Why Customer Engagement is Important? Part 1 – Rave Reviews and Rants

Customer engagement has become an important parameter for business success today. In this context, customer engagement is now almost synonymous to customer satisfaction. Customer engagement can happen through both online and offline channels. Positive customer engagement not only boosts your brand’s reputation but can also help drive sales. There are several ways a business interacts with its customers.

Product Review Sections

Customer review sections are some of the most visited sections on e-commerce sites. A product review is like a personal endorsement from a genuine purchaser. New buyers read these reviews for making a decision. The more negative or positive reviews you get the more effect it has on your sales.

Social Media Pages

Buyers also leave reviews on social media brand pages. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become a medium for buyers-seller communication. Popular brands have been engaging with customers on social media for a while now.

Review Aggregators

These independent review sites let people rate their buys and offer advice to new buyers. Users can also rate offline products and services here. For example, TripAdvisor lets users share their experience of hotel stays.

Online Forums

User forums have also become quite popular with first-time buyers. Websites like Quora have become an important source of information for the netizens. Again, these forums are quite useful when you are looking for offline product reviews.

Customer Care

Customer care numbers still get a lot of queries and complaints. Although a bit conventional, this is a more interpersonal medium for customer engagement. Generally, customers can rate their experience through SMS and email questionnaires after the call.

Significance of Rave Reviews and Rants

• The most visible effect of 5-star reviews is that these reviews help drive your sales. The closer you are to a 5-star rating, the more buyers choose your product over the competition. Replying with thank you notes to your customers can further enrich user experience.

• Happy customers not only help improve online sales but can also drive offline sales. Nowadays, social media and word of mouth can spread a customer’s experience like wildfire.

• Unhappy customers can also be a source for driving sales. Timely resolution of user concerns can motivate them to reverse their initial review. This in turn can make a potential buyer confident in trading with you.

• Furthermore, user rants can also be beneficial for your company. Analysing negative reviews can help you understand the ways customers use your products. Based on that you can develop alternative usage scenarios for your product. Also, genuine user concerns can be used as a guide for future product development.

• A good user engagement strategy will also increase brand loyalty. A buyer is more likely to shop for your product if he/she has had a positive experience in the past. Buyers may also look for your brand’s other offerings in such instances.

Concluding thoughts

User experience or UX is fast becoming a key factor in increasing sales/growth for companies. The theory was brought to fore by the late CEO of Apple Inc. – Steve Jobs. The success of Apple all these years later is a testament to the enduring philosophy of UX. Customer engagement forms a large part of UX and is critical for any business’s long-term success.