One of the most important concepts in business today is customer engagement. If you want loyal customers that support you as purchasers and by spreading the word about you, you need to engage your audience as much as possible. Custom software helps you take advantage of many possibilities that can increase customer engagement significantly.
Custom software can facilitate customer engagement in many industries including entertainment, tourism, marketing, food, and retail. Because it’s custom, the developed application creates the interaction to match your business needs. It’s not canned or copied. You won’t find it elsewhere. It’s made for you and aims to increase interaction and develop a loyal following for your brand. Creating custom software for customer engagement starts with mapping touchpoints and ends with successful applications of technology that improve interaction.
Map Out Touchpoints to Engage Your Audience
Start by mapping out all the touchpoints where your audience engages with you, and some at which they should be engaging. It’s critical that customers engage with you at multiple levels of your business. Once you map out the current touchpoints, open your mind to possibilities for future touchpoints. Ask these questions of your team:
- When your audience is out and about or browsing online, how are you catching their attention?
- What are the new possibilities to catch their attention?
- Once a potential customer knows about your brand, what are the current engagement points, and how can you develop interactive exchanges?
- When a customer makes a purchase, do you simply acknowledge the order?
- What can you do during and following the purchase action to encourage more engagement?
Consider the possibilities for engagement all along the way as well as the nature of the engagement that’s appropriate at each stage of the sales funnel and afterward.
Identify Opportunities Where Technology Can Increase Engagement
Now that you have an accurate view of the current process and have brainstormed new ideas for customer interaction, look for opportunities where tasks can be automated, connected or improved by technology. Look carefully at the customer experiences that can be improved by making desired information easier to find and access, making navigation intuitive, and making everything function smoothly. If related tasks can be connected for the ease in getting more done and not duplicating efforts, that’s even better.
For example, when a retail shopping account and the store credit card are connected seamlessly, customers interact with the technology fluidly. Showing grocery shoppers a list of previously ordered items as a suggestion for the next order increases engagement and sales on those items. An investment trading company that lets traders customize their dashboard view improves the customer experience with every sign-in.
Strategize A Custom Software Solution That Will Surprise and Delight Your Customers
Now is the fun part. You can imagine software and other digital experiences that make your customer’s lives better. You can create new customer experiences with technology. Take all the new touchpoint possibilities from the earlier exercise and, for each one, ask:
- What impact will it have on our audience?
- How much will it add to customer engagement?
- What will it take to get it done?
Choose the best ideas and develop a plan of action. When you maximize your touchpoints and continually develop new possibilities, your customer engagement numbers, and your business, will grow.
We can help you increase the ability to engage your audience, customers, and keep their attention over time through custom software. Schedule a free consultation to learn more.
