Customer engagement in the digital age takes a lot of expertise and increasingly sophisticated technology. But at heart, transforming customer engagement is about using that tech to build bridges of true understanding between humans.
The explosion of data sources—both structured and unstructured—may seem overwhelming. But the chief purpose of customer data is to build a real, fleshy, 360-degree view of your customers’ likes, dislikes, hopes, and dreams. In other words, it’s to treat them less like data points and more like human beings.
Tailoring messaging based on previous interactions is just scratching the surface. Customers need to be understood even before their first interaction with your brand, and that understanding needs to be reinforced through meaningful, memorable experiences throughout the customer journey.
Just as data sources are proliferating, so too are the ways to reach people. But ironically, the success of your communication depends on how well you listen—whether in targeted focus groups or in social listening campaigns. Only with your customers’ real preferences in hand will your customer engagement truly engage.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, digital transformation should make brands more human—able to spark emotional responses, inspire respect, and be more sensitive to real human predicaments and ambitions. In the digital age, brands that get that will prosper.
