Improving Customer Engagement

The year 2001 may seem like ancient history, given the speed of things today. In reality, it wasn’t that long ago when Gallup announced a customer engagement metric, called CE11. Since then, hundreds of pages and numerous studies have been devoted to the topic of customer engagement – a metric that has financial implications for every company. A follow on study by Gallup found that “a customer who is fully engaged represents an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth compared with the average customer. In stark contrast, an actively disengaged customer represents a 13% discount in those same measures.”

Gallup describes three categories of customer engagement: fully engaged, indifferent, and actively disengaged. The holy grail of engagement is fully engaged. These are the customers who are emotionally attached and loyal. They prefer your products and services and won’t accept substitutes. These are your brand advocates and the first to adopt your new products.

The indifferent group consists of customers who are neutral, they have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. The indifferent group is always looking for the next best deal. It is the actively disengaged that can stir up trouble. These are the folks who will readily switch brands, and if you have a product that they feel they cannot switch to, then they will be negatively vocal, perhaps even antagonistic.

You can probably think of customers for each of these categories. Customer behavior provides insight as to the degree of engagement, but eventually, we need to have a consistent customer engagement metric if we want to be able to impact the behaviors.

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Ask these 11 Questions to Improve Customer Engagement

There are a variety of ways to measure engagement; the Gallup CE11 is one method. CE11 measures loyalty according to three key factors (L3): overall satisfaction, intent to repurchase, and intent to recommend, plus eight measures of emotional attachment (A8). The overall metric is derived from the scores for 11 questions. Each of the 11 items that form the CE11 is measured on a five-point scale, with five being a strong positive response and one being a strong negative response. The questions address the following (insert your company, product, service, where you see the word brand):

1. Overall satisfaction
2. The likelihood of continuing to choose/repurchase
3. The likelihood of recommending to others
4. [Brand] is a name I can always trust
5. [Brand] always delivers on what it promises
6. [Brand] always treats me fairly
7. If a problem arises, I can always count on [Brand] to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution
8. I am proud to be a [Brand] customer
9. [Brand] treats me with respect
10. [Brand] is the perfect [company/product] for me
11. I can’t imagine life without [Brand]

If you are looking for an approach for measuring customer engagement, this may be one to consider. When you develop the survey, include other questions such as value for money, experience with various touchpoints, problem incidence, and resolution. These attributes are referred to as ‘drivers’ because they have been found to impact engagement. In a business-to-business environment, there may be multiple people involved in the decision-making process. So, interview the key decision-maker, the influencers, and the end users.

To learn more about Customer Engagement Metrics, read one of our most popular white papers: “Don’t Waste Your Bullets: Customer Engagement to Accelerate Revenue and Improve Alignment.”

FAQ:

• Fully engaged: emotionally attached, loyal, preference-driven, advocates, and early adopters.
• Indifferent: neutral, deal-seeking, “take-it-or-leave-it” customers.
• Actively disengaged: likely to switch, and may be negatively vocal or antagonistic.
  These categories matter because they predict behaviors that directly affect retention, growth, and brand reputation.

1. Overall satisfaction
2. Likelihood of continuing to choose/repurchase
3. Likelihood of recommending to others
4. Brand trust (“a name I can always trust”)
5. Delivers on promises
6. Treats me fairly
7. Fair and satisfactory resolution when problems arise
8. Pride in being a customer
9. Treats me with respect
10. Perfect fit for me
11. “I can’t imagine life without [Brand]”

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