With inflation on the rise, you’re probably noticing that a little more of your monthly salary is going toward things like food and fuel. Since April of this year, South Africa’s monthly inflation rate has consistently been above the upper limit of The Reserve Bank’s three to six percent target range, peaking at 7.8% in July.
Rising costs have a significant impact on consumers, particularly those in the vulnerable, emerging middle class. Many consumers are taking a second look at their monthly budgets, wondering where they can cut back as they are forced to tighten their belts.
Survival Requires Active Participation.
Before delving into what such an approach might entail, keep in mind that many organizations may be experiencing inflationary pressures themselves. And, with a global recession now appearing to be unavoidable, they may be tempted to cut their own costs. It would be all too easy to reduce customer engagement in order to save money, but this would be a mistake. It is no longer appropriate to wait until your customers find you before engaging with them.
In fact, it is during difficult times that customer engagement truly proves its worth. Remember that customer engagement is essential for creating great customer experiences. In economically prosperous times, customer experience can be a competitive differentiator.
Quality, Anticipation, And All-Around Involvement
Given the importance of customer engagement in providing those experiences, what kind of strategy should businesses pursue in these difficult economic times?
The first thing to remember is that customer engagement is all about a company’s relationship with its customers. Trust and understanding define the best relationships. Building that trust and understanding necessitates quality interactions that anticipate the customer’s needs and are built holistically.
The Ideal Collaboration Partner
If your organization is also on a tight budget, increasing engagement in this manner may appear out of reach. However, it is entirely feasible. Even so, organizations are frequently better off finding a partner to assist them in navigating the engagement process than attempting to do it themselves.
Such a partner should have a proven track record of assisting organizations in putting together the right technologies, tools, and strategies to create customer engagement strategies that set them apart from competitors.
A good customer engagement partner will also assist organizations in simplifying individualization and maximizing engagement across the board, making it simple for businesses and their customers to engage meaningfully. Furthermore, this partner should be able to assist in the curation and implementation of customer engagement solutions and technologies that complement and optimize the organization’s current ecosystem in order to produce highly measurable results.
Adapt or Perish.
Finally, organizations have little control over the macroeconomic conditions that force them and their customers to cut back on spending. They can, however, control the experience they provide to their customers, which begins with the kind of proactive, quality engagements that set them apart from their competitors.
