Customer engagement is related to overall profitability with your brand. Engaged customers are more likely to be repeat shoppers and buy more products than first-time visitors. They will also recommend your products and services to family and friends. That’s why actively engaged customers are the most valuable to your business.
5 Customer Engagement Metrics
The concept of engagement goes beyond shopping frequency. An engaged customer is someone that interacts with your brand and advocates for it. But how do you know when a customer is engaged with your brand? If not, these 5 customer engagement metrics will help you find out.
1. Website Traffic
Today’s shopper, 88% of them, research products, services, and store locations online before they buy something in-store. If a potential customer is looking but can’t find you, then your online presence needs help. Search engine optimization is a broad term for making your website to become more visible and user-friendly. This may require a professional web developer but will be worth the investment. Measuring your website traffic is one of the most basic of all engagement metrics. This will help you understand when people visit your site and what they are searching for.
2. Feedback
Did you know that 96% of unhappy customers won’t tell you that they’re unhappy? Even worse, 91% will never come back. So, it’s crucial to get customer feedback. There are multiple ways of gathering your customers’ input on products, services, and overall experience. Online surveys are the best. These can be sent via text message or email. Websites will often have a pop-up window asking visitors if the site was helpful. Everything gathered through feedback will give you a more personal understanding of who your customers are and what they want.
3. Reach, Open, and Click-Through Rates
When sending text messages or emails to your customers, you need to be aware of who it went to, who read them, and whether or not they were engaged with the message.
- Reach: How many people received your message? Your list gets shorter when bad addresses get bounced back, and people unsubscribe.
- Opens: Who read your message? Open rates provide valuable impressions. Not everyone will read your message, but they did see it, and that’s a form of engagement.
- Click-Through: Much more substantial than open rates, click-through indicates how many people seek out more information to make a purchase.
4. Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is tied to any time a customer completes a desired action. This mostly relates to purchases, but it also counts when they submit a form or download more information. High conversion rates mean that your message is working because it’s exactly what your customers are looking for.
5. Social Media: Going beyond shares, likes, and comments
Your customers are engaging with your brand when they like a post or comment on it. They like it when they share it. But, these aren’t the only indications of engagement. Just like email, you’ll want to pay attention to your potential reach, actual reach, click-through, and conversion rates. You can also see how many recommendations and testimonials you get and what they are describing.
Blending Service with Engagement
To provide the best experience possible, customer service is still your number one priority. And, to improve your service, you’ll need to respond to customers on social media or through email and text. This makes your customers feel like they are being heard—that someone is listening to them. It makes them feel special, which is why they are willing to pay a premium. Offering the best service while they are inside as well as away from the store will keep them coming back for more.