metrics to consider:
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Measure customer satisfaction with a specific interaction or experience throughout customer journeys.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Quantify customer loyalty and likelihood to recommend your brand to others.
- Measuring Consumer Experience Score (MCS): Analyze sentiment in real time through your messaging channels.
- Customer Effort Score (CES): Assess how easily customers can resolve their issues or complete tasks.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Discover the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime relationship with your brand.
- Churn rate: See how many customers stop doing business with you over a specific time.
Regularly analyze these metrics to identify areas for improvement and refine your customer engagement strategies.
A winning customer engagement strategy
Building an effective customer engagement strategy requires a holistic approach. It’s not just minor changes; you must create a positive experience across all touchpoints, from the initial promotion and sales to the onboarding process and continuing service.
And you can leverage the communication channels your customers love from one easy-to-manage customer messaging platform within LivePerson.