Using Technology for Customer Engagement

Introduction

Customer engagement is the cornerstone of every company. The more people are engaged, the more they will buy products from your brand, bringing in more revenue and ultimately keeping a business afloat. While offering them discounts, promotions, or even producing a virtual event can be effective, this strategy could only work short term. Remember that customer engagement builds a long-term relationship with your customers by gaining their trust and loyalty. And genuine engagement only happens when they feel they are receiving personalized treatment from your company. 

Meeting these expectations is not a walk in the park. That’s why many businesses leverage technology to help them stay ahead of the race. Unlike traditional methods, using technology for customer engagement allows new ways to connect with customers, interact, and convert them eventually. This article will discuss why technology is vital for customer engagement and the benefits you can get from it.

What is Customer Engagement? 

For every business, customer engagement technology aims to improve customer service or support while ensuring users receive value at every point of their customer experience. Today, technology is essential for interacting with clients and completing various jobs that previously required human labor.

 With duties like automation and assistance benefiting greatly from technological improvements, client engagement is now more straightforward and accessible, from promptly responding to inquiries to guaranteeing tailored service.

How to Effectively Use Technology for Customer Engagement

For modern customers, nothing is more important than having an improved experience when interacting with a brand. Once you achieve that, you’ll see that your customers will be loyal to your brand and encourage them to purchase your products and services more frequently. Many companies are attempting to balance technology and consumer involvement to increase brand value. 

 There are various methods to use technology to increase consumer engagement. Here are a few examples:

Personalization 

According to experts, 8 out of 10 consumers will likely purchase from a brand that provides them with a seamless, unique, and more personalized experience. However, your strategies must align with your customer’s preferences and needs, be it wanting specific products added to your selection or they want assurance that their data and payment are protected when purchasing from your brand. You must ensure that you begin trying to get to know your customers well because only this will pave the way to create a personalized experience for them. 

To do this, you can utilize website analytics to understand each user’s behavior thoroughly before applying a data-driven personalization strategy. Another thing you can also conduct a survey or opinion polls to know what your target customers expect from your company. 

Omnichannel 

Since modern consumers are now tech-savvy, most use different channels when engaging with a brand while also expecting each brand they interact with to be available anytime, anywhere. As a business owner, you must make the necessary adjustments to keep up with them by integrating a strategy that allows you to be present on multiple channels simultaneously. 

That’s where the omnichannel communication strategy comes to play. It helps you be available round-the-clock to your customers no matter which channel or platform they choose, resulting in them getting quick help whenever needed. 

Co-browsing and video chat are examples of visual engagement solutions that your company may employ to increase customer engagement and decrease the number of touchpoints significantly. On the other hand, you can utilize live chats when handling all sales and support inquiries, while chatbots for automating routine queries. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

To engage customers successfully, you must provide quick and timely responses. It saves the customers’ time and lessens their frustration, which frequently happens when dealing with a company’s support team. 

 Artificial intelligence (AI) helps when handling customers’ concerns and inquiries, as the support team already has the tools to perform their jobs efficiently. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots, significantly impact how customers interact with a company to stay one step ahead of their competitors. 

You can utilize AI by automating many support-related processes to guarantee that customers receive prompt assistance at every touchpoint. Moreover, integrate AI with human resources to offer the level of involvement customers desire. 

Chatbots 

Chatbots are not new to many people since many already incorporate them into their businesses. They have grown to be an essential tool in every support team across industries and for a good reason. Chatbots add cutting-edge value to engagement and are sure to bring a better customer experience, as they provide consistent responses and can make conversations interactive. 

Chatbots nowadays are advanced as they can analyze responses based on consumer information and history. Also, using chatbots can provide clients with quick, real-time, and personalized replies, which you can utilize to enhance customer engagement.

Real-Time Support

Technology is just as crucial to customer engagement as human involvement. Even while voice search and AI-powered chatbots are available, there will always be situations where human interaction is necessary. Moreover, chatbots can still need to catch up in client interaction no matter how sophisticated they are. While they are adept at simulating human responses when answering inquiries, you can only sometimes rely on them to handle complex situations.

That said, a business must also enable real-time support when agents’ expertise is required or by instantly making certain information accessible to customers. This way, you are elevating their experience with the brand while also ensuring personalization. 

Benefits of Technology in Customer Engagement

Gone are the days when customer engagement is only a manual exercise. With thousands of consumers interacting with multiple brands daily, the need for technology to accommodate them has grown so much. 

 Below are some benefits of technology when used in customer engagement: 

• Keeping up with modern customers – Utilizing technology may be the only way to stay up with the evolving interaction environment and ensure that clients receive value in the manner they choose.
• Increasing the interaction rate – When a company employs technology, it is better equipped to connect promptly, be accessible at all contact points, and satisfy consumer expectations.
• Providing a wonderful experience at every touchpoint –  Customers can now choose to contact a business from various channels and touchpoints. 
• Providing personalized service – A company that uses technology for engagement discovers a wealth of client information from various stages. Additionally, it may always employ analytics to satisfy particular demands at any journey stage.

Conclusion

Customer engagement encourages meaningful relationships between your brand and the customers. And an effective customer engagement strategy drives your customer to take action whenever you use technology to communicate with them, be it in the form of retweets, sales, or referrals. In turn, you will learn about their needs and preferences, which you can utilize to create marketing strategies according to your collected data.