Over the years, businesses have had to change their marketing approach to catch the buyer's eye. It’s no longer just about the product you're selling, but the experience around buying the product. Remembering the customer's experience not only in the pre-sale atmosphere, but in the context of after the sale, can take your customer from being a one-time buyer to a return buyer.
Customer Engagement So, let's start by discussing customer engagement, which is creating and maintaining relationships between your customers and your business. Customer engagement is different from customer success or satisfaction. Customer success is about the customers' proficiency and ease of use with your products. And customer satisfaction is your customers' positive or negative feelings towards the product. In contrast, customer engagement focuses on growing customer loyalty through getting to know the customer through two-way, meaningful communication.
Customer Experience Another term that’s often used interchangeably with “customer engagement” is “customer experience”. While these terms have similarities, there are some important differences to consider: Customer experience is using the components of customer engagement, success, and satisfaction to give a customer an outstanding journey with your product.
Customer Engagement VS. Customer Experience Now, you may be wondering whether you should focus on customer engagement or customer experience? The answer is both! Blustream’s advice is to start by thinking about customer engagement as a foundation, which will in turn lead to a better customer experience. To boost your customer engagement, it’s important to create ways for your customers to get more involved with your brand.
Blustream’s top three steps to boost customer engagement:
Identify your customer
Having a clear idea of who your customers are means you can tailor your marketing for the right audience. Think about who your products are for and how you see them using your products.
Create content
Knowing your target audience means you can gear your content and marketing towards your customer. This, in turn, will draw their attention and create a stronger connection with your company as you will become a thought leader in the minds of your customers.
Ask for feedback
A huge part of engaging your customers is getting to know them. Make sure to ask your customers questions (this could be in person or via a survey) and make them feel heard. Use their advice to continue to improve and evolve your business and your products.
Gathering information about customers and engaging with them used to be a huge lift for businesses, but with Blustream’s APEX™ platform, it’s become easier than ever to get to know your customers. Blustream is an after-sale Product Experience Platform that empowers companies to help owners be more successful with the products they love. With Blustream, brands engage their customers with contextualized, data-driven touchpoint messages including tips, alerts, and purchase recommendations, sent at exactly the right time. Today, CEOs, CMOs, and Product Executives use Blustream to create a direct channel with their customers to drive revenue, retention, and referrals. Learn More.
Conclusion With a foundation of strong customer engagement, it’s easy to continue to improve your customer experience. Looking for ways to take your customer engagement to the next level? We would love to chat with you about the needs of your business. Schedule a Demo.