Businesses only care about their bottom line; everything else is an add-on; that’s the hard truth. But the pandemic has forced them to think beyond that, albeit it’s for their survival. The impact that the pandemic has had on businesses is unimaginable. It has forced them to think about bettering how they interact with their customers.

What Is Customer Engagement?

To put it in simple words, it is the interaction between a customer and a business through a number of channels. When they access your app or walk into your store and have a bad experience, you lessen the chances of them coming back. What happens? It affects their bottom line- and that’s the last thing a business wants. That’s exactly why there has been a sea change in customer engagement trends.

It is imperative that businesses have a solid customer engagement strategy in place so that every casual visitor becomes a regular customer.

In this article, we are going to look at a few customer engagement trends for 2022.

Customer Engagement Trends #1 Insight-led Customer Engagement:

There was a time when strategies were implemented based on gut feelings. With so much customer data lying around, it would be unwise to ignore them. Thanks to the latest suite of evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, marketing technology platforms have become powerful.

With an insight-led customer engagement platform, marketers will be able to assess crucial moments during the buyer’s journey. It will help them make better decisions to create more consumer-focused campaigns. The data can also be leveraged for personalizing the marketing campaigns- a pivotal cog in the customer engagement wheel.

Customer Engagement Trends #2 Digital Transformation:

The pandemic has forced businesses to transform their legacy systems to usher in digital transformation on a war footing. According to McKinsey, there was an increase of 65% in digital customer interaction during the pandemic. Businesses that weren’t keen on setting up a digital infrastructure had to bear the brunt as getting up to speed digitally required more than just setting up the necessary tools and technologies.

Customer Engagement Trends #3 Voice AI:

With more and more businesses integrating virtual assistants into their customer service journey, voice AI is going to become critical. Voice AI has the capacity to decode unstructured and free-flow natural conversations. Therefore, it understands the queries of the customer, deciphers customer intent, and responds accordingly. You will end up looking like a smart organization that cares about its customers.

Customer Engagement Trends #4 Purpose>Profit:

According to Deloitte, more than 57% of US customers say that they will stay loyal to brands that commit to addressing social inequalities. Purpose-related criteria will be as important as pricing and quality for consumers these days. For example, businesses will slowly shift to creating efficient supply chains that consume lesser energy. Consumers increasingly care about what brands stand for, and they want to see action rather than plain talk.

Customer Engagement Trends #5 Humane And Empathetic engagement:

By 2024, 40% of consumers will “trick behavior tracking metrics to intentionally devalue the personal data collected about them,” according to Gartner. Customers don’t want to be treated as mere ‘products.’ While this might reduce the wave of hyper-personalization that we predict we will see more of, all that customers want is that their data be treated more carefully. Companies that have the coolest product or the cleverest marketing strategies might lose against those that provide meaningful and seamless experiences with a dose of empathy.

Interesting Customer Engagement Statistics:

This Year Might Test Brand’s Customer Engagement Strategy

This year is going to be pretty interesting with respect to how brands engage with their customers as the pandemic isn’t over yet. We are in the first month of 2022, and we will witness see a lot of changes in how brands approach customer engagement. The only way for most brands to stay competitive is by using a plethora of smart automation tools and AI-powered tools to provide a great experience for their customers.