4 Ways to Increase eCommerce Customer Engagement

Running a successful business entails many different things, such as having the right products, a good company website, and great customer service. However, at the heart of every company, keeping it alive, are satisfied, loyal, and engaged customers.

It seems like customer engagement needs to be improved in many businesses as 54% of customers think companies need to fundamentally transform how they engage. So, to keep your customers happy and satisfied, you need to find different ways to increase their engagement.

Below are listed a few simple yet effective ways you can achieve this goal.

1. Start a referral program

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to get more people interested in your business and that’s the biggest reason to start a referral program.

These types of programs require very little financial investment and can bring you more business than almost any other marketing tactic. This is because 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know and they are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.

Referral programs are very simple to create and operate. People who sign up get their own referral code, and when someone uses this code to purchase an item from your store, the referral gets a reward.

Here are some tips for starting a successful referral program:

• Choose what type of incentive you want to offer. Nobody will want to join your program unless you offer them an incentive. It can be a one-sided incentive that rewards the referral or a two-sided incentive that’s beneficial for both the referral and the referred customer.
• Determine your incentive. To find the best reward for your referrals, you need to consider what your customers would find valuable, and if they would prefer monetary or non-monetary incentives. The most common types of rewards include coupons, points or store credit, freebies, and gift cards.
• Bring the program to your website visitors’ attention. For your program to be successful, you have to make sure your customers know it’s there and want to sign up for it. One of the best ways to do this is by using a catchy headline that’s attention-drawing and explains what benefits it offers.
• Make it easy to sign up. Don’t make anyone spend hours referring to their friends. Instead, implement a contact picker along with your referral program software. This powerful duo will allow your customers to invite their contacts without even leaving your website or typing long email addresses, doubling, and even tripling, the amount of emails they input.

2. Start a customer loyalty program

A great way to connect with your customers and show them you appreciate their business is to start a customer loyalty program. These programs are reward-based and consumers can earn these rewards when they fulfill certain criteria.

Loyalty programs are great not only for creating engagement, but also sustaining it in the long run because they result in repeat customers. When you reward a person after every purchase, they will most likely come back to buy from you.

The most common type of loyalty program works as a point system where customers collect points after every purchase that can later be redeemed for discounts or free products. Encourage website visitors to shop more by offering a special reward tier where more points give them better rewards.

It’s also important to offer redemption opportunities frequently to keep shoppers regularly engaged. If your customers have to wait for months just to redeem their points, they probably won’t even bother joining your loyalty program.

3. Conduct customer satisfaction surveys

You can’t expect engagement to increase unless you show customers that you are listening to everything they have to say. Show them you want to improve your business and receive their feedback by conducting customer satisfaction surveys.

Surveys are invaluable because they allow you to:

• Solve problems. Let customers express their thoughts about your eCommerce store and products, what they like, as well as what they believe needs to be improved. This way, you can solve issues that you might not have been aware of before they turn into bigger problems.
• Give your customers a voice. When people aren’t satisfied with a business or its products, they won’t stay silent. If they can’t address their issues with you, they will go to your social media page and let out their frustrations there. Avoid all of this by offering a way to solve any problem privately.
• Get your priorities straight. Most likely, some aspects of your eCommerce store are great while others could be improved on. While you probably don’t know what needs to be a priority, through surveys you can find out what your customers think needs to be improved and what doesn’t.
• Show you run a reputable business. Every company out there claims that it cares about its customers, but very few actually show this. By making sure every complaint and comment is heard and dealt with as soon as possible, you’re showing that you truly care.

Setting up surveys is also incredibly easy. All you need to do is download some free survey templates, determine the questions you need answered while also leaving space for comments, share them on your website. and you’re good to go.

4. Build a community on social media

Social media has made it easy for businesses to communicate with customers for free in real-time. This is one of the reasons why social media marketing is so popular, but many people simply don’t realize that just being present on these platforms isn’t going to increase engagement.

To get higher social media engagement, you need to give your followers something to engage with and work hard on building a community, not just collecting followers.

Here is how you can do that:

• Post at least once or twice a day. Posting too often and cluttering up your followers’ feeds will annoy them and cause them to unfollow your page. On the other hand, not posting at all will make them forget about you, so the best solution would be to post once or twice a day.
• Provide them with interesting content. Post content that your followers want to engage with, such as interesting pictures, surveys, contests, and giveaways. Just keep in mind that your end goal is to receive as many comments as possible, and that won’t happen if all you post are advertisements.
• Make it clear you’re listening. Just like with surveys, customers will come to your social media pages to leave comments and express their opinions. No matter if their comments are positive or negative, make sure to reply to as many, if not all of them.
• Read and reply to messages. Just like with comments, replying to private messages is the perfect way to show you’re there to hear everything your customers have to say. If you have too many followers and can’t reply to every message, you can always install a chatbot.

Final thoughts

Businesses that make customer engagement a priority see more success and higher profits than their competitors that view customers as nothing more than a source of income.

So, show that you appreciate every single person who purchases something from your website and that you’re always ready to listen. This way, you won’t have any issues with engagement.

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