By: Bob Kobek, RRP, President

CustomerCount® by Mobius Vendor Partners

Question: If an individual walks into a store for the first time, are they automatically engaged? 

Answer: Of course not.

There is a lot of talk surrounding customer engagement, such as how you capture data and make your business life easier because you have data. Customer engagement is often used to entice individuals into doing business because there is a person behind the curtain who will engage your customers. 

In the darker side of sales, it is called “smoke and mirrors”. It is trendy, so those companies that promise to increase your customer engagement probably do not know what it really means.. 

It is a journey, the customer journey. It begins at the point of marketing and continues throughout the entire relationship. It is designed to build loyalty, not get stars. Stars are great, no doubt about that, but that is not the end of the journey by a long shot.  

Customer experience is measurable at all touchpoints in a customer’s journey. Measure (ask about) your products, services, hotel, resort, or restaurant. From there, you can glean what will engage your customers through analysis. 

What is the litmus test when deciding on how to proceed? First determine the best technology and resources to identify those key performance indicators. 

What are you looking for, and how do you capture it?

Is the solution myopic? Does it serve one industry? Are they really smart in one industry, the one that you are a member of? 

Your provider should have experience in more than one industry. We find that when we apply practices from a seemingly unrelated industry to our client’s situation, our clients get more actionable

information. It turns out to be a true differentiator.

Are they members of more than one trade association? Customer Engagement requires very specific knowledge of strategy, tactics, processes, and management. Where does their knowledge come from? Are they members of several groups that practice the strict discipline of customer engagement.

Is the technology capable of capturing both structured and non-structured data – and reporting on both? 

There are a lot of moving parts that lead to engaging a customer, it all begins with measuring the experience which begins with a process that is well planned and highly reportable. 

Customer feedback management is part art and part science.