The relevance of a customer engagement platform in 2022

Modern customer engagement is largely based on personalization. In order to find, connect with, and engage customers you need to understand who they are, and what they are likely to respond to. With this in mind, we have multiple tools available that make customer engagement easier to tackle. So, where does a customer engagement platform fit in in the modern marketing landscape? Well, let’s find out.

What are customer engagement platforms?

A customer engagement platform is various tools used for customer engagement put together. As customer engagement is based on personalization, you first use various tools to collect and analyze customer data. After that, you need a tool with which you actually engage your customers. Then you need to keep track of how effective your customer engagement is and outline aspects that are lackluster. And finally, you need to step up long-term engagement campaigns.

Before, you would essentially have to use individual tools for each task. And having to integrate all the data that those tools utilize would be a mess. This is one of the main reasons why having a customer engagement platform is so useful. While it doesn’t do anything new (per se) it does give you an easy way to integrate various processes and customer data. This alone makes customer engagement platforms a necessity for any person wanting to tackle modern business.

CRM and CDP

When presented like this, it might seem that CRM (customer relations management) and CDP (customer data platforms) are customer engagement platforms. And, in a sense, they can be. The main difference between CRM, CDP, and modern customer engagement platforms is that CRM and CDP are more focused on data management. This is why CRM email marketing for moving companies is so effective, as it relies on email data. Now a customer engagement platform will rely on data. But, its primary focus will be engagement, not data management. Seeing that more and more customer data platforms are becoming cloud-based, it is becoming easier and easier to get the same data management capabilities that you would get from CRM.

Should you use a customer engagement platform in 2022

Every moving company stands to gain from using a customer engagement platform. Regardless of how you tackled your marketing so far, a suitable platform will help you outline new ways to engage your customers. But, it is important to note that these platforms come at a cost. And we wouldn’t be surprised if certain moving companies simply don’t wish to allocate resources to use them.

The cost of using one

The cheaper customer engagement platforms will cost you around $60 per agent, per month. For some, this is a worthwhile investment, even if they don’t have a clear idea of how they will use their platform. But, for those that mainly focus on B2B moving services and don’t work with many clients, this might be a useless investment. If you do plan on engaging standard customers, we would definitely advise you to at least give one platform a trial. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn within a relatively short span of time.

Marketing benefits

The first you will see is the marketing benefits. Namely, it is far easier to engage customers when all the tools used for engagement are centralized. This alone gives you the ability to seamlessly monitor customers’ behavior, talk to them, and recommend your services. This is also what makes these platforms one of the best lead tracking software for moving companies. Proper use of even a basic platform will make it look like you always recommend the right content, at the right time. Of course, the more you invest in your platform, the more tools you will get. But the jump from having no platform to having even a basic one is substantial enough.

Customer management benefits

Customer engagement and customer management are closely connected. After all, you cannot hope to engage with your customers if you have a hard time managing them. And the same data you will use for engagement will be invaluable for management. This is why you can rely on CRM for packers and movers for customer engagement. Whether you will use CRM or a customer engagement platform essentially boils down to preference. The better you understand your marketing needs, the better you will know which set of tools will suit your needs.

What to look for in a platform

Before you set out to look for a platform, we would advise you to carefully outline your customer engagement needs. As you’ll soon see once you start exploring, there are dozens of platforms available. Each of them varies in functionality, pricing, and layout. Therefore, the best way to decide which platform to get is to first understand what kind of platform you’ll need. While there are a lot of them, not all are suited for a moving company. In fact, a minority will properly fit the needs of movers. So, continue what you are doing now, and do as much research as you can.

Final thoughts

As time goes on, it will only become more and more important to get a decent customer engagement platform. The reason for this is that companies that don’t have one simply cannot compete with those that do. Therefore, if you are currently trying to figure out how to improve your overall marketing, know that getting a decent platform for customer engagement is a great first step. Yes, doing so will require a bit of research and education. And you might not see the ROI you’d expect until you get a hang of it. But, all things considered, investing in systems for customer engagement is slowly growing from a luxury to a necessity.