How to Use AI to Manage Organizational Change
AI is the future of organizational change management, revolutionizing the way businesses prepare and manage changes. This technology has the...
In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, customer experience and customer engagement strategy are both critical to ensure and improve customer retention. But why and how exactly do they differ from one another?
This post looks at core aspects of customer experience vs. customer engagement, how the strategies intersect, and the value they provide to build long-term customer loyalty. We'll also look at how organizations can use AI-powered customer experience technologies, specifically intelligent virtual agents (IVAs), to take these strategies to the next level.
Customer experience and customer engagement are two important business concepts often used interchangeably. But they are actually quite different. Customer experience is a broad term that refers to the sum of interactions a customer has with a company over time. Customer engagement, meanwhile, refers to the emotional connection between a customer and a company.
When evaluating customer experience vs. customer engagement, it should not be a one or the other approach. It’s necessary to examine how the two concepts can work together. A positive customer experience can lead to increased customer engagement, which can improve customer retention. Companies that want to build the relationships that improve customer retention need effective strategies for both customer experience and customer engagement.
Customer experience significantly affects how customers perceive and interact with a company. This can work in your favor or cause damages. Unfortunately, 54% of customers say that the customer experience at most companies needs improvement. This data demonstrates an opportunity for organizations to invest in customer experience strategies and salvage customer satisfaction.
Positive experiences can help foster customer loyalty and drive repeat business. Companies should strive to incorporate these positive experiences into their customer experience strategies to improve customer satisfaction and ultimately, business success.
Examples of positive customer experience include:
Decision-makers play an important role in creating high quality customer experiences, which is why customer experience management strategies are important. For reference, customer experience management strategies focus on nurturing customer relationships and pave the way for customer loyalty and repeat business. These strategies achieve customer loyalty and repeat business because they create positive and memorable experiences that exceed customer expectations.
A critical aspect of customer experience management relies on the customer journey. If organizations take time to map out the customer journey and know customers’ preferences, it’s easier to create positive experiences. Hiccups during the customer journey lead to customer churn (the rate at which customers stop doing business with a company). If the goal is to improve customer retention, then churn is the enemy.
If you find yourself asking how to improve customer engagement, start with customer experience. After you check the boxes to provide positive experiences, you’ll be able to drive engagement.
Customer engagement is the way customers feel about a brand, and therefore influences how actively they interact with it. These interactions happen across a variety of channels. A few examples of customer engagement are social media engagement, email marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, customer service conversations, and events or promotions.
The ultimate goal of customer engagement strategies is to improve customer retention. Positive experiences help customers feel connected to brands and encourage them to continue the relationship. In other words, customer engagement helps companies build the kind of loyalty that translates into repeat business.
Customer experience and customer engagement complement each other. They work together to reinforce the overall customer journey and help improve customer retention and loyalty. And while a positive customer experience may customer engagement with a company or brand, the chain of events is not always the case. For example, effective customer engagement can also be a driver of positive customer experience. Positive customer experience can lead to a deeper connection with the company and better communication between the customer and the business.
AI can help decision makers create new avenues to optimize the customer experience. AI-powered IVAs can create processes that consistently enhance the customer experience. Those insights then inform the communication tools that will help decision makers build the most effective customer engagement strategy.
Knowing customers and meeting them where they are is the best way to improve customer retention. AI-enabled communication solutions help gather useful data that decision makers can apply to improve interactions and deliver on customer preferences. In the realm of customer experience, that means providing customers with conversational self-service options that are fast, easy, and yield positive results. IVAs expand the scope of organizations’ strategies beyond the lens of customer experience vs. customer engagement. They enable comprehensive customer engagement strategies through proactive, personalized outreach that keeps customers involved for life.
When planning how to improve customer engagement, it’s critical to develop a cohesive customer engagement strategy.
Since an effective customer engagement strategy is closely related to customer experience strategy, it’s easy to get confused. Customer engagement starts with customer journey orchestration and ends with customers becoming loyal brand advocates.
If customer experience is the first consideration, customer engagement is the next step to drive loyalty and help improve customer retention. Engaged customers are more likely to make additional purchases, recommend the company to friends and family, and have a higher lifetime value. They also generate more revenue than normal customers.
Key aspects of a customer engagement strategy might include:
To better grasp how a customer engagement strategy can improve customer retention, let's consider how it looks from a customer’s point of view.
Let’s say you are booking flights for an upcoming trip. You opt for a certain airline because it has a great mobile app, responsive customer service, friendly emails, and an impressive loyalty program. These elements create a positive experience and encourage you to continue flying with the airline.
The airline’s ability to deliver repeat positive experiences is part of its customer experience strategy. The company has prioritized how to improve customer engagement, and in doing so, has been able to improve customer retention.
Decision makers understand the importance of customer experience and engagement strategies in enhancing customer retention. Mosaicx gives decision makers the tools they need to achieve success. We are an active partner and trusted advisor during the strategy development and execution process. Learn how Mosaicx can support your goals and schedule a demo at mosaicx.com.
AI is the future of organizational change management, revolutionizing the way businesses prepare and manage changes. This technology has the...
Managing budgets and operational costs is a critical aspect of running a business. Operational costs refer to any expenses incurred during the daily...
In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, customer experience and customer engagement strategy are both critical to ensure and improve...