Every business owner understands the importance of the customer experience.
Creating a consistent, reliable customer experience can build trust and loyalty, which helps your business reach success in the long run. One crucial element of the customer experience is engagement.
Essentially, customer engagement refers to the association customers form with your brand. Engagement can happen across all channels your business uses to communicate, including its physical store, website, and mobile app.
Since online transactions are projected to account for 16% of worldwide retail sales in 2021, businesses should prioritize both their in-person and online store experience.
To enhance communication across both channels, keep reading to learn everything business owners should know about offline and online customer engagement.
Online and offline client engagement differences
In order to improve your business’s cross-channel customer experience, it’s crucial to know the differences between offline and online customer engagement.
Here are some of the main factors separating the two formats:
Response Time
One major difference between online and offline customer engagement is the amount of time it takes a business to respond to customer inquiries. When someone visits a store in person, employees can respond to any questions immediately.
Response times tend to be less immediate online. According to a study, companies take an average of 42Hrs to reply to online sales leads. To help virtual communication keep up with your in-person interactions, make it a priority to reply quickly.
Tangibility
Another area in which offline customer engagement has an advantage is tangibility. In the store, customers can examine and feel physical products. With this close look, customers may be able to make decisions faster and provide your business with more transactions.
On the other hand, online customers have to rely on the images, descriptions, and reviews in your e-store in order to choose whether to make a purchase. To avoid deterring customers, it’s a good idea to implement generous return policies.
Employee-customer relationships
The last factor that gives offline engagement the upper hand is relationship-building. When a client visits a store in person, they can build relationships with sales personnel.
However, visiting the online store makes it a bit more challenging for employees and customers to establish relationships. To help address this issue, businesses can hire staff to respond to online customer questions and guide them along their shopping journey.
Brand identity
The way your business establishes its brand identity will vary across online and offline channels, but both formats offer opportunities to build a distinct look. In stores, you can create a unique brand identity through the layout, color palette, decor, and lighting.
Online, you can establish brand familiarity through website design. To keep your brand consistent, be sure to use a color scheme that match your in-person feel.
Personalization
Businesses can also create a personalized customer experience both online and offline by using different techniques for each channel. In stores, employees can help customers find the items they need and create a shopping experience tailored to their needs.
The online format also allows for personalization, since algorithms make it possible to show clients the content and products relevant to them. Sending customers customized messages is another way to add some personalization to the online experience.
How to improve online and offline engagement
Once you understand the main differences between offline and online customer engagement, it’s easier to improve both. Try adding these tips to enhance your business’s marketing strategy across multiple communication channels:
- Centralize your data: To keep your online and offline customer information in one place, use a customer data platform on a single database that gives you a well-rounded understanding of your customer activity.
- Use personas: Create about four different customer personas that you can use to group customers with similar interests and shopping habits.
- Avoid spamming: Be selective about which channels you use to communicate with customers to avoid spamming them with notifications.
- Create a consistent brand: When you maintain a unique brand identity, customers will be more likely to recognize your business across channels.
- Put the user first: When creating messages for each platform, choose graphics and text that will provide the best user experience.
- Use automation: Online stores can use automated messaging to provide a faster, more personalized virtual experience.
From response times to relationship-building, there are a variety of differences between offline and online customer engagement. Although the in-person experience comes with some built-in advantages, there are many ways to help your e-store keep up.
By streamlining communication across both channels, your business can boost its customer engagement and achieve success. Want even more information and tips about online and offline customer engagement? Check out the infographic below.
Michaela Wong is a writer who specializes in B2B, tech, and marketing-related content.
