Irish companies still have a lot of work to do when it comes to customer engagement strategies according to a new report published by the data software firm Dataconversion.
The report, State of Customer Engagement within the Irish Market, noted that customer engagement is perceived as being a highly important business activity with 100% of respondents to a survey carried out by Dataconversion perceiving it to be ‘important’ while 96% consider it to be a priority for the next 12 months. However, only 55% have a dedicated customer engagement budget in place, an indication that, although firms recognise customer engagement as being a necessary business activity, many simply do not have the resources in place to exploit its potential or the company’s leadership has not fully bought into its importance.
According to Dataconversion CEO, Anna Browne: “The responses here aligned with our expectations. Customer experience, and in turn customer engagement, has been referred to as the new marketing battlefront. So, any company not acknowledging this could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace.”
According to the report, when it comes to channels of engagement, email is still the go-to customer-facing resource with 92% using it to communicate with customers while 59% said that they use customer surveys to drive engagement.
It would also appear that the GDPR hasn’t had as big an impact on marketing activities as originally anticipated with 54% believing it has had ‘no impact’ on their ability to effectively engage with customers. A further 17% stated that it had either a ‘positive’ or ‘very positive impact’. This is likely due to the fact that many consumers conducted a much-needed data cleanse, opting to no longer receive communications from brands they didn’t engage with.
