Creating Highly Engaged (and) Satisfied Clients

Recent research by Gallup proves just how much customer engagement matters. Clue: a lot. Engaged customers provide a 23% premium over the average customer when it comes to share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.

Consider this:

• Engaged consumer electronics shoppers spend 29% more per shopping trip than disengaged customers.
• Engaged hotel guests spend 46% more per year than disengaged guests.

For its yearly survey, ThinkJar recently asked customer service managers to list their top three initiatives for the next five years. Customer engagement came in second place for the next two years. It got the number one spot for the following three.

Customers’ expectations have changed:

• Customers’ need for quick, accurate answers has increased. According to Forrester Research, in the past, expectations came from personal experience or from friends and family. No longer. Now, online communities mean everyone contributes. Leading organisations providing exceptional customer service increase customers’ expectations still further.
• Millennials and Generation Zs are beginning to enter the marketplace. These digital natives expect something different: journeys, not interactions.

• Why, when it comes to customer engagement, it’s the long term and not the short term that matters. Lack of follow-through can be the make-or-break factor.
• What percentage of customer support contacts come from ‘repeat customers’ – those who didn’t get an answer first time round.
• What proportion of customers expect a self-service solution on a company’s website.
• How many customers would rather use a self-service tool than interact with an agent.
• What proportion of customer queries a good self-service system can generally handle.
• Why self-service platforms lower organisation costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Get the full ThinkJar report here.

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