7 Effective Ways to Boost Customer Engagement

• May 13, 2020
• Author: Jana Carlson

How can you get your cloud phone business to stand out from your competition? Boost customer engagement. An engaged customer is more likely to be a loyal customer. 

Lead generation and conversion are important, but customer retention is crucial. The cost of attracting a new customer is 5x as much as the cost of retaining an existing one. Without loyal customers, your business is unsustainable. 

How to Effectively Engage Customers

There are many ways to boost cloud phone customer engagement. Here are 7 ways to encourage customer loyalty.

1. Use social media as an engagement tool.

Social media has become almost as necessary as a website in today’s marketing landscape.

• Set up social media profiles.
• Pay attention to content and topic trends.
• Create a relevant content calendar. 
• Engage with followers by requesting feedback (ask a question, set up a poll, etc.) and responding to all comments. 

In other words, don’t just set it up and forget about it. Your social media involvement must be active.

2. Create email campaigns with relevant content.

Your email list is a valuable tool in your customer engagement toolbox. When someone gives you their email address, it’s like they’ve given you an invitation to enter their world. Use that invitation wisely by giving them uniquely relevant content. 

Not all content will be equally relevant to your entire list. So, segment your email list. Cloud phone customers could be segmented by industry, business size, or location, for example. Engagement rates increase when you send targeted emails.

3. Personalize special offers.

The vast majority of customers (a whopping 68%) who don’t stick with a company move on because they believe the company doesn’t care about them. 

Add a personal touch by creating special deals for specific customers. You might offer a renewal anniversary bonus or discount to encourage loyalty, for example. A special offer for a particular segment of your customer base can be a nice surprise for them and a huge boost to your reputation.

4. Regularly request customer feedback.

Actively pursuing customer feedback clearly demonstrates that you value your customers. Seek to understand what’s important to them by asking about your products, services, and the current state of the cloud communications industry in general. 

Your customers will appreciate being asked for their opinions and you’ll gain useful insights to help you improve your business.

5. Follow up on feedback from customers.

It’s a good thing to ask for feedback, but it’s even better to act on it. Don’t make the mistake of asking for it and ignoring it.

When a customer gives you feedback, whether the feedback is negative or positive, take the time to respond. Let customers know their comments haven’t gone unnoticed by thanking them for positive feedback. 

Negative feedback should solicit a response from your team to prevent losing the customer. If the complaint has merit, take the necessary steps to make things right. Always look for ways to maintain the customer relationship even after the problem is resolved.

6. Host an event.

Customers feel less like a customer and more like a part of a community when they can get involved. Promote connection and interaction through events. 

You can host or sponsor events in your local community or online. Webinars, training sessions, milestone celebrations, or product launches can all provide continuing opportunities to engage with your customers.

7. Implement a customer loyalty program.

A customer loyalty program adds value to your customer beyond their initial purchase or contract. Give loyal customers access to special promotions and discounts. 

Offers like this also keep customers interested in your content. They’re more likely to open your emails, read your ads, and consider new products when they can anticipate a deal every now and then.

Tools to Help You Boost Customer Engagement

Take a multi-layered approach to customer engagement. Target your content to each audience specifically to create something truly valuable to them. 

At UnitedCloud, we take customer engagement very seriously. That’s why we’ve created our Partner Tool – a comprehensive library of custom-branded content to use in your own customer engagement strategy. 

Our Partner Tool saves you the cost of hiring a content creator or trying to “reinvent the wheel”. Our team has done the work for you to help your business thrive. 

Contact us to find out more about how UnitedCloud works to support our cloud communications partners.