International Journal of Knowledge and Research in Management & E-Commerce Vol.6, Issue 4, October, 2016 e-ISSN: 2231-0339 print-ISSN: 2231-203X 1 Impact of Customers Engagement Strategies adopted by Indian Mobile Service Providers on Customers Loyalty and Retention Rohit Bansal Research Scholar IMSAR, M.D. University, Rohtak Email- rohitbansal.mba@gmail.com Dr.Kuldeep Chaudhary Research Supervisor IMSAR, M.D. University, Rohtak Abstract- Customer engagement strategy is an association among consumers and organizations by mean of various communication endeavors, incorporated by the organization. Customer engagement is basic for the survival of firms in today's technologically connected society. Companies are using both offline and online strategies to engage customers with brand. These strategies will build the success of marketing campaigns, increase value to the brand, and/or product or administration, enhance customer loyalty and helps them to retain with their brand. Enhancing customer engagement has been an area of focus for telecom companies now-a-days. This paper is a part of a larger study conducted to assess impact of customer engagement strategies adopted by Indian mobile service providers on customer loyalty and retention. Keywords: customer engagement strategy, customer loyalty, customer retention. Introduction In the recent years, customer engagement has been generated through television, radio, media, outdoor advertising, social networks and other various key strategies. However, the outcome of pure customer engagement was really not quantifiable. The only conclusive outcomes of campaigns were deals and/or rate of return figures. In recent times the internet has essentially improved the procedures of customer engagement, specifically, the way in which it can now be measured in various routes on various levels of engagement. Customer engagement strategy is an association among consumers and organizations by mean of various communication endeavors, incorporated by the organization. Customer engagement is basic for the survival of firms in today's technologically connected society. These strategies will build the success of marketing campaigns, increase value to the brand, and/or product or administration, and enhance customer satisfaction and helps them to retain with their brand. Indian companies have been implementing offline strategies since last few years in order to engage customers and gain competitive advantage. Offline customer engagement strategies include sponsoring educational and corporate social responsibility programs, hosting an event, promotional schemes, organizing conferences and seminars on customer engagement, considering customer feedback in product development, sending notification on mobile phones of customers about schemes and offers etc. But now companies cannot rely only on offline mode of engagement since customers do like spending time on internet. This fact has led to emergence of online customer engagement. Online customer engagement is qualitatively differ from the offline engagement as the way of the customer’s interactions with a brand, organization and other customers differ on the internet. Today is an era of online customer engagement since most of customers do spend lot of time on internet. Discussion forums or blogs, email marketing, live chats, creating a game, hold online contest, viral marketing, presence on social media etc. are few online customer engagement strategies through which companies can associate with customers. Social media is rapidly emerging as the next big frontier for customer care. There are millions of customer interactions taking place every day on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as a vast number of customer support forums and online communities. Customers are increasingly posting their queries online rather than going directly to a company via the phone or email which means there is always the risk of missing important feedback. Enabling customers to provide feedback in the ways that are most convenient to them allows businesses to continuously improve customer relationships. Companies should realize relevance of customer engagement and use a blend of both online as well as offline customer engagement strategies in order to engage customers more and gain sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, a marketer must not only aim to make the brand more desirable, more attractive and more preferable to the customer, but also do whatever it takes, for the customer to remain associated, interested and involved with the brand. In the process of buying, using and consuming the product, there is an emotional, psychological and physical investment by the customer on to the brand.