Why Community Engagement is Crucial for Your Brand’s Customer Experience
Shefali Mathur
Managing your online reviews is crucial for maintaining your brand’s positive customer experience and reputation.
If, for instance, you are an F&B brand with a solid online presence, you are likely bound to have reviews on different ecommerce sites as well as review platforms. These reviews (if not fabricated) are direct indicators of your service, customer support and overall brand perception which can impact your bottom line. Positive reviews are great, but lukewarm and negative reviews need great care and one-on-one attention.
If your team is able to attend to these negative and neutral reviews in real-time, your customers are more likely to feel heard and cared for. They would like to give your brand another chance and also set an example for other customers that while you are not immune to mistakes, you take accountability and ramifications very seriously.
In this blog, we will talk about how your community engagement program can directly impact your customer experience and why they need to walk hand in hand.
How is community engagement driving customer experience?
Such is the power of online reviews that eight out of ten shoppers refer to online reviews on their smartphones while shopping in-store. Clearly, the lines between physical and online shopping journeys has changed and this will continue to grow in the future.
The stats teach brands to take their online community engagement with more than just a pinch of salt and not turn a blind eye towards negative or neutral comments.
If it’s not clear yet, here are a few more reasons why you should consider community engagement as a part of your customer experience endeavour.
1. Brand advocacy and loyalty
How you deal with negative comments on your Instagram handle or answer the fiery reviews on your ecommerce site or review platform, speaks volumes about how much your customer’s word matters to you. It’s not us who will judge on the basis of your response rate and quality but your existing and as well as potential users.
Be diligent in your response and resolution rate, and you are automatically on a path to positive brand recall as well as customer experience.
Having said that, your promptness in responding to your customers will further bolster community engagement further to build a self-sustaining ecosystem, making it an efficient system that simplifies task management for the customer experience team.
2. Driving product innovation
Your customers are telling you exactly what they want via these reviews and comments. All you have to do is listen.
We’re not saying this, but a study by Salesforce states that 64% of consumers and 80% of business buyers expect businesses to respond to and incorporate their feedback almost immediately.
Negative reviews will also give you an inside scoop into what your customers think is great about your product and what can be improved. Sometimes, in the case of products like smartphones, they might like the audio quality but are not a big fan of your camera. These aspect-based emotions can also be helpful to know how you can niche down in your support and development process to cater for your customers better.
Having said that, there are not a lot of solutions in the market that are identifying a mix of sentiments accurately. Sure, they are great at identifying singular emotions like positive, negative etc., but customers today have a lot to offer in terms of feedback, and most times, its never white or black. Time to turn our attention to the grey areas with Locobuzz.
Locobuzz’s Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) feature empowers its users access advanced analytics and filtering options and gain deeper insights from incoming mentions and comments.
Users can filter mentions not only based on specific aspects but also on the sentiment associated with each aspect. This allows for precise analysis and insights tailored to the most relevant aspects of your business, whether it’s product features, customer service interactions, or marketing campaigns.
3. Encourages transparency
Welcoming and actively responding to all kinds of customer feedback, especially the critiques, really shines a light on a brand’s dedication to honesty and customer satisfaction. It’s not just about acknowledging the areas that need work; it’s a powerful statement of being open and committed to constant improvement for the sake of the people who use your products or services.
Imagine this: a customer points out a flaw, and instead of brushing it off, you dive in to understand and fix it. Meanwhile, you guide them on how to best navigate around the hiccup until it’s resolved. Next thing you know, you’ve enhanced your offering and are ready to share the improvements. This approach not only fixes the issue but turns a potentially negative experience into a showcase of your brand’s adaptability and responsiveness.
This kind of transparency fosters a deeper trust. Customers value this honesty—they’re more likely to stay engaged and excited about what you come up with next. It transforms a simple feedback loop into an opportunity for growth and connection, making each customer feel truly heard and appreciated.
Isn’t this a more constructive approach than a cycle of complaints and frustration?
Speaking of transparency, its crucial that we manage reviews on different platforms from time to time. However, it gets difficult as you grow and manually responding to these reviews is not a scalable option. Tools like Locobuzz empower you to efficiently monitor user reviews and promptly respond to their Sitejabber feedback directly within the platform, enhancing their online reputation management capabilities. This feature enables a more comprehensive and streamlined approach to managing your brand’s digital presence. |
4. Humanises your business
Ever get that cold, sinking feeling when you’re met with total silence or, worse, a robotic reply after reaching out with a concern or question? Yeah, nobody’s a fan of that. It’s refreshing when a brand actually makes an effort to connect on a human level. That’s what’s really needed—a conversation that feels genuine because, well, it is.
But what does this actually mean for customer experience?
Imagine reaching out for help and receiving a response from someone who truly understands and cares—someone who’s there not just to reply but to connect. That’s the goal. It’s all about creating those real moments, sharing stories, and showing the heart and soul behind the brand in an honest way.
Giving a glimpse behind the scenes, introducing the people who make it all happen, and having genuine interactions on social media aren’t just strategies; they’re ways to make everyone feel part of something special, minus the bot engagement. This approach pulls back the curtain to show that behind every logo, there are real people eager to engage and help.
By avoiding the automation trap and focusing on real, heartfelt connections, the brand stands out. It’s about more than just being seen; it’s about building a community where everyone feels they belong and are valued.
5. Research platform for your customers
We have already spoken about how community engagement helps bring in very specific feedback for product development. However, it is also a space for new ideas that directly come from the horse’s mouth.
Your diligent and learned customers have super intriguing ideas that can prove to be a game-changer for your business.
How do you get this input?
Sometimes it’s organic with suggestions coming in naturally. However, often you have to weave out these ideas from them. For example, you can hold a story contest on Instagram, asking their opinions, questions and concerns. Often these questions can be quite direct with not a huge revelation to be expected but sometimes, you get a golden nugget which makes you sit up and think about new possibilities.
Paradyes, a beauty and personal care brand is a semi-permanent hair colour brand which put up a story asking for concerns people might have about colouring their hair. This is a great example of community engagement which helped answer consumer questions, attract hair colour aficionados and build up the curiosity of those on the fence.
Also, such a platform answers a ton of questions which would otherwise be the customer support team’s onus.
6. Get bragging rights
Testimonials are always a great way to reassure your customers that they have made the right decision by doing business with you. One of the best things about building a community is that their positive comments are always out there for viewing.
Your customers and prospects can first-hand see the benefit your existing customers have by consuming your product and how they can implement it as well. If the cases are similar, for example, hair loss, or other health maladies, it becomes even more relatable.
Cosmix Wellness specialises in superfoods and has an awesome community engagement program that works wonders for spreading (positive) awareness.
The team can (not saying they are or they should) use these reviews to enhance their brand image and also create a self-support system that answers most customer questions without the team’s intervention.
From engagement to experience, your customers want everything
The intricate dance between community engagement and customer experience is more than just a business strategy; it’s the heartbeat of brand success in today’s digital era. Through attentive listening, genuine interactions, and embracing every piece of feedback, brands can forge a path to remarkable loyalty and innovation.
As we strive to navigate this landscape, remember: that every customer voice is a chance to elevate your brand.
Ready to turn feedback into your most valuable asset? Discover how Locobuzz can transform your approach to customer engagement.
