With 15% of the UK’s 40 largest websites by traffic volume being attributed to social networking sites, companies are increasingly turning to social media for customer engagement (Alexa.com, 2015; Peters et al, 2013). This seems like a good idea as companies can get their message out to a large audience at a low cost (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011; Vernuccio, 2014), but is this really an effective way to build customer relations?
This article examines Engage Mutual’s Twitter channel’s effectiveness at generating customer engagement using Sashi’s (2012) customer engagement cycle.
Customer Engagement Cycle
Sashi’s (2012) customer engagement cycle is built upon seven stages which aim to shape customer engagement. These are connection, interaction, satisfaction, retention, commitment, advocacy and engagement. Customer engagement is the end goal and is defined by Sashi (2012) as the state where customers feel high levels of emotional attachment and rational reasons for loyalty, resulting in behaviour exhibiting brand advocacy and unconditional loyalty.