WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT?

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Aileen Moore
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1 THE AGE OF ENGAGE

2 Viewpoint The age of engage WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT? Chris Warren Non Exec Director Indicia Ian Stockley Managing Director Indicia It s a term that s come into common marketing parlance of late, often used in rather broad and vague terms. So let s be precise. At Indicia, we have our own definition: Marketing activity that brings a brand closer to an individual, engendering involvement, interaction, purchase and advocacy. The real deal or just another marketing fad? Technology gives marketeers new ways to converse with customers all the time. But the rules have changed. That s because the ease and accessibility of technology has also allowed customers to fundamentally change the way they respond to our marketing. In a short space of time, driven by the mass adoption of social media, the connected consumer has evolved. Essentially individuals have moved from a passive role of listening to brand messages to a state of active engagement, filtering, rating and selecting within their networks. Customer Engagement (CE) responds to the demands of this new consumer. CE is definitely the real deal. And it s only going to become a more prevalent marketing approach as the buying process shifts from the old paradigm of interrupt and repeat to the new one of engage and influence. This is the age of engage.

3 Viewpoint The age of engage A LITTLE CONTEXT The best marketing has always been customer-centric. It started in the 80s when the embryonic upstart direct appeared on a scene previously dominated by traditional mass advertising disciplines. But the internet, and latterly social media, means audiences can now discover, compare and evaluate brands with speed. They increasingly look for advice, recommendation and endorsement from peer groups and online communities, long before an ad or a mail pack has intruded their space as part of some carefully ordered campaign plan. There is terrific news for marketeers in this customerdominated world. Think about it. If the product is right, the service adds value and the brand delivers consistently for the customer, you can amplify that experience to people who might also buy the brand through your customers and influencers. Essentially, the customer now has the means and motivation to become your advertiser. Our Tourism Ireland project Tyler & Amy s Mystery Tour encouraged peer to peer engagement, facilitated by the brand. The interaction spread across social platforms.

But the internet, and latterly social media, means audiences can now discover, compare and evaluate brands with speed.

4 Viewpoint The age of engage THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Today s customers don t want a relationship Maybe they never did! Perhaps the mantra of CRM has convinced marketeers they can manage customers into a brand relationship by targeting them with the right message at the right time in the right media. Wrong! Customers choose the brands they want to engage with on their terms based on an understanding of the value exchange. The thing is it s not that complicated. First you create a great product or service. Next, imbue it with genuine values to create a brand that people will want to engage with. Finally, present it to the people most likely to use it in an honest, transparent, engaging way and allow them to discover the brand and the product in a way that suits them. If it s good, they will buy! What s more, there s every chance they ll tell their friends. From AIDA to the 4 Is Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action are no longer a linear progression that we can identify and manipulate. If you can stimulate involvement in your brand from potential customers, they have the opportunity to interact with the brand or the product at a time and a place of their choosing. I I I I Involve Interact Intimate Influence If they like you, they will create some intimacy, perhaps rating you, giving feedback, and using you on an ongoing basis. And the ultimate goal? A fully engaged customer who exerts true influence by recommending you which serves to multiply your marketing effort many times. So the rules as we see them: Listen to your customers Understand how they are engaging with your brand Extend the brand values beyond the product into customer service Always be transparent Continually create brand-related content Ask for user-generated content Encourage product co-development Encourage collaborative filtering through rating Stimulate consumer participation 24/7 Glenmorangie Cask Masters engages a global audience, encouraging them to help create an exclusive new single malt in conjunction with world experts.

Customers choose the brands they want to engage with on their terms based on an understanding of the value exchange. The thing is it s not that complicated.

5 Viewpoint Viewpoint The age of engage MEASURING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CE is not exclusive to an online world. You need to measure engagement across all customer touchpoints with your brand. So, store visits are as much an indicator of engagement as site visits. Call-centre interaction can equate to online content consumption. Joining the dots provides you with a holistic view of levels of engagement, but needs measurement across web analytics, transactional data and, increasingly, social media. Taking Measure Are your metrics fit for purpose? What types of information are your audience consuming online and offline? Which content are they viewing, requesting and using? Which are being ignored? Does information used reflect your messaging? How often do you have contact with members of your audience? When and for how long do you have contact? How often do your customers return for more information? How is your audience talking about you and your brand? Does your measurement mapping mean you re listening to and understanding your customers? (Remember they are our first rules of engagement.) Apple s store experience enhances engagement with customers often becoming Influencers as the brand value is extended beyond the product. The Pure Gym App we created allows users to augment their gym experience with, tutorials and classes. The brand gains a deeper knowledge of every user interaction which can be fed back into a comms loop. Mark Ghuneim, President and CEO of Wiredset, measures low engagement as adoption through passive content consumption and bookmarking through to the highest engagement with content creation and community participation around a brand with social playing a pivotal role. An engagement strategy is about maintaining continual conversations. You want repeated, satisfied interactions that strengthen the emotional connection a customer has with your brand. No longer should you talk about marketing campaigns, but instead refer to constant presence marketing. Positive experiences with the company move the customer down the line of engagement measurement.

Joining the dots provides you with a holistic view of levels of engagement, but needs measurement across web analytics, transactional data and, increasingly, social media.

6 Viewpoint Thirteen ways to get lucky in digital The age relationships of engage THE SOCIAL DIMENSION ARE YOU CE READY? Although these positive experiences can be delivered through all media channels; the most engaged and influential are those active in communicating about the brand in social channels. What can be done on a 121 basis offline as word of mouth, can obviously be spread one to many and many to many in social. Talking socially about a brand displays the highest measure of engagement When customers are posting and sharing your brand s content on social media, its fair to say they re becoming fully engaged. The question is how can we measure it? Increasingly the normal measures are percentage of consumers intention to purchase after a specific marketing milestone and perceptions and attitudes of people talking about your brand. However, possibly the most exciting measure is the ability to tie a sale back to a customer engagement campaign. A social media monitoring tool is linked with the brand s CRM system. When someone talks about your brand in the social space, through identifying their social ID we can match them back to a customer record via their address (on your own customer database or 3rd party database with e mail and social ID) to see whether they have been exposed to your Customer Engagement activity and whether this has resulted in a subsequent sale. Sales linkage will be agreed based on time lasped between the mention and sale being made. Getting traction for CE within the organisation CE is not something that the marketing department of a company can drive alone. Like CRM it is a company wide philosophy, and many organisations need to make changes in structure as well as outlook to accommodate the new philosophy. McKinsey, a consultancy that has already produced a body of work in the area, suggests 5 top tips for moving to a CE focused organisation and we, as practitioners, endorse them here. CE is a company wide approach Get buy in and leadership from the top Connect the functions and departments Recognise the importance of great content Monitor what is being said about your brand Let s get started CE is new and not yet widely adopted across the mainstream. We suggest you take a measure of your own organisation s readiness to adopt and implement true customer engagement by downloading the Indicia self-assessment questionnaire Alternatively, you can get in touch with Alan Thorpe, our Business Development Director. He ll help you uncover the way ahead.

What can be done on a 121 basis offline as word of mouth, can obviously be spread one to many and many to many in social.

7 CONTACT Name Alan Thorpe Address Indicia 6-7 St Cross Street London EC1N 8UA Call Web indicia.com

8 indicia.com Indicia 2013

White Paper. Cross-channel Marketing: Go Mobile. Go Social.

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