Maximize Customer Engagement at each customer touch point to deliver a heart-touching and remarkable customer experience.

In today’s competitive business landscape, beyond exceptional and world-class customer experiences have become paramount for companies/dealerships striving to stand out from the competition in the industry. One of the critical drivers of success in this endeavor is maximizing customer engagement at every customer touch point across the customer journey.

What is customer engagement?    

Customer engagement is an emotional connection between a customer and a company, dealership, or brand. It refers to the interactions and experiences that customers have with a dealership, company, or brand throughout their journey from pre-sales interactions to post-sales or service appointments to post-service follow-ups. I like to call it a “Journey From Promises to Action.” Keeping in view your brand promise, you define every customer touchpoint at your company/dealership throughout the customer journey for maximum customer engagement to deliver unforgettable, heart-touching, and delightful customer experiences. Effective customer engagement helps companies/dealerships attract new customers, retain existing ones, build long-lasting relationships, boost brand loyalty, and drive business growth.

Why does customer engagement matter?

Customer engagement revolves around establishing emotional bonds with customers at every touch point. Emotionally engaged customers are more likely to be loyal, which leads to increased customer retention and business sustainability. Engaged customers are more likely to sing your praises and share their exciting experiences with their friends and family, which leads to a powerful word-of-mouth marketing, recommendations and referrals business. Recent survey insights reveal that “70% of customers say that they’re highly likely to purchase exclusively from brands that understand them and their needs.” Please allow me to walk you through more about why customer engagement matters:

1. Solicit Customer Feedback

Through effective customer engagement, you can learn more about your customers; how they are thinking and feeling?, and what problems or challenges they are facing. You can solicit their feedback and valuable insights through feedback surveys, suggestion forms, Sales Satisfaction Index(CSI), Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) or NPS (Net Promoter Score). This feedback serves as a compass, guiding companies/dealerships towards key improvement areas to enhance service standards and elevate the customer experience.

2. Build Trust and Emotional Connection

Earning customers’ trust is a new customer engagement priority. Connecting with customers at their emotional level is very important because people make decisions based on emotions and justify them with logic or fact. Emotionally connected customers are more likely to be loyal to your company/dealership. This competitive environment makes it extremely challenging for businesses to service and retain customers. So, companies/dealerships must look for ways or opportunities to emotionally connect and engage with their customers on the service floor to create “WOW Moments” to build friendly and long-lasting relationships with them based on unwavering trust, and empathy.

3. More Loyalty & Advocacy

Engaged customers have more stronger attachment with your company, dealership or brand. They tend to be more loyal enthusiasts who keep coming back to your dealership to buy their every new car and service their vehicles. They are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family. Effective customer engagement transforms everyday customers into loyal customers and brand advocates.

4. More Business Sustainability

As mentioned earlier, engaged customers are not only your enthusiastic advocates but also contribute to your organization’s long-term profitability. They tend to shop more, spend more and are less price-sensitive. According to a survey, “86% of the customers are willing to pay more for great customer experience.” By delivering majestic,  delightful, and heart-touching experiences at every touchpoint, you can cultivate a loyal customer base that helps drive sustainable business growth.  

Maximizing Customer Engagement Strategies.

Now, let’s explore some effective strategies to help your company/dealership maximize customer engagement, foster emotional connections, and build trust with your customers:

1. Personalization

Personalization is a powerful tool for companies/dealerships to deliver unique, heart-touching and delightful customer experiences to their customers. According to McKinsey & Company, “71% of customers expect companies to deliver personalized interaction. The 2024 State of Customer Service & CX Study found that “81% of customers prefer companies/dealerships that offer personalized/tailored experiences.” 

In today’s competitive business landscape, personalization begins with engaging and communicating with customers on their own terms. Companies and dealerships must leverage customer data and preferences to tailor personalized purchase and ownership experiences, fostering long-lasting relationships.

Gone are the days of the Golden Rule; which advocates treating customers as you want to be treated. Alessandra’s Platinum Rule takes the Golden Rule a step further; treat your customers as they want to be treated, recognizing their uniqueness and individual preferences.

2. Be a Super Listener

Super listening in customer service can transform a mediocre customer experience into an outstanding, heart-touching and memorable customer experience. Embracing the principles of “SUPER” listening can enhance customer interactions:

S in SUPER stands for Summarize; always summarize and take notes during the discussion with customers to retain key points. It would lead to a better conversation with customers, where you’re putting their needs and concerns at the forefront of the discussion.

U stands for Understand; Listen to the customers to understand what they say. How do you summarize the discussion’s key point, what you heard leads to a better understanding of customers’ actual and genuine demands.

P stands for Provide Uninterrupted Space To Talk; Super Listening builds unshakable trust. Please don’t interrupt the customers while they are talking. Interrupting is a sign of disrespect.

E stands for Eye Contact; Someone beautifully said, “Eyes are the window to the soul.” Maintaining eye contact is very important and influential while talking to customers. Always use eye contact to convey your confidence, energy, and enthusiasm. It also reflects your sincerity, warmth and honesty to the customers.

R stands for Reflect Back; Reflect back to customers while they are talking to you and confirm the key points of their talk. This positive habit reflects that you have actively listened and genuinely understood their feelings and real demands.

 3. Driven To LEAD

Now I am sharing one of the effective and actionable best practices of Mercedes Benz, USA, “LEAD” framework for delivering a heart-touching experience at every customer touch point across the customer journey (pre-sales to post-sales or service appointments to post-service follow-up) for maximum customer engagement:

L in LEAD stands for Listen; listen to customers’ VOC (voice of customer) and unstated needs with ears and eyes and address their issues. You must be insanely good (Steve Job term) at listening.

E in LEAD stands for Empathize; empathize with customers for their concerns. Imagine whatever customer is complaining about just has happened to you. What would you be thinking and feeling? How would you react? What would you expect? What would it take to make you happy? Our number one priority should be, “We must not only repair the customers’ vehicles but also repair the customers’ feelings.”  

A in LEAD stands for Add-Value; look for opportunities to add value to enhance and enrich your customers’ experience and make it “Best of The Best.”

D in LEAD stands for Delight; In every interaction you have with customers on the sales or service floor, like selling the car or fixing the car, make sure that the customer is Smiling. Customer Delight should be your No.1 priority.

 Let me ask you the following questions:

1. How would you like your customers to feel at each touch point when they are being served on the sales or service floor?
2. What are your aspirations for the heart-touching and memorable customer experiences that your company/dealership delivers?
3. Do you aspire to become the Best-in-Town dealership/company in your industry, setting the benchmark for customer engagement?