mike Businesses want customers, but businesses want returning customers who stay engaged and loyal over a long time rather than buy one thing and vanishing again. Customer engagement is critical to retaining customers and keeping a stable customer base over the years. However, customer engagement is getting trickier as content gets flashier, and there is more online content competing for our limited attention spans than ever before.
Online customer engagement is critical to business success, but reaching that goal is a process that requires many different approaches. There is no single way to ensure customers stay engaged, and you must employ a range of efforts to attract and keep customers. Online strategies are at the center of successful customer engagement; there are many to choose from, and the best approach is a blend of many techniques. While each business is unique and has individual goals with customer engagement, there are some universal methods any business can use.
Benefits, Rewards, And Incentives
One of the best ways to keep customers loyal and engaged with your business is to offer rewards or incentives for long-time customers. Offering rewards points for each purchase, incentives for staying on the newsletter mailing list, and benefits for repeat purchases are standard methods businesses use to keep customers loyal. Free shipping is another perk or benefit most customers agree is worth using as shipping fees quickly add up over time. If your business uses warehouse shipping, it would be reasonably easy to add a free shipping reward program or work with carriers to get better rates.
Always Accessible
One of the critical factors of engagement is always ensuring customers have a way to reach your business. The past year pushed many customers to online solutions, and now those apps and websites are too convenient to give up. Your business should take advantage of these new customer habits to engage customers where they are. Talk with customers about the apps and platforms they are already using to keep your business in the front of their minds. Offering mobile shopping is another fantastic idea to keep customers focused on your business. Having your business and or store always accessible to customers raises the likelihood of engagement and long-term loyalty.
Real-Time Benefits
If you want to keep customers engaged on your website, try offering real-time benefits like on-page chat windows or personalized content. Chat windows are easy to add to any website, and you can have a bot handle the most common questions with pre-written replies. Basic personalized content uses customer data and plugs it into a few fields to make the correct information appear in the right places, but personalization can be better. You can use that same customer data to artfully suggest specific products or articles that the customer might like, which has a higher likelihood of leading to a finished sale. Recommend a winter jacket to customers living in cold climates before sending the same suggestion to someone living in the tropics. This type of personalization might be less visible to customers, but it remains highly influential.
Explain Critical Information
Sadly too many businesses hide fine details and essential information in places that customers don’t look. Pro-order policy, return policy, exchanges, faulty products, and other event policies must be accessible to customers and explained, so customers do not feel trapped or tricked later. It is worth showing all your policies and details to customers, so you don’t need to deal with answering the same questions repeatedly or angry customers later. Customers appreciate upfront honesty and transparency far more than finding out about rules only after the fact. Be honest even if it feels scary for businesses not to hide at least a little bit. An honest brand or business is one that customers will be more willing to stand by through the years.
Keeping customers engaged, loyal, and spending is the goal for most businesses, but it is easier said than done. The past year pushed more people online than ever before, and those new habits have affected how customers engage with businesses. Offering customers rewards or benefits for sticking around are a fundamental way many online stores have kept customers loyal. Having your business on multiple platforms and sites means it is always accessible for customers who might want to shop on the go. Real-time benefits like chatbots and personalization are small efforts that can go a long way for customers. Be honest and explain all critical information in places customers will find rather than hiding less than ideal policies.
