Level 6: Critical Engagement

Our blog series on the Seven Levels of Engagement has arrived at the ‘Delight’ Phase. You’ve worked really hard to bring your customer to this higher Level of engagement, and it’s about to pay off. You’re heading towards customer interactions that move beyond simply purchasing a product or selling a service. Everything that you have done to this point has now provided you with the opportunity to now inspire your customer. Let's take a deeper look at Level 6: Critical Engagement.

In this Level, you are setting goals that will help your customers transform themselves. You want to provide them with the tools that they need to make positive changes in their lives. It's going to sound like a really daunting task at first. But it doesn't have to be. If you can identify for them the steps they need to take, your customers will associate these positive changes and connect them directly to your brand. The results can be two-fold. First, your customer will link your brand with this positive change for the rest of their lives. Secondly, you can create a positive action that genuinely benefits your customer. 

It's a true statement that human behavior rarely changes unless highly motivated. At Level 6, you are working as a company to inspire your customers to have the desire to make that positive change. You want to motivate them to set goals for the better. So how do you do that? Inspiring people and changing the world is a pretty tall order. 

The first thing you need to do before you start any type of outreach program to your customer is to make sure that Levels 1 through 5 are still being continually addressed. If after your initial sale, you have stopped communication, or perhaps not addressed issues with their Customer Journey, it's going to be hard to inspire them. This is especially important to consider for long-term customers. If you've made any changes to your business, such as updates to your logo or a change to your website, make sure that you are not neglecting those customers that you have worked so hard to nurture. Do not abandon them now or assume they will automatically stay at these higher Levels of engagement. Make sure they continue to evolve with you and are a part of your business journey. 

Let's think of an example ‘action plan’ for inspiring others to make a positive change. In CatalystU, our Level 6 tools help you plan this type of outreach and identify potential topics that your business can use. One example would be an email campaign. Before you begin any kind of nurturing campaign, you should reference your Catalyst Statement to define your core values and meaning. Remember, your business is not using this campaign to sell your services or products. You're going to be expressing your core beliefs and you hope to inspire others to do the same. 

If you are using an email campaign to inspire and motivate your customer to take action, you must make sure to communicate to them clearly why this core value is important to your business, it’s something you ‘live’ everyday and show them the value it can bring to their own lives. As an example, one of your core values could be ‘serving others’. You can set up an email campaign based around your business community service and offer free videos on how to apply for grants for funding on small, local projects. You could provide an opportunity for your customers to develop their own service projects using these tools within their local communities and share them with you using a universal hashtag on social media. Then, you could feature some of the most inspiring work and use them in future marketing campaigns or create other opportunities for brand advancement using joint partnerships with nonprofits. 

Your brand has walked the walk on your service core values, and you’ve inspired others to do the same. Your customer feels connected to your brand and is grateful and motivated to do more. We’ve officially reached the final Level of Engagement, where your values, methods and brand recognition align with your customer’s beliefs. The Seventh Level.