Engagement By Design

Ways Your Competitors Are Engaging Better With Your Customers

vezign — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:34:57 +0000

These days, businesses are experiencing a paradigm shift on marketing. Aside from spending tons of money on advertising, business owners have realized the power and importance of their customers. There was a time that a business could only rely on their customers in order to build a brand name, but with the arrival of new tools for marketing, the customers have taken a backseat while businesses rode on the bandwagon of TV, radio and print advertisements.

But in the last few years, business owners have awakened to the fact that their customers are their number one asset. They can decide whether a business would flourish and grow or, on the other hand, fold up and go on a bankruptcy claim. These days, engaging is the hottest marketing strategy, the question is, have you already hopped on the new bandwagon or are you still stuck on the traditional ways of advertising marketing?

If you haven’t focused your marketing strategy on engagement with your customers, there’s a high chance that your competitors are gaining more than a few step ahead of you in the race for a better brand name. If you want to cope up and you don’t want to get left behind, know the ways in which your competitors are engaging better with customers.

Below are some strategies that they most likely have been using in order to gain more popularity in the battle against the better brand name.

Your competitors have made their business more customer-centric. These days, knowing the value of your customers is very important. Albeit having the most eye-catching advertisements may help you build your image, studies have shown that people think word of mouth is more dependable than a stunning ad on TV. People are becoming smart buyers and if you don’t focus your business on these buyers than you are most likely in trouble.

Your competitors have invested on touching people’s positive emotions. Do you know that when one customer has had a good experience in a business establishment the word of mouth can go to four or five more? That’s good right. But be wary of bad experiences because if one customer’s negative emotions have been tapped by one of your employees, most probably the word of mouth about the incident will reach more than 10 people. Always make sure that your customers leave your establishment with the sense of satisfaction and happiness, because if you don’t, bad publicity can be hard to eradicate.

Your competitors have already built strong and meaningful relationships with their customers. Have you ever wondered why some of your customers never come back? Maybe it’s because they didn’t feel that you wanted to have a long and lasting relationship with them. Customers are like lovers, they need attention and a certain degree of warmth. When they feel like they are being taken for granted, they will never come back to you and when that happens, you lose a chance to gain loyal customers who can be a big part of your sale’s percentage.

Your competitor has realized that engagement needs an effort from the whole business’ base employment staff and even higher positioned ones. A lot of business owners forget that they should also be an active participant of their business. Aside from the efforts from your base employees (clerk, saleslady, barista, waiter, etc.) and higher positioned employees (managers or supervisors), even the owner should be an active participant of the engagement game. When a customer sees higher authority in an establishment this gives them peace of mind that the business is in the hands of a person who really wants to get to know the customers in order to serve them better.

Lastly, your competitor may have engaged with customers not only in a personal basis but also online. Have you ever wondered why Facebook and Twitter is being used by businesses? Well it’s because social media is a great way in engaging with your customers even if they are not inside your store or establishment. It can help them build their own community where they can talk with each other and share their experiences and feedbacks. Before, a lot of businesses throw out a lot of money just to conduct surveys on what the customers want. But in the age of Web 2.0, you can get to know your customers better with just a few clicks away. The medium has also provided a tool in which businesses can offer customer service anytime and anywhere.

7 Ways to Find and Engage With Your Customer

vezign — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:22:53 +0000

Before paid advertising became popular and took over the marketing scene, there was word of mouth. Businesses relied on the recommendation of their customers in order to let their brand be known in the market.

But with the advent of paid advertising and its different forms: TV, print, radio and Web 2.0, word of mouth has been disregarded by a lot of business owners and chose to spend thousands, and even millions, on making sure that their brand name will be disseminated to a larger population.

What they don’t know is that this connotation is wrong. Investing on your customers’ emotions is better than investing money for some TVC that would air for a maximum of 60 seconds on TV and radio; a piece of paper that can be thrown anytime; and a website which can be clicked through without the customers even reading the content.

Customer engagement has been trending again because business owners finally realized that advertising alone cannot stand by itself. They should not end their efforts on reaching out to their customers that way

So what is customer engagement?

Customer engagement involves a high rate of interpersonal relationship with your customers. In order to touch their inner emotions and not just their curiosity, business owners should know how to communicate properly and listen to their customers’ needs.

In order to find out who your customers are, read on and understand how you can effectively engage with them.

Determine your niche and reach out to your proper target market. If you are a clothing store that sells clothes and apparel for teenage girls, research on the new trends and what teenage girls like nowadays. When you create advertisements, make sure that the colors, design and text of your publication materials can make your target market look at your ads not just once, but twice. You can never find the right customers if you do not know your niche and expertise.

Once you have the attention of your target market, don’t just let them go in and out of your store. Make them feel special and train your employees to always be warm and accommodating. Nothing irritates customers more than an employee that ignores them when they go inside a shop. Always remember to tap on positive feelings and never elicit negative ones at all costs.

Before employing someone, make sure to train them with all your rules and regulations. The key word here is confidence. Make sure that all of your employees are confident when they entertain and assist your customers and that they know your business by heart. A customer likes a business whose employees know what they are talking about. It makes them feel assured that they are being served properly and that if ever they buy your product or hire your service, they are in good hands.

Always pay attention to what your customers want to say. Never ignore comments and feedback. They are your greatest tools in order to improve your business. You will never grow and improve if you disregard your customers input. Another advantage of listening and acting upon certain suggestions is that your customers can see that you are taking them seriously. This will make them feel that their opinions are valued and that your business always put their customers first.

Create a community where your customers can interact with each other under your supervision. If you are a book store, organize a storytelling activity in your community or a poetry or book reading event wherein your customers can join and talk to each other freely. This will build a sense of camaraderie among them and while doing this you can be assured that word of mouth about your business will spread out soon.

If you are already using social media as a medium for reaching out to your customers, always make sure that your Facebook and Twitter accounts are always updated and that there is a person who can always answer inquiries and questions all the time. If you don’t answer quickly, your customers might think that you are ignoring them.

Provide sales, discounts or special offers every once in a while. Have you ever wondered why loyalty cards have been released by big and small businesses alike? It’s because this kind of promotion helps in customer retention and loyalty. A businesses’ profit majorly comes from loyal customers and once you establish a relationship like that, engagement can help your customers feel satisfied and contented with what you have to offer.

Are Your Customers Stupid?

vezign — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:16:55 +0000

Customer Engagement has been present longer than paid advertising for TV, radio and print. But for some reason it has taken the backseat and is slowly making a comeback in the recent years.

One may wonder, why just now if it’s been present for a long time? The answer is because businesses have focused on branding their business and disseminating it to the public thinking that it would be enough to connect their businesses to people. But it wasn’t enough and recently, studies have shown that the gap between businesses and customers can be closed by ‘Customer Engagement.’

Customer Engagement is the act of repeating various methods of interaction between a business and its customers. A business is making itself visible not only in face-value but also by appealing to their customers emotions. They have finally learned that valuing their customers and treating them like a friend is better than treating them as people who patronize their products.

But how does a business know how to engage? How can they know what every customer is thinking and be able to know how to deal with them at exactly the same manner that they want. There are a lot of people out there and everyone has a unique personality. If you want to know the psychology of engaging with your customers read on and this article will explain to you how you can understand your customers better.

There are five simple things that customers need and want in order to be satisfied and they are often ignored by businesses. What they don’t know is that when they fulfil these needs and wants, they will be able to serve their customers better. Below is a list of factors that customers consider when purchasing:

Knowledgeable Staff. When you go inside a restaurant and you ask a waiter what are their best sellers and what they can recommend for you to eat and they give you a blank stare and just hand you down the menu, will you be happy? How about if you go grocery shopping and you asked an employee on where the dairy products are and then they seem to fumble and look like they don’t have any idea where it is, again, will you be happy? Customers, no matter what age and gender will always get irritated by employees that don’t seem to know what their business’ expertise or products are. If a customer finds out that your employees don’t seem to be confident and knowledgeable about your business, don’t wonder why they transferred to your competition.

Friendly and Approachable People. Your employees may know every single product in your store and where to find it but he or she never smiles. Customers who feel uncomfortable in a store usually just leave and find another store that can accommodate them in a light and friendly manner. A smile can assure you two things: 1.) an assured sale everyday and, 2.) a lot of repeat and loyal customers. People in general like to feel like they are being treated nicely. Make your customers feel like they are talking to a friend instead of talking to a business employee and be assured of great things to happen.

Quality of Products and Services. You may have cheap merchandise but can you assure their quality? In a study made by researchers in America, customers who find quality in a business’ products and services go back and purchase another when even if the price is higher than the usual. The key term here is this: quality over quantity. Customers want their money’s worth and that’s what they expect. So what should a business do? Give it to them just how they like it.

Be Humble and Accept Mistakes. If a customer returns an item a day after purchasing it, don’t go nasty and tell them that they can’t do that. A lot of employees get irritated with return items because they think that it takes up their time without making a sale for that day. What they don’t know is being humble and being able to accept mistakes can help them realize that you are a business who will do everything to satisfy them. If this happens, train your employees to always be nice and accommodate the customer’s needs no matter what they are doing.

Don’t Take Up a Lot of Their Time. There are over friendly employees who still talk and chat around even if the customer has decided on what to purchase. This could cause a backlash because it eats up unnecessary time of the customer. Make sure to know when to finish a purchase and let the customer finish a transaction when it seems obvious that they already know what they want.

10 Go To Resources for Learning How to Better Engage

vezign — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:48:07 +0000

First, let me introduce you to customer engagement or simply known as ‘CE’. The word engagement came from the word engage and it means to become involved or to take on an obligation. From the word engage you can see that CE means being involved and in the context that we have its being involved with customers.

When you are a business owner you should always remember that your customers are your number one assets because they bring in the profit that helps your business run and be afloat. You may have the best products and the best location, but if you don not effectively engage with your customers you can fold down in no time.

This would mean that a business and its employees and owner(s) should be significantly involved in dealing with their customers. This means that they should always be ready to serve, answer questions, provide assistance and make every customer feel special. This can help every business build customer loyalty and can help generate positive output in the future.

When engaging with your customers creating an effective social hub, in the form of a website, is a very effective way to centralize your brands message. Most business have a basic website, but most are not optimized to effectively engage with your customers.

For more information how you can effectively engage with your customers check out the following resources:

1. http://www.customerthink.com/

This website has a slogan called ‘Think. Feel. Connect.’ It contains articles, blogs and news about Customer Relationship Management, Customer Experience Management and Social Business. It has 200,00 subscribers and it generates 80,000 visits every month. Their mission,, as quoted from their website is: “CustomerThink’s mission is to help business leaders develop and implement customer-centric business strategies. We do this by publishing high-quality articles, blogs and discussion; conducting research on key issues and trends; and by facilitating interactions with a global panel of experts.” For questions and suggestions, you can contact them through their email, RSS, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

2. http://www.mycustomer.com/

This website provides articles, blogs, document library, discussion groups and videos for people who want to learn about Customer Intelligence, Customer Experience, Marketing, Social CRM and Technology. It’s updated regularly and if you have questions they provide a Contact Us page and they also listed their telephone number, address and the email addresses of their management team.

3. http://missionengage.com/about/

This website’s slogan is ‘Communicate. Engage. Results With Integrity.’ It’s generally a site that offers services like assistance in making blogs, newsletters, search engine optimization, business tips and social media marketing. But when you browse through the site, you can see that they have tips on how to better engage with customers. They also have a Twitter account that you can follow.

4. http://www.customerengagement.com/

On the other hand, this website’s slogan is ‘Conversations. Relationships. Success.’ It’s a website on a consulting firm that helps businesses with social media, marketing and business development. It is very customer-centered and knows the value of customers for every business. They have a Contact Us page, RSS, Twitter and LinkedIn.

5. http://money.cnn.com/

This is a part of the website of the global news channel CNN. It always has news and article updates about businesses. The topics have a wide range but if you search properly you will surely find a nice article on customer engagement. They have Twitter and Facebook page.

Aside from the self-help websites there are websites that can help you practice customer engagement online or you can see how other businesses have been doing it since the arrival of social media. Big businesses like Home Depot, Ford, Dell and many others have been using these sites in order to communicate and engage with their businesses.

The Tools for Engagement

6. http://twitter.com/

Twitter has introduced micro blogging on a real-time basis. You can interact with your customers in a very direct way because both of you won’t be able to beat around the bush with what you want to say. It has millions of users worldwide and its still growing everyday.