How to Shift Focus From Consumer Management to Consumer Engagement

Consumer experience and value proposition are getting all the attention in today’s highly dynamic and interactive business environment. No wonder consumer engagement strategies are producing exceptional results in the form of brand and business augmentation.

While the word ‘engagement’ in business relationships is not new, most customer-facing groups still focus on the conventional management approach rather than consumer engagement. And that has been creating a loophole in the outcomes about how we work and how we live.

We all must agree that it feels great to have technology in our personal lives. We spend time on our favorite apps or devices that we can’t live without. Technology helps us connect to our family and friends. Also, various tools help us get things done.

So, why should our work be any different?

We have seen a drastic change in organizations' sales cycles in the past couple of years. These changes mostly reflect how modern consumer success tools are shaping up.

No wonder businesses focus on what people want to accomplish and how they can engage more consumers.

Historically, organizations were more focused on managing and facilitating consumers' to be on top of everything. However, in the past couple of years, the paradigm has shifted from working as the facilitator to acting as a consultant and driving consumer engagement.

Tips to Drive a Powerful Consumer Engagement

A good CSM follows a couple of engagement methods to manage their consumers and make the communication more effective.

Integrate consumer engagement.

Consumers always prefer to be at the top of the negotiation cycle. They like to make purchases on their own terms, according to their timelines and their preferred methods.

Therefore, facilitating seamless consumer service is like half the battle won. You can win the other half via tracking and understanding the consumer journey.

Create personalized content.

Assume a person buys some jewelry from a nearby store, and out of the blue, the store gives him a discount. The takeaway?

Well, the consumer may forget about the discount but will always remember the owner’s good service gestures.

Similarly, create personalized content for your consumers. For example, even a short welcome message can make the shopping experience more pleasant.

Design an exclusive loyalty or advocacy program.

Now, it is no news that acquiring new consumers always costs more than retaining existing ones. So, how do you retain them? How to ensure that they are your loyal consumers and will advocate about your product or service?

Most companies like sports brands, kids-related products, and retail stores leverage a well-thought-out loyalty program as a way to make consumers their advocates.

A recent study states that 23% of businesses use different reward campaigns to re-engage their existing consumers. Most of such programs are a part of personalized promotions (such as product discounts etc.)

Leverage social media.

During and post-pandemic, social media played the biggest role in communication and marketing. An effective consumer engagement and communication via social media can help in marketing the brand and networking.

It also helps strengthen consumers' relations and promote your branding and marketing offers.

In a nutshell

There are infinite ways to encourage consumer engagement and create value for your business.

Strategies that bring out the 'wow' factor are always the best ones. Be it via social media, advocacy, or loyalty programs.

I hope these consumer engagement strategies will induce you to get into action. Keep in touch for more strategies and possible outcomes. Keep reading :)