Learnings from La Rambla: The Power of Engagement

From my fourth-floor balcony overlooking Barcelona Spain’s La Rambla, I watched daily life flow past like a rushing current. Five weeks into a three-month stay, I was slowly wading into a culture that felt beautifully unfamiliar, often awkward, but also a fresh and welcome new take on daily life.

Below me, the pedestrian stretch bustled: shopkeepers, pop-up vendors, and waiters lined the walkway. With near clockwork consistency, they stepped forward—offering menus, souvenirs, and smiles—hoping to catch the attention of a passersby. Most replies? A polite, “No gracias.” But occasionally, someone paused and said, “Si.”

It was a dance, relentless and rhythmic. Many rejections. A few wins. Isn’t that business?

Why Engagement Matters

In the professional world, especially in technology, we face a similar choreography. Leaders work to offer value, clarity, and connection. Prospective buyers evaluate trust, relevance, and need. Amid that exchange underlies the quiet engine of long-term success: customer engagement.

It’s not enough to build great solutions. Without deep, ongoing engagement, opportunities fade, and loyalty weakens. A one-time transaction doesn’t sustain growth. A relationship does.

“Highly engaged customers buy 90% more often and spend 60% more per transaction.”  —Brian Balfour, Former VP of Growth, HubSpot

Engagement is not simply customer service. Engagement is a customer strategy.

What Engagement Is, and Isn’t

An engagement program is not a call center or troubleshooting desk. It’s a life-cycle commitment from pre-sale conversations and strategic planning, to delivery, operations, and feedback. It involves every touchpoint that proves, again and again, you’re invested in the customer’s successful outcomes beyond implementation of a tool, product, or service.

Customer Success may serve as the steward of this discipline, but measurable results require the entire organization to come along for the ride. A customer-focused strategy starts with energized employees that have a shared belief that collaboration, transparency, and outcome-driven execution benefits both them and the customer.

Technology solves business problems. But people create loyalty.

You Always Return to People You Trust

Leaving Spain felt like leaving a neighborhood of friends. The market stall owners, the cafes in El Born, the beach vendors—they’d become part of my rhythm. I’ll return to them one day. Not just for the products or plates of tapas, but because they made me believe I was an extension of their family-a mutual give and take with outcomes equally beneficial.

That’s what engagement looks like: long term connection, authenticity, and shared intention.

For insights on the “how” behind a revenue driving engagement program, let’s connect!