The term “customer engagement platforms” refers to a suite of tools that works together to track, manage, and streamline communications with leads and customers. It’s compatible with several channels of communication between businesses and their customers, such as email, SMS, and chatbots. A customer interaction platform can be thought of as a nerve center for your organization. It provides access to all of your communication and engagement technologies, allowing you to use these as building blocks in the creation of automated, omnichannel procedures. One of the best parts is that you don’t even have to leave your platform to initiate and control these procedures.
What is the function of a customer engagement platform?
Let’s say John Doe registers for the desktop site of a meal-delivery business. You encourage him to download the mobile app in the welcome email he received after creating an account, but he doesn’t. He places an order and gives you his details so the delivery guy may get in touch with him. When asked to review his experience, he gives you three stars and complains that the delivery was late. Place an apology note and a discount coupon for his next purchase on his dashboard in place of a ticket. John Doe did not place any further orders during that particular week. And this time, John Doe really follows your advice and installs your app after receiving a message from you via Facebook.
A customer’s engagement (or lack thereof) in one channel triggers a second channel’s activities. Email automation, call masking to protect personal numbers, survey forms, dashboard alerts, and programmed messages may allow diverse interactions.
By making use of a dozen or more programs, you create omnichannel workflows. Having the right applications is important, especially software for moving companies, as they can make your job tremendously easier. You can use a customer engagement tool to keep track of these interactions.
Instead of building a separate app, you would incorporate SMS messaging into your platform. It’s possible to utilize a speech API with a call-masking program instead of manually entering phone numbers. There are no data silos and no isolated consumer experiences when everything is operating as it should.
Are CRMs, CDPs, and CXMs also customer engagement platforms?
Modern consumer engagement platforms evolved from earlier types of software. Many are based on conventional customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which were first developed for data management but are now typically cloud-based, analytics-driven, and compatible with a wide variety of other programs.
Other engagement systems are, essentially, platforms for collecting and analyzing client information (CDPs). A CDP can collect information from a wide variety of sources in real-time and incorporate it into customer profiles. Then it will distribute that information to other systems used for things like marketing, sales, customer care, and analytics.
Modern CRMs and CDPs provide the duties of customer engagement platforms by delivering data to downstream technologies and there are many other benefits of CRM software. The most recent innovation in consumer engagement platforms, however, makes use of information already present in the software itself.
Systems for managing the relationship with customers are also on the market. CXMs may be regarded as engagement platforms with a narrower focus and objective, as they analyze feedback and opinions to improve customers’ experiences.
CRM, CEM, and content distribution platforms are antecedents of customer engagement platforms. Future technological improvements will allow us to establish a single platform on which contact centers, marketing automation, sales automation, and other apps may share communications and customer data. As a result, all aspects of the customer experience and lifecycle could be managed from a single location.
What is the significance of client engagement platforms in SaaS?
#1: Increased revenue
All businesses seek to increase revenue while spending less on client acquisition. Especially for moving businesses who are trying to cut costs, which is why we advise you to use a relocation cost calculator when moving. Customer engagement tools can come in handy here.
You unlock more value for your customers by supporting you in engaging them. This leads to increased product adoption, upgrades, and revenue growth. According to Gallup research, consumers that are genuinely engaged are worth 23% more in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and overall relationship development.
According to the same report, firms that successfully connect with B2B customers see 63% lower attrition, a 55% higher share of wallets, and a 50% increase in productivity.
#2: It reduces the need for customer assistance
Customers will always need help at some point throughout their use of your SaaS product, regardless of how basic or complex it is. It’s more crucial than ever that a product supports users throughout their whole journey.
Walker’s 2020 poll found that 86 percent of consumers place a high value on having a good interaction with a company’s customer service. In addition, they were willing to spend extra money on it.
#3: Acquire a competitive edge
More than two-thirds of CX-focused marketers compete only on CX, per the 2017 Gartner Customer Experience in Marketing Survey. In addition, 81% of them believe that customer experience would be their primary differentiator in the marketplace by 2019. Steve Jobs’s words on how to best serve your customers:
Businesses that don’t care about their customers’ experiences will quickly fall behind the competition. Systems for customer interaction help you provide the finest service possible to your clientele. Customers will be pleased, giving you an edge over other businesses.
What functions should be included in a customer engagement platform?
Consumer engagement platforms capture first-party data from a variety of sources, allowing for more accurate channel tracking and attribution. It creates links between outcomes and interactions using preset paths (e.g., user X arrived at the landing page through an Instagram ad).
Look for a way to recognize a consumer across many channels and aggregate all of their data into a single profile. Customers may be divided into groups based on shared traits to allow for more targeted marketing. If you operate a food delivery service, you may observe a customer order coffee on Mondays at 2:00 PM. If a consumer hasn’t purchased coffee by 3 p.m. on the third Monday, send them to push alerts about coffee shop offers.
An omnichannel consumer interaction system may be built employing a variety of communication channels, including customer support, marketing, product development, and sales. It’s easy to see a fashion brand integrating a virtual stylist into its customer service platform.
