A Complete Guide To Mistake – Proof Customer Engagement

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A Complete Guide To Mistake – Proof Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is the key to building a strong customer base. However, contrary to popular belief, customer engagement begins before the customer buys your product or service and continues even after the purchase. Marketing experts believe that strong customer engagement in the pre-purchase and post-purchase stages is critical to building a loyal customer base in the long run.

Building a mistake-proof customer engagement model requires proper knowledge management for customer service. This is done to create an entire ecosystem that engages across the customer journey. Knowledge management for customer engagement is an integral pillar in modern times due to multiple factors, such as a changing technological ecosystem, multiple customer touchpoints, and increasing competition.

Steps to building a mistake-proof customer engagement strategy

Step 1: Understand the customer journey

The first step towards building a mistake-proof customer engagement strategy is understanding the customer journey. This will also help you to map the engagement strategy along the customer journey. To understand the customer journey better, you need to have the following information:

  • Customer expectations: You and your customer should be on the same page regarding customer expectations. You should have a clear understanding of the customer’s expectations, which will help you deliver maximum value to your customers.
  • Build a customer journey map: Once you are clear on the expectations, you should build a journey map. A customer journey map is a visual representation of possible touchpoints a customer has with your company throughout his/her life span. Building a customer journey map helps you understand the possible engagement points and accordingly build the strategy.
  • Build customer data: You should have rich data on your customers so that you can segment them according to requirements and provide tailored experiences.

Step 2: Build Better Customer Experiences

Now that you have understood the customer journey and expectations, it is time to build better customer experiences. It is better to provide well-structured information to the user at the source itself so that the customer does not need to visit third-party sources for the same questions.

As a result, you need to ensure that content across your website, social media platforms, and any other form of digital and physical presence uses the same tone and language.

At the same time, it is equally important to provide the customer with comprehensive knowledge about important aspects of the business.

You can do the following to build a better customer experience:

  • Build an appealing email sequence: An email sequence that evokes interest can build trust in the long run. You can build an appealing email sequence with welcome messages, educational resources, and showcasing the benefits. This will help convert cold customers to warm leads. Apart from the email sequence, you can use the database to announce major updates and offers that you launch.
  • Build guided tours: You can also create guided tours for your new customers to familiarize them with the key functions and benefits. This is a good method of converting free trial customers into paying customers.
  • Create educational content: You can create educational content that explains key features of your product or service at each stage of the customer journey. You can create videos, articles, templates, infographics, presentations, etc., that will help the customer get comprehensive answers to their queries.

Step 3: Automate and Improve Customer Service

After you have been able to create content for various touchpoints across the customer journey, it is now time to automate customer service as much as possible. It is important to note that customers today have a very short attention span.

According to a Microsoft study, today’s digital consumer has an attention span of 8 seconds. This is even lower than the 12-second attention span recorded in 2000.

To handle the reduced attention span and other benefits, it is in the brand’s favor to automate customer service to the extent possible.

You can always use an AI-backed knowledge management platform to enhance your customer’s experience. Besides making your customer service automation efficient through its self-service portals, a robust knowledge management platform ensures consistent customer engagement across multiple channels and customer touchpoints.

You can use automated customer service, also known as self-service, with the following mediums:

  • Chatbots: Many major brands worldwide have favored using chatbots for automated customer service. You can join the bandwagon by providing your customers with the next best action through a module called decision trees. The decision tree software guides your customers to solutions with a click through the chatbot function.
  • Self-help guides: You may create interactive self-help guides in the form of FAQs, articles, or visual guides to help customers troubleshoot any kind of query throughout their customer journey. These guides can be posted across all channels for viewing or downloading through a knowledge management platform.

Step 4: Collect feedback

After all engagement touchpoints have been covered with relevant content and customer service has been automated, it is time to collect feedback at all stages and regularly. Customer feedback can be taken in a variety of ways. Some of the most popular mediums for customer feedback are as follows:

  • Survey
  • Social media
  • Analytics
  • Community engagement

You can use a mix of these elements to collect feedback. Remember that acknowledging the feedback and keeping the customers informed about changes made because of it is equally important. A customer service executive’s input on call flow scripts should also be considered to improve agents’ working and contextual delivery of information to customers.

This kind of feedback collection can be done on robust knowledge management platforms.

Due to the pandemic, enterprises are also shifting to a hybrid culture, which is affecting C-SAT scores. Thus, enterprises can integrate the KM tool with remote employee monitoring software to cure this vulnerability.

Step 5: Cultivate a culture of celebration

The last step in building a mistake-proof customer engagement journey is cultivating a culture of celebration. You can use it for various things, like the first purchase, monthly summary, or crossing a particular milestone, and keep the customer informed in a celebratory manner. This will improve the relationship and create a sense of trust and belongingness in the long run.

This five-step framework can help you build a mistake-proof customer engagement strategy. Please remember that these steps will work only if you are primarily focused on understanding your customers’ needs and providing solutions that solve those problems. This will help you create a highly engaged customer base quickly.

Asad Ijaz

NetworkUstad's lead networking architect with CCIE certification. Specializes in CCNA exam preparation and enterprise network design. Authored 2,800+ technical guides on Cisco systems, BGP routing, and network security protocols since 2018. Picture this: I'm not just someone who writes about tech; I'm a certified expert in the field. I proudly hold the titles of Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) and Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). So, when I talk about networking, I'm not just whistling in the dark; I know my stuff! My website is like a treasure trove of knowledge. You'll find a plethora of articles and tutorials covering a wide range of topics related to networking and cybersecurity. It's not just a website; it's a learning hub for anyone who's eager to dive into the world of bits, bytes, and secure connections. And here's a fun fact: I'm not a lone wolf in this journey. I'm a proud member and Editor of Team NetworkUstad. Together, we're on a mission to empower people with the knowledge they need to navigate the digital landscape safely and effectively. So, if you're ready to embark on a tech-savvy adventure, stick around with me, Asad Ijaz Khattak. We're going to unravel the mysteries of technology, one article at a time!"

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