Multichannel Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is defined as a non-monetary activity between the customer and a brand for understanding the customer better. It helps to build more trust and loyalty with the identification of newer marketing opportunities. In the digital age, multichannel customer engagement is slowly becoming mandatory as customers want a multichannel presence as they are present in multiple channels and expect their favorite brands to be present as well. This helps in both proactive and reactive engagement of customers making brands identify new marketing initiatives. It helps in reducing customer churn by identifying predictive customer behaviors that indicate the probability of customers becoming disengaged. Multichannel customer engagement also drives higher value and helps in building more brand loyalty and creating a long-term relationship.

How can multichannel customer engagement help your business?

Customer service reputation is one of the biggest assets that multichannel customer communication and engagement would bring. The reason is multiple communication channels would facilitate a great experience of customers which would, in turn, pave the way for customer retention and more customer loyalty. It is not only millennials who communicate with their friends and family through various channels, but the elderly also does and are addicted to social media. This has led businesses and brands to communicate with their customers through multiple channels and especially through social media channels too. The immense popularity of these channels has led the businesses to adopt these channels of communication too. By being present through all the channels and the social media and listening to the customers’ conversations on social channels, brands can draw inferences and gather insights about their customers’ expectations too. Eventually, such an approach empowers brands to deliver great customer service and relationship earning a better reputation than that of the competitors.

Goals of multichannel engagement

A properly planned multichannel customer engagement initiative promotes all the marketing goals of any organization. It helps in making the relationship with prospects and potential leads better initiating customer conversations as well. It enhances the scope of customer referrals and expands the relationship with the target audience increasing the chances of up-selling and renewals. Conversation on social media and other online platforms enhances the image of the brand, and it helps to position the brand to the target audience. Customer referrals and advocacy help in more loyalty building and retention of customers decreasing the churn rate.

The Pressing need for multichannel customer engagement

Prediction from the research studies states that by 2020 the customers would be so connected that they would manage 85% of their relationship with a brand without speaking to a real human. This means businesses are moving in a direction where brands are not only aware but are responding to all the customer communication through all channels. A constant endeavor from businesses are noted to not only listen to consumers across all the touch points, but brands are increasingly coming up with customer engagement strategies as well across all the communication channels. Businesses are increasingly breaking the departmental siloes which block the information flow and are streamlining their existing processes for effective flow of information for a better customer experience. Apart from breaking the siloes, a free flow of the right information to reach the customers and the right stakeholders in the organization, the following steps have to be taken.

A unified voice across all channels

There should be an organization-wide learning to speak to customers in a unified voice that speaks the same language across all the channels. To achieve this, the brands must understand the preferred methods of communication and deliver accordingly through those mediums. A unified voice across all the channels increases loyalty, minimizes confusion and improves the overall customer experience. Not only that, this also helps companies to gather information by removing the internal information barriers to understand customer preferences and engage with the right interactions in the right medium.

Track Data effectively

Understanding customers and knowing the triggers for attracting prospects are keys for sustainable business growth. The customers’ preferences and the ways to improve the touch points are only possible if there is a tracking mechanism for data like location, demographics, transaction data and other valuable information of the customers. These data will also help the brands in personalizing the communication to different customer segments and design and develop proper products and services.

Unified Goals across the Organization

There should be enough digital transformation in the organization to reap the benefits of multichannel communication with customers and also engage them through all the channels. For this to happen all the employees of the organization should speak the same language, and the goals of each department should be well communicated and understood by the team members. They should be clear about the organization vision as well. Once the efforts are unified, and goals are well communicated to each other, it would be easy for the organizations to build a stronger customer engagement strategy through multiple channels and implement it.

Key Takeaways

• A constant endeavor from businesses are noted to not only listen to consumers across all the touch points, but brands are increasingly coming up with customer engagement strategies as well across all the communication channels.
• A unified voice across all the channels increases loyalty, minimizes confusion and improves the overall customer experience.
• There should be enough digital transformation in the organization to reap the benefits of multichannel communication with customers and also engage them through all the channels.