Total Customer Engagement occurs when there is alignment between a supplier and the supplied of emotion, experience and expectation.

Total Customer Engagement is an outcome. The outcome can be measured by two different measures – Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction. Both are required. The input is Customer Service.

Customer Service, while difficult to define and probably impossible to measure, is the interaction between the supplier and the supplied which, when done well, results in satisfied and loyal customers.

The diagram above seeks to illustrate the input of customer service which is measured in terms of outputs of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Total Customer Engagement then is the result of certain activities that are undertaken by both parties, (customer and supplying company).

Measuring Total Customer Engagement

Customer Loyalty can be measured. Does the customer continue to purchase from the supplier within the normal buying cycle of that industry?

Customer Satisfaction can also be measured but it is a more subjective measure than Customer Loyalty. A customer’s satisfaction is usually an opinion of that customer as to whether or not the product or service met the needs of that customer at that particular time. At another time, the same product or service might not satisfy the customer.

A customer maybe satisfied with the product but that does not mean that they are loyal. Petrol is a classic example. It is a price sensitive product yet overall does not affect demand. It doesn’t matter which brand you use. All brands provide the same level of satisfaction. Loyalty is determined by other factors. Coles and Woolworths seek to establish loyalty by the discount programmes they offer which are interestingly, by and large, the same.

Whether you measure it or not, a customer is loyal and/or satisfied will be determined by an alignment of the emotion, experience and expectation of both the customer and the organisation providing the product or service.

This is the place of Customer Service. Understanding and correctly applying these three essential components is the key to Total Customer Engagement.

(c)2008 Graeme Marks
www.graememarks.com

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