The single-channel customer is dead, long live the cross-channel customer!  I think this should be an urgent wake-up call for marketers, who still try to boost customer engagement relying on multiple-channel campaigns.  In the Age of the Individual,  the well informed, highly independent customer is requiring a seamless consistent brand experience when switching from channel to channel.

So what should be considered when trying to improve customer engagement? A recent article on cross-channel integration on sums- up insights from various publication in three clear trends which in my opinion are defining the modern marketing landscape.

A shift of focus from campaign management to cross-channel interaction awareness and management

Whether a customer interacts with a brand through a website, Twitter, Facebook, or SMS, each interaction defines their opinion and degree of loyalty to a brand. When the channels are not integrated to provide a coherent experience, messages might conflict, thus causing frustration on the customer’s side. However, if a brand is able to gather and manage the knowledge about the customer in a single database and use it to deliver consistent and timely offers across the channels, the customer experience would be significantly different.

Customer data is the most invaluable asset and needs to be carefully and consciously managed

Knowledge about customers and their behavior is considered to be the most precious asset for a brand competing in the volatile business environment nowadays. So time-to-customer knowledge and the quality of customer knowledge are critical success factors. Cross-channel customer data should be integrated in a centralized database to intensify a brand’s ability to interact and serve its customers effectively and in real-time.

Serving is the New Selling

Yes, serving is the new selling. The modern consumer doesn’t expect to be sold but to be served. Consumers also seem to be developing chronicle allergy towards brands that keep guessing what they would wish to buy.  The outcome: ‘un-follow’, ‘unlike’ and eventually find a new brand to be loyal to. So, dear brand, you shouldn’t guess what I might like, you should already know! When 90% of the success of a brand is to be defined by customers and their experience, the brand simply cannot afford to ignore them.   Studying , analyzing  and adjusting customer behavior across channels in a dedicated manner, is the key to effective customer engagement.  And happy customers, on the other hand, are the unparalleled promoters or advocates of a brand.