Why Customer Engagement Is Important

Being that the majority of my clients are in the hospitality and tourism business, I know first-hand how important it is to engage with your customers – and I'm not just talking about the agency engaging with our clients, rather OUR clients engaging with THEIR clients.

Word-of-mouth can have a huge impact on your business, whether it is negative or positive feedback regarding a service you provide or an experience someone had while at your establishment or location. "Word-of-mouth" 10 years ago meant someone telling their friends and neighbors about their experience. Today "word-of-mouth" has the potential to spread to millions of people in less than a second through the use of blogs, travel sites, and social media, so you can bet you want the feedback to be positive!

People love attention, so they're going to comment, rant, or rave to get some. It is very important for hospitality and tourism businesses to not only focus on managing their earned media for brand awareness, but also listen to what customers are saying and engage with them on a personal level.

Some tips for handling negative feedback:

• Create accounts on sites such as Trip Advisor, Expedia, Hotels.com, Yelp and Foursquare to respond to any potential negative feedback and respond personally. 
• Do not erase the negative comments; turn them into positive comments instead. Wiping out negative comments can actually backfire, because NO ONE is going to believe that every bit of feedback about your business is good – it's unrealistic. If someone does happen to post something negative, take every step you can to correct it. In most cases a reply to their comment with an apology will do the trick. 
• If applicable, offer an incentive inviting the person writing the feedback to come back and let you correct the issue in person, with a percentage off their next service or a coupon for something to do while they're visiting.
• Most importantly, LISTEN to what they are saying. If many people are complaining about a service repeatedly, then it needs to be addressed internally. Don't just say you're sorry and you hope they have a better experience next time to appease them, actually take steps to fix what is wrong.

Negative feedback is not the only time you should engage with your customers. Facebook has opened a whole new set of doors for getting people who 'like' your page to engage not only with you, but also with others who are fans of yours. Opening up your page to allow people to post pictures and then comment on them is a great way to open up a dialogue.

Social media has perpetually changed the marketing landscape and now more than ever, generating a discussion and engaging customers is essential for a client's success. Try to create contexts in which people want to interact and communicate with you. And use content marketing strategies to develop and leverage those relationships.

In Summary: People remember when THEY are remembered. A customer is happy if they know their opinion matters and that you value their business. Happy customers are repeat customers!

What have your experiences been with client/customer engagement?