The interdisciplinary approach provided by the Customer Engagement Agency is not just words or marketing hype.  Customer Engagement Agencies bill differently, they have different account management strategies and project management approaches.  While Customer Engagement Agencies see and do things differently one thing that is consistent with change is leadership.  Customer Engagement Agencies tend to be led by strong leaders; leaders that can paint a vision and enable their teams to follow that vision.  Leaders that aren’t afraid to change the process, the people, the skills and the deliverables.  Leaders that will take risks such as pay for performance models, or new ways to evaluate and manufacture meaningful data.

As the emergence continues we suspect that some service providers will suggest they are Customer Engagement Agencies, however saying a firm is a customer engagement agency requires the appropriate skills compilation, but we shouldn’t forget that with emergence comes change, and while change can be managed, it is more often led.  We continue to look for emerging leaders that will carry on forcing the development of the Customer Engagement Agency.

The stories of Bean, Field, Nordstrom, and others are fabled, and well documented.  And while price will always play its part, our forbearers that gave us “the customer is always right” and “give the lady what she wants” laid the roadmap for creating loyal relationships based upon communication.  It’s a central theme, repeated through all of their messages, listen to the customer and treat them with respect.  This is fundamental, and something no degree of technology will ever change.

Why now then, after all this time, is Customer Engagement emerging as a core theme?  Because the rising tide of digital media consumption has re-written the landscape of available customer data, which in turn has sent off shockwaves that we all, unfortunately, have felt: declining campaign performance, the erosion or even elimination of certain trusted channels (e.g., newspaper), and an increased scrutiny on our demonstrated worth.

Do not despair.  A recession is necessarily followed by good times, and the sun has broken the horizon of our dark night.  While the emergence of the digital-self has disrupted traditional approaches, it has also provided a wealth of information.  Smart, forward looking marketers will seize on this to re-establish the lost relationship between their brands and customers; to create an open, two-way dialogue reminiscent of the Main St’s  of yore ways of doing business.  The path has been laid, grown over as it maybe; you just need to rediscover what has been lost.

Do be vigilant… and afraid.  If you aren’t learning to engage with your customers, your competition is.