Before we define Customer Engagement Automation, we first need to identify what is Customer Engagement? It is the process of building an emotional connection with customers. It’s about understanding your audience, delivering what they want when they want it, and ultimately making them feel like you “get” them.

So, what is Customer Engagement Automation? Customer Engagement Automation enables companies to streamline, automate, and measure omnichannel digital marketing tasks and workflows to increase operational efficiency and grow revenue.

What does that mean to a local business owner? When you implement a Customer Engagement Automation strategy you are setting up a way to capture your customers and convert them into real sales in a way that saves the business owner time and money while building customer loyalty.

In 2021 more than 90% of consumers searched for a local business online. These searches happen on many touchpoints or omnichannel digital outlets including websites, Facebook, Google, Whatsapp and more.

By implementing a Customer Engagement Automation strategy, the local business owner can streamline, automate, and measure omnichannel digital marketing tasks and workflows to increase efficiency and grow revenue.

In simple words, it can be regarded as the process of actively establishing, nurturing, and managing customer relationships.

Why is customer engagement important?

Research has shown that customer engagement improves customer experience and emotional connection which ultimately leads to:

  • Brand Loyalty (Pricewaterhouse Coopers states that quality customer engagement can increase brand loyalty by 73%).
  • Brand promotion (When a customer is loyal to your brand he promotes it among his friends and peers).
  • More sales and increased revenue.

Reasons to Automate Customer Engagement:

A customer’s journey isn’t always linear, thus targeting it through multiple channels becomes crucial. Omnichannel engagement allows you to anticipate all possible routes a customer may take to reach you and make smart suggestions based on the prospect’s behavior.

Context is required for genuine engagements. Automation not only aids in the mapping of the customer journey but also conversion. When a prospect approaches you, having a context beforehand, knowing your and his subsequent conversations, will aid in emotional engagement.

Personalization captivates people more than anything else. If you can add a touch of personalization to the engagement with the help of previous data, it will leave a lasting impression on the prospects.

Features of Customer Engagement Automation

Contacts

Automation of Customer Engagement helps you to manage your contacts in one place. You can target them to build strong relationships. Creating a CMR of your customer list will help you stay organized and on top of what your customer needs are.

Omnichannel Engagement

Go beyond just basic messaging. Automation provides you with an engaging experience for your customers across all channels with the right message at the right time.

  • Emails
  • SMS
  • Mobile in-app Messages
  • Mobile Push Notifications
  • Web Push Notifications
  • Whatsapp

Analytics

Analytics can help you make user engagement more efficient by using a data-driven approach. Automation suits identify areas for improvement, track the effectiveness of campaigns, product statistics, and channel performance from a single dashboard.

Benefits of Customer Engagement Automation

As a local business owner using an automation product can provide you with the following benefits to help increase sales and grow your customer loyalty.

  • Manage your customer list and create public and private groups (CRM);
  • Create your own loyalty program;
  • Send your own promotions/invites/newsletters to customers via email, SMS, social, mobile App etc.
  • Give an App to your customers!
  • Collect online reviews and feedback on your service
  • See a lot of stats to learn how to improve
  • Accept reservation from customers (booking module)
  • Manage food delivery (for restaurants)

However, ultimately the customer benefit from your efforts creating a more engaged and happier customer that continues to purchase from your business.