What Can You Learn From Your Engagement Channels
Now that customer engagement happens on virtually every channel – from email to social media – you have a lot of valuable, data-driven information at your fingertips.
But like all other data types, you have to learn to see the forest for the trees. Otherwise, you can miss critical opportunities to create the customer experience your shoppers are looking for.
Bearing that in mind, let’s look at 4 big picture insights you can gain by analyzing your customer engagement data, plus pinpoint a few ways to improve customer engagement.
Customer Reviews: Customer Sentiment
Your customers have a lot of sway over each other. In fact, according to Podium, 93% of consumers admit that their purchase decisions are influenced by online reviews. And 94% claim that negative reviews have persuaded them to avoid certain businesses.
Reviews aren’t just useful to potential customers, though. They also enable brands to identify customer sentiment and pain points.
For instance, if shoppers are repeatedly complaining about the speed of customer service or lack of communication options – you not only gain data points on their perception of your brand but also into their desired solution. In this case, they might prefer omnichannel customer support and self-serve options like AI chatbots, knowledge bases, and visual IVR solutions that can solve their problems in real-time.
Customer Reviews: Marketing Messages
In addition to offering insight into your brand perception, online reviews can also help you identify the right marketing messages.
As an example, if your positive reviews praise the quality and price of your products, you can highlight those benefits in your marketing campaigns to attract new leads.
The key is making sure you’re clear and honest. Using exaggerative wording won’t win you customers. If anything, it will hurt your brand, erode the trust you’ve built up over the years, and drive more people to your competitors.
Social Media Chatter: Preferred Communication Channels
Social media holds a wealth of information – from customer demographics and interests to their overall sentiment and pressing needs. But first and foremost, social media interactions tell you where your customers are spending their time, and under what conditions they’re willing to engage with your brand.
For instance, you may find that customers follow and happily engage with your business on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, but completely avoid you on TikTok. Why? Because their reason for using each platform is different. And while customers are willing to engage with brand-related content when scrolling their Instagram feed, they may prefer to use other platforms as a social space or source of entertainment.
Luckily, being hyper-aware of your customers’ level of engagement allows you to make smarter investment decisions in your social media marketing and discover new ways to improve customer care on popular platforms.
Emails: Customer Interests & Sentiment
Emails are one of the easiest ways to reach your customers when you’re marketing sales and new product lines. And open and clickthrough metrics offer detailed information on whether your customers care.
But you aren’t limited to tracking customer behavior in this medium. AI tools can also analyze customer responses to marketing, sales, and customer support emails to offer insight into customer sentiment. This enables you to improve the quality of your customer interactions and ensure that all customer service responses are empathetic and helpful.
No matter what channels your customers use to discuss and connect with your brand — be it online reviews, social media, or emails — you can draw from their customer engagement data to refine your customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. In fact, by using analytics to improve customer engagement, you can deliver more empathic responses, better tailor your marketing messages, and provide better customer care. The trick is knowing what to look for and how to use customer engagement analytics to identify it.