Digital customer engagement: how to balance one-to-one and digital interaction

Congratulations – you’re adopting a digital customer success strategy! Those are some big shifts – whether it’s updating your books, implementing a new management system, or revamping the tools, resources, and customer journeys you already have. So, now what?

Make sure you’re still delivering high-touch, one-to-one engagement.

Wait, say that again?

What we mean is that it’s time to reevaluate. Ask yourself what was working well in the before-times, when high-touch, low-tech, analog interactions ruled, and make sure to leave room for those tried and tested tactics amidst the new, digital landscape. Balance is key.

 

Analog + digital customer engagement: how to find your balance

The analog versus digital metaphor may be from the engineering world, but it’s a great lesson in how tools can co-exist rather than conquer. In that realm, analog circuits excel with direct light and sound, but falter when it comes to any interference or noise. Digital circuits are a bit brainier (faster and more reliable with calculations) but it can be a complicated, resource-heavy lift.

Likewise, your shift to digital does not have to be, and should not be, all or nothing. Older but valuable tactics can absolutely fit into your new digital strategy. In fact, when you balance high-touch, one-to-one engagement with digital tools that breed efficiency, your overall customer experience improves.

It also bodes well for CSMs with different skillsets. CustomerGuru CEO Lynn Tsoflias outlined the benefits of both high-touch and digital-focused CSMs in the webinar, Scaling Customer Success:

So, what’s at the top of your list to keep for analog interactions? Consider these tried-and-tested activities:

1. Calling customers (on the phone) – they want to hear from you, and appreciate the extra effort.
2. Setting expectations up front (with every interaction) – provide a checklist/timeline/next steps to stay organized and respect their time.
3. Keeping the customer’s goals defined and prioritized – are your team and theirs still heading down the right path? (Ask this question a lot).
4. Lean on digital tools, in-app communications, and resources to support you (This one sounds like a segue…)

Getting started: Three high-touch + high-tech combinations to test

“I’ve emphasized the importance of understanding digital CS as a multifaceted strategy rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about creating internal efficiencies and making CSMs more effective in their roles.” Alex Turkovic, Snow Software + Digital Customer Success Podcast

Given the power of digital tools to provide easy access for customers and time saved for CSMs, there’s no shortage of ways to combine them with your analog activities. Consider these three high touch + automation combos to test and apply:

1: Onboarding

• Analog / High-touch: Schedule and conduct a new customer welcome call.
• Digital: Reiterate next steps + resources via emails or in-app messaging.
• Resources to dig deeper: 8 SaaS Onboarding Best Practices , How to Streamline Onboarding to Reduce Churn (webinar).

 

2: Customer journeys

• Analog / High-touch: Align metrics with account health by tracking performance through customer milestones.
• Digital: Set up consistent journey metrics (e.g. days/months minimum and maximum to achieve each milestone) that you can tweak and customize based on segments.
• Resources to dig deeper: 5 Tips to Simplify Your Customer Journey Map.

 

3: Product engagement 

• Analog / High-touch: Evaluate goals with the customer multiple times (beyond implementation and before renewal) to drive conversation and outcomes.
• Digital: Set up alerts based on strategic attributes (logged activities in X days, support tickets submitted, usage drop)
• Resources to dig deeper: Demystifying Customer Success with Alex Turcovic (podcast).

 

How to introduce new elements of digital customer engagement

While digital customer customer success offers extra value and efficiency for customers and CS teams alike, it’s important to deliver your new digital initiatives in a clear, clean fashion. Here are a few approaches based on what you might already have in your digital toolkit:

1. The cold turkey approach: it’s bold, but hear us out. If you’re launching a new support hub or online customer community, prep your customers ahead of time that you plan to “switch off” from traditional modes of contact. Once the shift happens, be consistent on exactly where they can find what they need.
2. The value-add message: will there be more resources available in this new hub? Is the community going to provide faster response times than a traditional support queue? Maybe renewals are now an automated process rather than manual? Make sure customers understand the digital shift is an improvement, not a hindrance.
3. Automate, then personalize: just because a campaign or email is low-touch, doesn’t mean it should be impersonal. Apply what you know from your segments and customer journeys to ensure each customer feels understood along the way.

 

Want to find out more about digital customer success?

Start with this ChurnZero webinar, presented by Lynn Tsoflias, where you’ll discover insights and tips on using digital CS tools to optimize your workflows, drive better customer outcomes, and improve your team’s productivity.