Customer Engagement Vs. Customer Communication: What’s the Difference?
How customer communication and customer engagement differ, and work together, to help businesses create meaningful, data-driven relationships with customers.
Customer engagement vs. customer communication—it may be tempting to use them interchangeably. Still, in practice, the two are essential components of a successful omnichannel strategy, and each play distinct roles.
Understanding the difference can set you up for success, helping you establish customer relationships that are built to last.
What’s Inside:
What is Customer Communication?
Customer communication is how businesses capture the attention of their customers and prospects. It’s a conversation that’s typically initiated by you, your brand (though in some instances, the customer can take the lead too, depending on your online presence).
When done right, communication becomes the foundation for effective customer engagement and a catalyst for building relationships and fostering loyalty.
What is Customer Engagement?
Customer engagement focuses on the ongoing interactions between a company and its customers.
You can measure engagement by the frequency of customer interactions, behaviors, and feedback about your brand and services. And you can track it through metrics like open rates, click-throughs, and social media interactions.
- Are they clicking that “Learn more” button in your email communication?
- Are they using your personalized videos to resolving issues with efficiency and satisfaction?
- Are they filling out your customer satisfaction surveys following service inquiries?
These customer journey touchpoints all play a role in determining how well you can engage with your audience and how much they enjoy engaging with you.
Interested in seeing how we can bring your omnichannel engagement strategy to life?
Customer Engagement Vs. Customer Communication: Here Are 7 Differences
1. Objectives
Communication: Builds awareness and delivers necessary information to initiate customer relationships, inspire calls to action (CTA), or inform.
Example: An email teasing an upcoming product launch includes a CTA to get on a wait list to purchase it.
Engagement: Builds customer relationships and encourages interactions that strengthen emotional connection, enhance satisfaction, and build brand loyalty throughout the customer lifecycle.
Example: An insurance provider sends an email to policy holders reminding them to review and update their coverage before the open enrollment period.
2. Conversation
Communication: Typically one-way, initiated by the business.
Example: You receive a welcome kit for the credit card you recently applied for, and it includes your new card, its features, and accompanying terms and conditions.
Engagement: Typically two-way, featuring reciprocal dialogue about your services.
Example: You’re engaging with SMS about issues you’re experiencing with a product or service.
3. Level of Personalization
Communication: Can include basic personalization or no personalization at all, depending on the channel or campaign. Messaging is generally standardized to broaden reach and gauge market interest.
Example: An email pops up in your inbox, and it catches your attention because the subject line includes your name, along with a specific action you should take, such as, “Sarah, don’t miss this great offer.”
Engagement: Offers a high level of personalized messaging, gleaned from customer activity, preferences, and past interactions.
Example: Your water bill includes information about your recent water consumption, as well as tips to keep your costs down for the next billing cycle.
4. Execution
Communication: Typically sent through channels like email blasts, push notifications or direct mail, and usually feature a single call to action or objective.
Example: You receive a promotional offer from a credit card company offering you a balance transfer at 0% for your first 6 months as a new customer.
Engagement: Information sent through multiple touchpoints like direct mail, email, social media, apps, support chats, social commentary, and activity.
Example: Your insurance provider sends you a personalized update about your terms after an important regulatory change.
5. Timing & Frequency
Communication: Usually pre-planned or campaign based, closely aligned with a marketing strategy, and follows a marketing calendar.
Example: Your product team has been redesigning your online portal with plans for completion in the second quarter.
Engagement: Can be real-time or ongoing, based on user behavior and feedback.
Example: You receive a follow-up email from customer support acknowledging an issue you reported over the phone. The message provides a clear summary of the problem and outlines the service level agreement (SLA) for the expected resolution timeline.
6. Measurement
Communication: Metrics such as email open rates, click-throughs, direct mail response, and conversions can help assess the effectiveness of your message and how it resonates with your audience.
Example: Your print and digital direct mail campaign includes a custom website link that customers must enter to claim an offer. The marketing team measures the success of the campaign based on the number of offers that were claimed.
Engagement: Utilize customer referrals or existing customer relationships to gauge customer satisfaction levels through surveys, online reviews, or brand advocacy.
Example: You’re asked to provide a public rating and review of a service you recently received, which contributes to an average rate of satisfaction for future customers.
7. Optimization
Communication: Metrics can offer an idea of where you can tweak and adjust your communications and market segmentation.
Example: A marketing team A/B tests two subject lines in an email to determine which one garnered a higher open rate.
Engagement: Explore customer feedback or how your customers navigate your website to increase the personalization of follow-up communications or influence how you design print or digital customer experience touchpoints.
Example: A company realizes that customers are still calling into their call center for technical support after visiting their FAQ section. They review their call logs and realize their FAQs are missing vital information and make necessary updates so their customers can troubleshoot issues on their own.
Make the shift: Take control of the customer journey with Doxim CCM
How to Enhance Your Customer Communication and Engagement
You can better engage your audience by ensuring your communications are:
- Easy to understand – Use straightforward, jargon-free language that’s inclusive and engaging.
- Personalized – Address recipients by name when possible, and tailor content to reflect their individual profiles, preferences, or account history.
- Timely – Deliver your communications within a defined timeframe, aligned with industry and regulatory expectations, so your audience feels valued, and you remain top of mind.
Need a little guidance? An expert CCM provider can help you bridge communication and omnichannel engagement silos.
By using integrated tools and a unified approach, businesses can improve how they connect with customers – supporting the delivery of relevant messages across multiple channels.
To Communicate, or to Engage?
Both, without a doubt.
Customer engagement vs. customer communication: it’s not a competition. Instead, the two concepts are an interplay of entertainment and connection. The former aims to capture attention, convey value, and inspire action, while the latter nurtures relationships, builds trust, and instills loyalty through meaningful, relevant interactions.
When your omnichannel strategy effectively executes these two methods, you can identify market trends, anticipate customer needs, and inspire brand advocacy at every stage of the customer journey.
