Building Customer Engagement.
Your customers may be satisfied, but are they “engaged”? Independent research has shown that highly engaged customers deliver a 23% increase in revenue as compared to the average customer. Engaged customers are not just satisfied, not just loyal, but are actually enthusiastic about your company, your brand and/or your products.
Although the term is sometimes used to describe customer marketing, loyalty, satisfaction and retention practices, engagement is actually a more strategic way of looking at customer relationships. It has also become the latest buzzword for companies in every industry. In fact, recent research by the Economist Intelligence Unit has confirmed that more and more companies believe their biggest challenge lies in maintaining a high level of engagement with their customers. This was considered more important than the need to create high-quality offerings and finding new customers.
While specific customers engagement techniques vary by industry and company, the Economist Intelligence Unit found that companies that support a variety of modes of communication—and that respond swiftly to customer inquiries, requests and feedback through all of them—are best poised to forge deep relationships with customers.
Of course, involving your entire company in customer engagement efforts is crucial to its success. Building similarly deep relationships with your employees and increasing their level of engagement with your company—and consequently with your customers—is one practice in which we should all engage.
Cross-Selling: A Convenience or an Irritation?
-submitted from Basically Business which is a monthly newsletter published by Sir Speedy.
Cross-selling is defined by the Oxfor English Dictionary as "the action or practive of selling among or between established clients, markets, traders, etc." or "selling an additional producto ro service to an existing customer." It is a proactive, ongoing sales process designed to provide your existing customers with the full range of your company's products and/or services.
Some marketers are concerned that customers are irritated by cross-selling efforts, or that they perceive such efforts as an overly aggressive sales approach. Interestingly enough, cusumer research indicates that the revers is actually true. Most customers prefer a full spectrum of products and services and truly appreciate the convenience that comes from a comprehensive, cross-selling approach.
Cross-selling can be one of the most profitable and least risky endeavors a company can undertake, bringing in additional revenue with relatively low expense and effort. In addition to generating new sales, cross-selling promotes customer loyalty and , as a result, keeps competitors at arm's lenfth and your business on the books.
Not surprisingy, one of the key elements that makes cross-seling work is trust. Your customers already possess a degree of trust in your company, and this can converted into additional sales revenue. As with any marketing endeavor, if your cross-sell program is not properly administered, there is always the risk of irritatin customers and thus losing their business all together.