Drive loyalty and engagement by connecting with your customers.
By Lori Buss Stillman
Everything we do today—how we work, how we interact with others, how we collaborate and have dialogue, even how we shop—is taking place with our phones. Digital technology is everywhere and it’s not going away. And there are some great benefits to digital technology. But it’s changed how we interact with those who are present with us. We’re not interacting with each other face to face. It seems as if everything is taking place digitally. Yet, as humans we need each other.
We crave interaction. We draw and give energy from and to each other to get through the highs and lows of our life. Human connections are important. We seek them out. We look for people to celebrate with. We want to have eyeball interactions with people who we transact business with because it makes us feel better about those engagements. We want to celebrate and have fun. We want to do all these things that can happen in technology but are certainly better when they happen face to face. Even coming into a store and just having a place to sit down and linger for a minute rather than eating another meal at the dashboard.
Some 5.4 billion people all over the world, or about 70% of people on the planet, have unique mobile phones. About 5 billion are using the internet and about 60% of the population are active social media users. We continue to become more rapidly digital than ever before. We now, on average around the globe, spend six hours and 37 minutes every single day online. And by the way, 92% of us are doing that on those devices that we all can’t live without. I’m guilty too.
And the question is, what does this mean to society when everybody is online and everybody’s busy looking down rather than looking out, touching and interacting with others? I’ll give it to you in one word. Loneliness. Look at the statistics of society today. We are more connected than we’ve ever been before, and people are lonelier and isolated in ways they can’t even comprehend.
A Harvard survey last year found that 48% of young mothers were profoundly lonely. We’re not talking about older Americans, where we might expect that they’re not as mobile as they once were. On average, 20% of Americans today describe themselves as deeply lonely. That’s a big number. So, what does this have to do with loyalty and engagement?
Well, our industry does 165 million transactions in the United States every single day. That’s the equivalent of half the U.S. population in and out of a convenience store every single day. Some 43% of the U.S. population lives within a mile of a convenience store and 86% lives within 10 miles.
We employ almost 2.5 million people and are engaged in our communities through programs where we’re giving back. So, the opportunity to win loyalty and engagement is to build upon frequency, to build upon proximity and to build upon community to deliver human connections. Loyalty and engagement come by giving people an opportunity to be human, to put down their devices, to have a conversation, to be seen, to have a quick friendly chat—even if it’s a minute in the store over a cup of coffee while they’re checking out. It might be the one time in their entire day that they are real. And that is powerful and easy to do.
But, you must first connect with your employees if you expect them to connect with your customers. This is on account of the same basic human dynamics that your customers face. They must be seen, recognized and rewarded with more than just a salary. A pat on the back. Good job! They need to be respected. And create an environment where they connect with your brand’s values, purpose and mission. Do they know it? Can they recite it? But these brand values must be real in practice, not just words. Because if they don’t feel it in their hearts, they can’t extend it to the customers that they serve on the other side of the counter.
And when they are on board, as part of a real team, they can be motivated to make eye contact with people when they come in, recognize them, compliment them, have that cup of coffee with the two sugars ready for Joe or Sally as they’re coming through the door. Little things that allow customers to know this is my place, this is where I belong, I’m connected here.
Experience matters, and while it can be emotionally rewarding it can also be financially rewarding. Some 35% of people say that an enjoyable experience translates to increased frequency. That’s not really rocket science. But, if the experience is good, they’ll spend more, because they are not in as big of a rush to move on with their day.
So, the opportunity to win loyalty and engagement is to build upon frequency, proximity and community to deliver human connections. I guarantee you that the brown box that’s likely waiting for them on the front porch when they get home at the end of the day isn’t going to ask them how their day went.
Lori Buss Stillman is vice president, research and education for NACS.
