What does engagement look like?
My simple definition of engagement is "involvement with heart and mind." For involvement I refer to the lifelong studies on the subject by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who defined it simply as challenges matching skills. This can be managed to a large degree by individuals or groups through training and choices in tasks, efforts or activities.
An engaged person will bring thought (mind) and emotion (heart) to a task or activity (challenge) along with their abilities (skills). This thought and emotion will usually begin before the activity (ie. brush their teeth with it) and continue after it. The greater the effort the greater the level of engagement (towards full engagement on the continuum). Engaged persons have learned by experience to get feedback from their own daily activities (in addition to the feedback they receive from colleagues and supervisors) and are energized and self-motivated by the process. Especially when it contributes to the benefit of others.
When a person is involved with heart and mind they demonstrate it through three key ways. Intentions, reflection and attention. These lead to commitments, learning, and focus respectively. Anyone, if they want to, can use a 5-step process (set of actions) to lead engagement with (not to) a group of people through daily operations. This process, when repeated, will help a group learn and/or continue to get customer feedback from their own daily activities--both individually and as a group.
Engagement may be as simple, brief, and fleeting as a greeting and smile. Or as large as as individuals or groups whose activities provide so much feedback that they become fully engaged through the ability to give themselves objective feedback.
The real magic happens when an engaged associate engages a customer. I call this the "cycle of engagement." The intentions, reflection, and attention of the associate is transferred to a customer who becomes inspired and self-motivated. Then the enthusiasm of the customer reengages the associate as well as partners who become enthused again after being energized by getting feedback from their own daily activities.
The cycle of engagement can build a natural momentum through human emotions and experiences. One important benefit from such momentum is that of continuous assessments (opinions) being formed by everyone on the frontlines. These assessments create an ongoing customer dialogue between not only associates and customers but with fellow associates and partners as well.
I believe such a cycle of engagement to be a key factor in building customer loyalty and retention as well as the retention of associates and even partners.