In today’s hyper-connected global marketplace, customer engagement is more important — and more difficult — than ever for businesses to thrive. To continually remain top-of-mind with the modern always-on customer, your brand must engage with them when, where, and how they want. Avoid becoming irrelevant in the emerging Customer Engagement Economy; make sure your organisation adopts a customer-centric business strategy — or what Bluewolf calls being “customer obsessed” — to revolutionize the way you engage, service, and retain customers.

So how do organisations get en route to becoming customer obsessed? A fitting analogy is that of a best friend relationship: companies can utilise foundational qualities of a friendship to build rapport with their customers to increase loyalty, advocacy, and engagement. We build relationships with friends through personal interactions that fosters our loyalty and trust. Building this connection with customers is an effective approach to creating long-term brand advocates and successful customer retention.

The nature of permanently ‘switched-on’ customers is evolving. As customers, we have become increasingly demanding, turning to social media to express our extreme admiration or disappointment in an organization with our friends, family, and followers. It goes without saying that the power of driving brand messaging has now shifted to customers, and the importance of innovating to exceed customer expectations by delivering personalised customer experiences to retain their loyalty, is greater than ever before.

Organisations that treat every human interaction as an opportunity to engage in a dialogue, will succeed in creating those extraordinary customer moments. Behavioural economists believe that up to 70% of customer decisions are based on emotional factors. So what does that mean for organisations today? Building a relationship with your customer, getting to know them as an individual as opposed to a transaction can lift a smile, and, ultimately, create a loyal brand advocate. Here are three key steps for customer-obsessed communication:

1. Be reliable
   
   Your best friend is always there for you, whenever and however you choose to be in touch. Make sure your communications with your customers are delivered in a consistent and relevant manner. Whether it's through social, mobile, or web, show your customers that they can rely on your brand for support.
2. Convey thoughtfulness
   
   Personalize each interaction you have with your customer to capitalize on each customer moment. Tailor all messaging to be directly relevant for each customer. Leverage the information you have already: their preferences, their past interactions with your brand, each and every touch-point will help you deliver outstanding customer experience.
3. Make it fun!
   
   Liven up dull customer communication by thinking outside the box. It may as simple as a birthday e-card, or as intricate as a personalised digital scavenger hunt. Whatever communication plan you chose, if you offer fun and engaging interactions, your brand can get an edge on competitors.

To be customer obsessed, organisations should practise the art of delivering enjoyable customer experiences every time. If we work to integrate our cloud CRM and social technologies to capture well-rounded customer stories, and innovate at the speed of changing customer demands, we can work to exceed customer expectations and ultimately create memorable customer moments. To learn more about Bluewolf’s approach to customer obsession, contact us, or download our guide, The Essential Guide to Customer Obsession.