Engaging the Enterprise

I bet your favorite professor was engaging.

Every once in a while, I stop to consider why engagement is so important -- no, essential -- to the success of a customer strategy program. It actually prompted me to think of my favorite college professors. What was it about them that made their classes so valuable? Two things:

• Information – My best professors were intelligent and knowledgeable about their topic. They shared great information that I could really use. 
• Engagement – My favorite professors were engaging. They were passionate about their topic and it showed. Somehow they connected at an emotional level that helped me understand and appreciate the topic.

If you took either of those characteristics away they would not have been great professors. Consider…

• Information, without engagement. It’s just boring with no emotional connection.  
• Engagement without information. That’s shallow. Not enough substance.

This is at the heart of why I think engagement is so essential in customer loyalty, customer experience, and voice of the customer-type programs. Many organizations put all the focus on the information. They conduct surveys. They gather reports. They send out customer information and most of it is really good. But unfortunately, too often they don’t take the time to get people engaged. Referencing one of my earlier blogs, stakeholders have to be aware of your program, understand it, and believe in it before they will ever take action on the customer insights you provide.

That’s why I think engagement is so important. Just like it is with my favorite professors, it’s an essential ingredient in your customer strategy program.