Customer engagement

Customer engagement means communicating and interacting with customers to build a relationship with them. The aim is to earn customer loyalty, so customers come back and buy again instead of drifting to a rival.

Why businesses work at it

Loyal customers are valuable: they buy repeatedly, spend more over time and recommend the business to friends and family. Engagement is the regular contact that keeps that relationship alive between one purchase and the next.

For example, an independent board game shop replies to every comment and question on its social media and runs a free games evening each month. Regulars chat with staff about what to try next, and when they want another game they head back to the shop rather than ordering online.

Two-way, across many channels

Engagement can use a range of communication channels: social media, email newsletters, live chat on a website, text messages, phone calls or in-store events. What makes it engagement is that the messages flow both ways. The business listens and replies rather than only sending out adverts, which is just promotion. When customers find it easy to get a response, their whole experience of dealing with the business improves, which strengthens the relationship and makes repeat purchases more likely.

Not the same as customer service

Customer engagement is closely linked to customer service but is not the same thing.

Customer engagement is one of the five elements of the sales process. Customer service is not one of the named elements, so it is engagement, not service, that appears in the list.