ustomer experience is the sum of all the experiences a customer has with a business during their entire lifetime relationship, taking in not just the key touch points but also how personal and rewarding these experiences are.
The key to strengthening a relationship, in order to ensure occupier retention, is to create and manage a great experience that distinguishes you from the competition.
Here’s our top tips for improving customer engagement and loyalty in commercial property marketing:
Email marketing
61% of consumers say they feel better about and are more likely to buy from a company that delivers tailored content (Custom Content Council).
Sending out email blasts to your entire database is not a good customer retention and loyalty strategy. Use a CRM database that allows you to build a picture of your customers, their preferences and habits so that you can send out timely, segmented emails that are personalised and relevant.
Tailored website content
If you send personalised emails to your customers, don’t stop there and make sure your landing pages are tailored to their needs.
Before the design and development takes place, carry out a persona workshop to understand your key target audiences so that you can design a website that speaks in their language and meets their motivations and goals.
For more information on content strategy for commercial property, read our related blog post here.
Build a community
Consider having a separate website for your occupiers, separating out the functional and soft customer information from the benefit messages aimed at prospects. You can still make your customer website visible to prospects to reinforce the level of proactive customer engagement activity that you carry out but a separate website for customers will enable you to:
• Provide a portal for regularly updated customer-focussed information
• Create a communication tool accessible by every occupier
• Generate a sense of community
• Engage with occupiers on a B2C level
Video
Online video is described as the future of content marketing and is not only a great way to showcase your commercial properties, it is cited by marketing professionals as converting better than any other marketing medium.
With only 24% of brands investing in video, quality well thought out video content is a great way to stand out from the competition.
However, anyone can create a great looking video but to ensure its success it’s important that your video message is explained clearly, interacts with other digital marketing assets, and has the ability to track results so that it meets your end goals and achieves a return on investment.
Go mobile
Customers want immediate access to information these days, and they get that from their mobile phones. Responsive design enables content to be presented in the most appropriate format according to the device it is being viewed on, delivering a smooth and positive user experience regardless of whether a website visitor is at their desk or on the go. While desktop is still relevant, 60% of all internet traffic now originates from a mobile device (inMobi) therefore if your website isn’t mobile friendly, you could be missing out on significant search traffic.
Google took their commitment to mobile online experiences a step further on April 21st, 2015 when they unleashed the “mobilegeddon” update where mobile optimised webpages have a direct impact on mobile search rankings. Read more here.
Apps
A mobile app enables your business to be available at all times, nights, weekends and holidays, and allows you to offer customers on-the-go access, rewards programs, recruitment opportunities and more.
There are plenty of systems out there that can help develop your customer loyalty. However, with 20% of apps used only once after downloading (Localytics), the focus should be on user engagement to create a beautifully designed app that not only reflects your brand but is useful and personalised to your occupiers and achieves effectiveness.
Content
Content can be anything from videos, webinars, blog posts, news to Q&As, images, photography, infographics and podcasts. The ideal is to create something personal and relevant to your customers, yet shareable and appreciated by a wider audience.
As our lifestyles become increasingly ‘always-online’ the more we demand rapid and personalised responses from the companies we engage with.
Replying to customers as quickly as possible with relevant information also has the knock-on effect of improved customer retention, improved conversion and better brand perception.
Create personalised and timely content with your occupiers as this will help position your business as the only logical choice.
Social customer service
To be good at social just means being there with open ears and having a primary focus on customer service. Communicate in a natural, personal manner that shows there’s a real approachable team behind the account that is there to help.
When you let a commercial property, follow your occupiers on social media as this will create an instant connection and they will likely follow you back. For further tips on social media for commercial property, read our more in-depth post here.
Focus
Whatever the digital medium you are using, consider who will be using it, what they want to achieve, but also where they will be and in what mode.