Is your company able to anticipate the needs of a recent graduate who is about to take up his first job in a big city and furnish his new apartment? Can you gauge from your customer’s social network that she is planning a week-long vacation in Bali? Can you list specific actions your company has taken in the past six months to boost the trust of your customers? Does your company have a plan to respond to unexpected situations impacting customers such as job loss, government policy changes or extreme weather conditions? Is your company aligning its offerings and messages to the core values of its customers?
If your company can answer yes to each of these questions, then it is leading the way in a marketplace that is still coming to terms with how to meet and exceed the expectations of increasingly sophisticated customers. If your company is falling short, then it is time to start re-examining the operating model. In today’s multichannel world, companies will need to be able to connect intimately and seamlessly with nonstop customers anytime and anywhere, across multiple touchpoints, and provide a highly compelling experience.
A meaningful relationship
Today’s sophisticated consumers want companies to adapt to their dynamic and un-communicated needs, to proactively reach out to them with relevant messages and offerings, and take the initiative to build a trust-based relationship with them that aligns closely with their values.
A growing number of consumers are willing to share personal information on the understanding that companies will leverage insights about them and their networks to tailor products or services. These constantly connected consumers are very demanding and have the ability to impact a company’s growth, strategy and operations more than ever before.
Read the full Accenture Intimately Engaged Report, it provides excellent insight into engaging customers and really does emphasise the importance of strategic narrative.
Related posts:
Report: Closing the Engagement Gap (integrity enabler)
Employee Engagement: A road map – white paper
The Changing Contours of Fairness: Can we match individual and organisational perspectives?
Report: ‘Happy employees make happy customers’, so could investing in an intra-brand community benefit your bottom line?