Engagement Rate Guidance During Growing Pains

One of the big challenges during growing pains with businesses can be communication issues. Things might be getting lost in the shuffle, causing your customer to get frustrated. This could potentially result in them deciding to take their business elsewhere in a show of desperation. Obviously this is a scenario that is not desirable, but because of the situation, there is a good chance that you might not even be aware of it until it is too late. At this time, you will find out that once loyal customers have taken their business elsewhere, deserting you in favor of a company that they feel has its act together.

If your company is going through growing pains and the signs are emerging that customers might not be as good with customers as it once was, the time has come for an all hands on deck meeting with your leadership. Finding a way to fix this quickly is a must, because if you let this issue fester for too long, you will find your organization in a death spiral that might not be possible to escape.

If you realize that communication with customers is beginning to deteriorate, there are two tracks that you can take to fix this issue. They are listed below:

Before Engagement Rates Dip: If you have managed to identify this issue early enough, it is possible that you will be able to minimize the damage that is being caused. At this point, realize that while you have caught it at a good point, time is of the essence. Figuring out where your communication bottlenecks are, as well as why communication is struggling need to be solved immediately. Once this is done, do not hesitate to make an announcement over as many channels as possible. Be sure to apologize to your customers about communication challenges, announce that things are fixed, as well as encourage them to offer any feedback that can help you and your business moving forward.

After Engagement Rates Dip: It is possible (and most likely) that you will realize something is wrong when your engagement rates with customers begin to dip. A lot of what you need to do here is in line with what was recommended above. However, at this point, realize that there has already been a substantial amount of damage done to your business. You will need to enter damage control mode as well. Don’t hesitate to try to reach out to as many customers as possible, particularly the customers that you might have not heard from in a while. Granted, some of them might be lost forever, but you will likely win some back. Additionally, this will be an effective way of developing credibility and loyalty with your brand.

The key here is to realize that existing customers are much easier to retain than new customers. They are already familiar with your brand, and if they have been using you for a while, there is a good chance that they will keep coming back unless circumstances change. Preserve this base at all costs.

If you have done everything right and are working hard to improve your engagement rate, be patient. It will take some time most likely, since this problem was not something that developed overnight. It might take weeks or months to fix. However, focusing on trying to improve your communication with customers will always help your engagement rate.

At this point, one final thing needs to be emphasized very strongly. Encouraging feedback is important, but it is important that you listen to the feedback closely. Obviously, not all feedback will be good, and a lot of it will likely be a mixed bag. Wherever you can, acknowledge the good points of the feedback with customers, and always thank customers for their input. This will be extremely helpful, especially when communication is a problem with customers. It will help mend fences significantly, as well as will foster a new sense of loyalty.

In conclusion, growing pains with your business will affect your business’ engagement rate. What you need to do here is to be proactive when issues are beginning to emerge. The sooner you do, the less damage you will need to fix (there will undoubtedly be some). Just like a pre-cancerous polyp represents a danger (therefore needs to be removed), take signs of communication issues with your customer as being an equivalent. The sooner you fix it, the less of a problem it will be for you in the long-term.