The Illusive Variable of Customer Engagement

When we think about customer engagement, it seems self explanatory. It’s how much engagement is going through our product by our customers. But what really effects engagement can be seen by taking a step back and seeing the picture holistically. What is it that fuels this engagement, and what variables outside the obvious might play a bigger role.

Customers Engage With The Product

Buyers in the B2B space are an average of 57% through the process of buying before first contact with a business rep (Accenture)

As the statement implies, once a prospect becomes a customer, they are bought into the product we were selling. They found value and a strong solution fit for their needs, and in most cases, will rely heavily on it delivering what was promised and beyond. The cold hard fact is that this newly added tool within their tech stack is only as potent as everything else that comes with it; human skills working in parallel continuously defining and refining the relationship. No matter how helpful, technology is cold, lifeless, and definitively responsive. What we see is what we get until the next feature release or add-on. Our customer’s reaction to our product is proportionally greater to the product’s action or lack of action. This means that their connection with us is just as volatile.

Customers Engage Their Emotions While Engaging With The Product

Companies that successfully engage their B2B customers reported 63% lower customer attrition (Gallup)

Customers are inherently kind but frustrations can run high when our product falls short of what it’s supposed to do, and rightfully so. Frustrations can run even higher when fixing that problem takes longer than expected. We’ve all been there. With every customer buy-in to our product, there is a greater emotional buy-in that may not always be seen or understood. We are, after all, solving a pain point, a frustration. Fall short of that and we will spend most of our time explaining the reasons. There is a direct connection between their engagement with our product, and their engagement with their emotions while using our product. Lucky for us, their frustrations can be reversed by how well we engage with them during these interactions.

Customers Engage With You

Extensive personalization increases average revenue per user by 166% (IBM)

As anyone in the realm of customer service will tell us, they are the face of the product. What that really means is that they are the soul infusion to an otherwise cold and lifeless tool. They are the personality of the product and an extension of the solution provided. This relationship is paramount, it is the main reason why any unhappy customer would give a second or even a third chance to make things better and thus reducing churn in the long run. No matter the solution and no matter the automation, this sole (soul) relationship between us and our customers - in how, why, and how often we engage with them - will make all the difference.

Customers Engage Their Emotion While Engaging With You

CX leaders outperformed those lagging in CX on the S&P 500 index by nearly 80%. Additionally, their customers are seven times more likely to return to the company, eight times more likely to try other products or services offered and 15 times more likely to spread positive word of mouth (Forrester)

As much as their reaction to our product is driven emotionally by its competence and consistency, the balancing act of any unhappy customer could be in the reaction to how well they interact with us. This emotional ebb and flow is constant when trying to find solutions, workarounds, and new features to meet their growing needs. Building a strong emotional bridge supported by empathy, compassion, patience, and perception will allow for free flowing ideas that encourage mutual growth, contentment, and a win-win for everyone involved. Think KPIs all we want, however it is the memory of the last experience that continues this engagement and that is, by definition, emotionally driven.

Customers Engagement Is Human Engagement

Do we only think of our benefits when we engage in meaningful interpersonal human to human interactions? No! Do we ever think about only optimizing outcomes and finding the fastest solutions to our problems? Not without understanding how it will effect everyone. And lastly, do we think the best form of this human to human engagement is to dictate outcomes based on current limitation? No, we always find avenues of growth when we truly care about our current situation.

In essence, our customers are us and we are our customers. How we engage with them matters more than how the product engages with them. We are the continuation of this human story, we are the conjuring of deeper connections, and we are the pathway to infinite possibilities. By concentrating on the emotional engagements, we build the best relationships, and we all know, the best relationships can last a lifetime.