Customer engagement

Customer engagement is a business communication connection between an external stakeholder (consumer) and an organization (company or brand) through various channels of correspondence. This connection can be a reaction, interaction, effect or overall customer experience, which takes place online and offline. The term can also be used to define customer-to-customer correspondence regarding a communication, product, service or brand. However, the latter dissemination originates from a business-to-consumer interaction resonated at a subconscious level.

Online customer engagement is qualitatively different from offline engagement as the nature of the customer’s interactions with a brand, company and other customers differ on the internet. Discussion forums or blogs, for example, are spaces where people can communicate and socialise in ways that cannot be replicated by any offline interactive medium. Online customer engagement is a social phenomenon that became mainstream with the wide adoption of the internet in the late 1990s, which has expanded the technical developments in broadband speed, connectivity and social media. These factors enable customer behaviour to regularly engage in online communities revolving, directly or indirectly, around product categories and other consumption topics. This process leads to a customer’s positive engagement with the company or offering, as well as the behaviours associated with different degrees of customer engagement.

Marketing practices aim to create, stimulate or influence customer behaviour, which places conversions into a more strategic context and is premised on the understanding that a focus on maximising conversions can, in some circumstances, decrease the likelihood of repeat conversions. Although customer advocacy has always been a goal for marketers, the rise of online user generated content has directly influenced levels of advocacy. Customer engagement targets long-term interactions, encouraging customer loyalty and advocacy through word-of-mouth. Although customer engagement marketing is consistent both online and offline, the internet is the basis for marketing efforts.

Leveraging customer contributions is an important source of competitive advantage – whether through advertising, user generated product reviews, customer service FAQs, forums where consumers can socialise with one another or contribute to product development. In store, or offline customer engagement is best leveraged by associates’ extensive brand and product knowledge, and the digital access that supports it. Equipped with a tablet that also delivers store and sales training, educated on-floor associates become brand ambassadors who can show consumers high-definition product imagery and video to help cross-sell, up-sell, grow relationships and foster loyalty.

...
Wikipedia