To help your business stay competitive, we’re bringing you some of the top customer engagement trends for 2020. But first, here’s a rundown on what customer engagement actually means and why it’s important for your business.
What does customer engagement mean?
Customer engagement is a term that encompasses all customer interactions with your brand. This includes in-person, online, and social media interactions to name a few.
Effective customer engagement means that your brand keeps your customer conversations going long after they’ve left your shop. An active social media presence, a loyalty program, and personalized communications are a few customer engagement strategies that can help keep customers interacting with your brand so you stay top of mind.
Why is customer engagement important?
Engaged customers are more likely to remain loyal to your brand, and 85% of business growth comes from loyal customers.
Customers who have a positive experience with your business are more likely to remain engaged with your brand. You just need to have the right tools to keep the interaction going. With customer engagement software, your business will be able to benefit from your loyal customers’ repeat visits, higher purchase amounts, and brand advocacy.
Keeping your customers happy and engaged leads to a better bottom line for your business, and on that note, here’s our list of the top trends to increase customer engagement.
Text Version of Infographic
Top Customer Engagement Trends for 2020
1. Transform with Tech
Whether it’s better service, instant responses, or multichannel communication, customers expect more from businesses. In fact, according to Invesp, 2 out of 3 customers interacted with a chatbot last year.
To provide a better customer experience and improve customer engagement, it helps to keep up to date on the latest tech and use it to improve your customer interactions.
What you need to get started:
- Customer service chatbots
- Artificial intelligence (AI) designed for personalized product recommendations
- Augmented reality designed to try out how products look
- Digital loyalty programs
- Smart payment terminals equipped to accept all forms of payments (mobile wallets, NFC, etc.)
2. Be Mobile-Friendly
Ensure that your customers are able to easily connect with your brand on mobile devices. Customers expect to be able to compare prices, features, and read reviews on their phones. In fact, research has shown that 80% of customers have used their smartphones to get more information about a product or business while shopping.
What you need to consider:
- Mobile commerce
- Responsive website design
- Shoppable social posts
- Live chat support
- “Near me” Google searches
3. Launch Loyalty
According to a KPMG report, 85% of business growth comes from loyal customers, and 24% of retail CEOs rank loyalty as a top-ten priority for their business and customer engagement strategy.
From big-box to small and local, businesses are investing in customer experience to build stronger relationships with their customers. Although implementing a loyalty program can be quite simple, only 1 in 5 small businesses have a loyalty program and are measuring customer engagement.
What you need to consider:
- Loyalty programs allow you to accurately measure customer engagement
- 90% of customers prefer a digital loyalty program
- 78% of customers are more likely to choose a business with a loyalty program
- 80% of businesses with a loyalty program reported an increase in revenue
4. Perfect Personalization
If you haven’t already, make sure you take the time to personalize your customers’ experiences. Bond Brand Loyalty found that when executed properly, personalization can increase customer satisfaction by 640%.
How to improve personalization:
- Include customer names on all communications (a customer engagement platform can help with that)
- Dive into your customer’s buying data to offer personalized product recommendations
- Leverage loyalty insights to send relevant and timely promos
- Give your customers a noteworthy birthday perk
5. Curate Compelling Content
Creating great content starts with understanding your customers’ needs, wants, and aspirations. Crafting authentic content and sharing it through blogs, podcasts, videos, newsletters, and social platforms will help keep the conversation going with your customers and ensure that you’re adding value to their experience.
How important is content, really?
- 78% of customers prefer to get to know a business through blog content rather than ads
- 70% of customers believe brands that create custom content are more interested in building relationships with them
- 82% of customers feel more positive about a brand after engaging with custom content
- 68% of customers read content about brands that interest them
