According to a recent article at CustomerThink.com, it’s getting harder to win customers based on good customer service. After analyzing PeopleMetrics’ 2009 Most Engaged Customers (MEC) study, CustomerThink’s CEO Bob Thompson concluded, “Big picture: it’s getting more difficult to create an emotional bond with customers. Across 27 common brands in luxury, retail and casual dining segments, average engagement scores dropped 9 percentage points in the past year, and 13 brands saw a significant drop.”
So, how do you engage customers to beef up your business’ bottom line? Cost is one answer. As Mr. Thompson highlights, Wal-Mart and Radio Shack improved their customer engagement scores through beating competitors’ prices. Consumers are getting smarter every day, especially about prices.
But cost isn’t the only way to improve customer engagement rankings. The highest scoring company in the 2009 MEC study was The Ritz-Carlton. And that makes sense. You don’t go to The Ritz for the prices—you go there because you know they’ll treat you like royalty. Customer engagement can beat out low costs.
Creative collaboration and innovation is another approach to increase customer engagement. You might call this the Google approach —and apparently, it’s working. Google received the second-highest customer engagement ranking in the Most Engaged Customers 2009 study and was the only internet search engine to land in the top ten overall. Google’s innovative approach to business, including customer service, is documented in Jeff Jarvis’ book, What Would Google Do? His chapter titled ‘New Relationship’ analyzes Google’s approach to customer engagement. The chapter’s subheadings say a lot about Google’s ground-breaking philosophy:
New Relationship
• Give the people control and we will use it
• Dell hell
• Your worst customer is your best friend
• Your best customer is your partner
Clearly, Google understands that loyal, engaged customers (no matter how picky) give invaluable word-of mouth recommendations, and attract the best customers. Once Google has landed a customer, they relate to them almost as a partner by cherishing their feedback about what direction their innovation should aim next.
Learn more about how your business can fully engage with customers.
Top photo by Hobvias Sudoneighm.
Tags: customer engagement, customer satisfaction, engaging customers