Think about all that time and effort you put into bringing in each new customer to your business. They’re a treasured asset, so you need to do everything in your power to keep them as long as possible. This is why it is crucial to have a solid customer retention strategy in place.
You need to use a mix of customer insights and intuition to re-engage them and recapture their attention – not just for brand loyalty but for advocacy as well. It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one, and existing customers are more likely to try your new products and spend more.
The time to focus on customer retention is now. Let’s look at some effective ways that you can continue to engage your audience to keep them coming back.
What is customer engagement?
Customer engagement refers to any interaction between a customer and a business. It can include any communication channel, both online and offline, prompted by either party.
Traditionally, customer engagement has been nurtured and developed by customer service departments, prompted by sales and marketing. With consumers now able to access brand communications in a variety of different ways, it has expanded to include various other touch-points along the customer journey. It essentially covers every interaction with a customer that a brand has.
Learn more about customer engagement here.
What are the benefits of customer engagement?
There are many reasons why keeping your audience engaged can be beneficial for your business. Here are a few examples:
- Increase in revenue – Simply satisfying a customer is not enough in today’s world: you need to truly immerse them and capture their attention. After all, customers who are completely engaged show a 23% higher share in profitability, relationship growth, and revenue when compared to the average customer.
- Can reduce customer churn – Unengaged customers are more likely to jump ship to your competitors, meaning your company could miss out on revenue.
- Higher customer loyalty – Engaged customers are happy customers, and happy customers turn into loyal ones. Customer engagement provides an emotional connection between the brand and your audience, and this can ensure that your customers’ lifespan is much longer, giving more value to your business.
- Increased brand awareness – Engaged customers also remember your brand more easily, solving their needs quicker and satisfying their wants earlier.
- More cost efficient – Since it can cost you more to attract new customers rather than keep your existing ones, to keep expenses as economical as possible, implementing a customer engagement strategy is key.
What is a customer engagement strategy?
A customer engagement strategy is a method for identifying the most effective ways a business can engage with its consumers. It should map out how the business will do so to fit in with its wider goals.
This strategy should also include relevant customer engagement ideas, the channels and platforms on which the brand intends to prompt engagement, and the customer persona that it intends to target. A customer engagement strategy should align with existing marketing activities and campaigns and strengthen their impact.
7 customer engagement strategies to try
1. Harness the power of social media
There are over 57 million active social media users in the UK as of January 2023, and the number is increasing rapidly. So, there’s a very good chance that a majority of your customer base is among them.
People love voicing their opinions, especially grievances, on public forums like Facebook, X (formally Twitter), or Instagram, so keep a regular eye on them. Engage customers by responding to them immediately and offering solutions to satisfy them. This shows existing customers that you value their opinion and lets future customers witness your engagement and conflict-resolution skills as well.
Social media provides a cost-effective method of marketing your brand while keeping your customer engaged on a platform they’re already active on.
2. Entice them with rewards and incentives
If there’s one thing everybody loves, it’s free gifts and discounts. And that’s a surefire way to get your customer engaged. Offer customers rewards and incentives in exchange for feedback, participation in an event, or referring your brand to their network.
Essentially, you need to reward your customers for engaging with you, in turn, boosting even more engagement and loyalty.
Look at starting a referral scheme or appointing brand advocates from your existing customer base. Customers will be made to feel special as they represent your brand to others while doing it for the incentives you offer.
3. Deliver spot-on customer service
If provided with excellent customer service, 78% of customers will return to a company even after they make a mistake.
Top-notch customer service starts by making your customers feel like you truly care about them. This mission needs to be communicated across every team in your business – not just the ones facing customers. From finance to marketing, every member should be dedicated to providing the best customer service they can.
Offer customer service that provides what the customer is looking for and actively anticipates what they need before they know themselves. Provide high-quality customer service consistent with your brand’s mission and voice. Prioritising your customer service will ensure that customers trust you and will approach you first with any resentment before taking external action. This is essential as it allows you to control the situation before it gets out of hand.
4. Create a loyalty program
We’ve seen this work really well with coffee shops over the last few years. They hand you a card to get stamped every time you buy a drink, and after paying for nine drinks, you get your tenth coffee for free.
You can make a loyalty scheme work for almost any kind of business today. Whether it’s pushing them towards buying in bulk for a discount or upselling in slow-moving areas, customers get rewarded for their loyalty, and you get guaranteed business.
Here are a few ways you can introduce a loyalty program:
- Annual birthday or anniversary discount
- Email-only discounts
- Free delivery over a minimum order limit
- Themed and limited-time programs during the festive season
- Creating a ‘VIP’ group of customers and treating them to pre-sales and exclusive discounts.
5. Keep in touch in a personalised way
Keeping a customer engaged is an ongoing process and is like maintaining a friendship. If you make no effort to stay in touch, the relationship is not going to last very long. Set up regular touch points throughout the customer’s buying journey to establish your brand and messaging along the way. The customer will engage with you if they see you more often.
Send regular emails, SMS campaigns, and post often on social media. Even after a successful transaction is complete, there is plenty of potential to touch base and remind the customer of your existence. A nice ‘thank you’ note shows them that you appreciate their patronage and may encourage them to come back again. Or, send them company news and update them on the latest products they would be interested in.
Providing a complete customer experience is key to maintaining customer engagement in the long run. Never go for more than six months without connecting with your customer. Use their first name, remember their birthday, and remind them of their last purchase to truly personalise their shopping experience and make them feel special.
6. Ask for their opinion
Customers love sharing their opinion, so simply ask and engage with what they have to say.
Actively request every customer to leave reviews and testimonials for your company. This can be through Google reviews, on social media, or independent review websites – like Feefo.
You can also consider embedding reviews into your website and alongside each product offering to display social proof to new customers.
Make reviewing your business a fun experience. Not all businesses need in-depth ratings. A scale of between 1-5 stars will look nice and is easy to use and understand by all.
An important aspect to remember when dealing with reviews: pay attention to the negative ones. Never leave a negative comment unattended for long, which means you must always monitor all mentions of your brand. Be professional in all communication and offer a solution immediately. A negative review is still a customer attempting to engage with you, so don’t let this opportunity slip.
7. Create engaging content
Over 25 years ago, Bill Gates said, ‘content is king’, and this statement is even more relevant today. Everything you post and create from your company is content and should be used to engage your customer.
Play around with different mediums to see what works best for your business. Some common forms of engaging content include:
- Short and snappy videos
- Blog posts on relevant topics
- Infographics and images
There are plenty more types of engaging content you can adopt, but whatever you choose, make sure it’s share-worthy, relevant, and engaging.
Customer engagement examples
1. IKEA
IKEA is a great example of how to engage your customers. Their hashtag #ikeaatmine shows exactly what IKEA’s products look like in a real home.
Hashtags are a great way to keep the conversation going and make sure you’re constantly posting about the latest trends.
2. B&Q
We love this example from B&Q. They shared video content on how to create a butterfly haven, giving their audience helpful and actionable tips.
Videos are perfect for your social media channels, as they’re much easier to digest, and you can encourage customers to share their own projects.
3. Apple
Apple is also a master at how to encourage engagement via social media hashtags. They’ve done it super effectively with their #ShotOniPhone campaign. Customers simply need to create content with their Apple devices and share using the hashtag.
The result? Apple gets content curated on their customer’s feeds, and the users get featured on Apple’s media in return. With over 28 million posts shared using their #ShotOniPhone hashtag, it’s a certified success.
What is a customer engagement platform?
A customer engagement platform is any platform where customers interact with a brand. Some of the most common examples include:
- Email marketing campaigns
- Loyalty programs
- Podcasts
- Studies and PR campaigns
- YouTube channels
- Social media networks
These platforms can be used two-fold: both by the brand to push out communications and by the customer to interact with the brand. But, businesses should also implement customer engagement channels where the customer instigates contact first, such as helplines, email inboxes, and chat functions. These tend to serve slightly different, often problem-based, purposes, but are still valuable communication and customer engagement channels.
At present, video content is one of the most popular customer engagement tactics, as it’s an excellent method for quick and easily consumable information sharing and can be condensed and optimised for various platforms.
Customer engagement is a long-term strategy
No business can master customer engagement immediately. You will need to undertake at least two or three of the ideas mentioned here and monitor their results over time to see which ones work best for your business.
Whichever techniques you take for a spin, do so with the intention of delivering products and services your customer truly needs and wants. Segment your customers to see which idea is working best for which demographic. Not all customers are the same, so you need to engage them in a voice they understand and on a platform they use.
Combining these customer engagement ideas will help boost engagement and establish a long-term connection with your customer.
Contact our Feefo team today to see how we can help you keep your customers coming back.
