Adhering to the belief that “customer is king” means more than providing top-notch frontline customer service today. It is not simply about delivering the most innovative products or services anymore.
In an era where discerning customers are spoiled for choice, tactics such as discounts and price wars are also no longer a long-term solution for customer acquisition and retention. Instead, building long-lasting and profitable relationships is undeniably vital to business success today. Yet, how many companies are doing so meaningfully and effectively?
Why engage?
A well-engaged customer does not just bring about retention and revenue. With the right tools and insights to create personal and relevant experiences for your customers, there is the potential to turn them into brand advocates, creating acquisition and new sales from their word-of- mouth testimonies.
While enterprises, online or offline with customer facing businesses, such as retail, financial institutions, credit card companies, and telcos, have been trying to improve their customer engagement strategies, they are still not getting it quite right.
Many are focusing on building their entire marketing strategy around customer acquisition, and are not considering what happens after getting their business. Customers are only engaged once or twice a month when their bills are due. In this way, customers are treated more like a commodity rather than an asset, and companies run the risk of losing them easily amidst increased competition, pushing up the cost of acquisition.
What companies need is a cost-effective, innovative way to understand and engage their customers through an expanding array of touchpoints and learn to reward them intelligently. Customer engagement is no longer a one-off experience, but an ongoing dialogue to improve customer loyalty, which will in turn generate higher customer spend.
Data management in an omnichannel world
According to McKinsey, a retailer making full use of customer data could increase its operating margin by more than 60%. The challenge is figuring out the best way to leverage this data to deliver the right content, at the right time, in the right location to the most relevant end-users.
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Marketing-Interactive.com