Clarity of communication is the most important essence of any marketing activity. With the advent of multiple platforms and modes of communication, customers interact with a brand in several ways. This makes it imperative for brands to maintain a unified customer experience across all platforms and ensure that customers are conveyed the right message at the right time.
Customers feel baffled and cheated if they are given incorrect and ambiguous information about a product or a service, which is not a healthy sign for any organization. “Delivering customer engagement in silos can significantly damage the customer experience,” said Gene Phifer, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “We predict that through 2020, silos of customer engagement will be one of the top three leading causes of customer dissatisfaction for enterprises across all industry segments.”
Here are some tips to create a unified customer engagement experience which directly helps a brand in acquiring and retaining customers in a significant way.
Building Strong Internal and External Communication Mechanisms: Many times, due to loosely structured internal and external communication mechanisms, an organization fails to maintain a uniform communication with their internal and external stakeholders. This results in sheer ambiguity and affects customer sentiments in a negative way. This makes it important for an organization to build well-defined mechanisms for internal and external communication.
Uniformity of Message across Multiple Marketing Channels: A brand interacts with customers at different levels using multi-channel marketing channels such as telephone, email, direct mail, social media, amongst many other offline and online media. A situation wherein all these channels convey disconnected and dissimilar messages would be a tough situation to imagine for the customers. Hence, the same message must be conveyed to the customers irrespective of the channels they are using to interact with the brand.
Optimizing Content for Multiple Devices: People consume a tremendous amount of content though mobile devices. Marketers must be able to optimize content for seamless accessibility and visibility across multiple platforms and devices. Mobile is surely the way ahead, and any organization failing to adopt a strong mobile strategy will face serious challenges retaining customer loyalty in the long run.
Ensure that Your Marketing Team, Sales Team, and Other Departments Work in Sync
The marketing team, sales team and all other teams must work collaboratively towards an organization’s marketing goals. Frequent meetings should be conducted within teams so that all departments have a clear idea about their roles and responsibilities. Proper communication will help teams detect any deviations at the early stage and act on it as early as possible.
Track Your Campaigns: Mere conveying your message won’t solve the purpose. It is important for the marketing team to read the pulse of the market and analyze the impact of your marketing campaigns. This will help in knowing if a message is perceived in the same way as it was communicated and whether any change in the strategy is required. Various feedback mechanisms should also be established to measure campaign progress.