Why We Love Chatting with Customers (and You Should Too!)
It is not enough to simply analyze the monetary value of the relationship between customers and brands.
If you ask me whether customers ever think about companies’ best interest, then the honest answer I can give you is “No”.
Coca-Cola’s ex-CMO, Joe Tripodi, had ever said: “By definition, impressions are passive. They give us no real sense of engagement, and consumer engagement with our brands is ultimately what we’re striving to achieve.” So, I am sure we all know the importance of engaging with customers and connecting on a more personal level to build trust and long-term loyalty. But the fact you have to accept is, customers are just so busy that, even though you want them to come back again, they have their own business and just don’t have enough time to pay attention to your updates.
Most people at the age of 18 to 26 spend more time online than watching TV. Just from this statistic, we know that the effectiveness of traditional marketing model, as in the top-to-bottom, mass, interrupt-and-repeat model, is plummeting. Besides, customers have been trained to identify sponsored posts and UGC within seconds and honestly, they are getting sick of sheer ads (aren’t we all?). At one point, we are also customers, so we know that as customers, we want to witness the unique chemistry forming between us and our favorite brands. That’s why companies have to extend the traditional relationship beyond “buyer and seller”. In fact, 38% of millennial consumers report that they are more loyal to brands that focus more on the consumers than the brand itself.
So what should companies do? To maximize recurring revenue, managing customer engagement should always be on the strategy plan. Now when I say engagement, it is not only simply asking consumers to act, such as clicking, buying, subscribing, but also utilizing the right social media channels, and offering valuable and engaging content to them. Ultimately, through these interactions, you as brands, are fostering a long-lasting relationship with your customers.
Like friendship, engagement is more than a two-way street. It is a multi-way crossroad. That is to say, simply sending out weekly newsletters isn’t going to pay off anymore nowadays. What you want is to engage customers in real conversation just like what you would do if you were chatting face to face or on the telephone with someone.
All in all, keep in mind that although building brand loyalty can be a painfully enduring warfare, but it is undeniably crucial to maintain low cost per action, especially among returning customers.
