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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Customer engagement often misunderstood

While engagement is a popular buzzword today, it is other aspects of their profile that allows a more suc-
often misunderstood in commerce as an event rather cessful individual experience.
than a state of being, Andy O’Dell explains in his article
Buzzwords defined: 4 forms of customer engagement. 2. Engagement of Convenience means making a
He believes that “this traditional way of thinking about consumer’s live as easy as possible. Any type of inter-
engagement is driven by lack of insight about what’s action that increases convenience allows the brand or
happening across a company’s consumer base regard- retailer’s systems as well to gain a better understanding
less of time, channel or segment.” of each consumer’s individual needs, buying cycles,
triggers and price points, which can in turn be used to
When in the past the only way an organization could maximize value of that transaction (emotionally, finan-
define engagement was though transactions, new tech- cially, contextually) to reinforce the desire to buy.
nologies provide marketers today with an array of op-
tions on how they can understand, predict and monitor 3. Emotional Engagement requires contextual rele-
engagement levels – not just transactions. Rather, en- vance to reinforce emotional values that make custom-
gagement has more to do with interactions before and ers unconsciously invest in a brand. Today’s consumer
after an actual purchase. management technology allows for understanding on a
1:1 basis, because a good system tracks millions of
In this context, Andy O’Dell points out four ways on how data points that together paint a very specific picture of
brands can define engagement. an individual’s own ideal environment for making deci-
sions on what to buy, when and how often.
1. Contextual engagement which is possible through
technology that helps marketers understand what an 4. Social Engagement kind of includes all of the
individual consumer’s behaviors say about them, both above, aligned in real-time. If a consumer had a good
historically and in real time. Marketers can use this un- experience with a brand, it’s easy for him to share it via
derstanding to accomplish their goals - in context to the social channels, which in turn influences others to seek
brand, the time of day, their location, their history and out the experience.
12 Asian eMarketing - November 2015 eCommerce & Customer Lifetime
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