Hey Marketers! What’s Your Customer Service IQ?
One of my biggest pet peeves as a marketer (and PR practitioner, too!) is not having access to customers.
Fortunately, I have worked for many companies that have trusted me and allowed access.
Of course, I have also received my fair share of Heismans from sales and management. Heck, by their blocking you would have thought I was requesting their first born for a ritual sacrifice or worse… their yearly bonus.
Today, in our social world there is absolutely no reason to refuse marketers access to customers. Unless, of course, said marketers are raving lunatics running around high on tactical crack because their sales team is demanding leads. Then yeah, they shouldn’t be allowed to chat it up with customers.
Reality Check
Customers do not silo their experiences with companies—they never have and never will.
When a customer gets a direct mail piece, they don’t think “Oh, wow. How nice of those direct marketers for sending us this little card with a discount code.” Nor do they think, “Hey thanks PPC manager! I appreciate that you put that Google ad squarely in my face when I was looking for new shoes.”
If marketers understand customers from that perspective, they will understand that any outreach, touch point, or interaction must represent the brand, not the silo.
From that regard, all interactions that marketers have with customers must be authentic and transparent in nature. Remember, you are the brand. For example, if your reason for interacting is to collect insights for a new product or service, be clear about it. Customers often appreciate being able to provide feedback if they think the company is willing to listen and implement their suggestions.
Learning From Our Friends In Customer Service
As we know, great customer service never goes out of style. Companies like Southwest Air, Best Buy, and Publix have made a business decision to put the customer in the center of their organization in order to serve them better.
Marketers need to make a concerted effort do the same thing. Servicing the customer isn’t just smart after the sale, but long before one.
CMS offers 65 Customer Service Best Practices and many applied to marketing. The below list falls under the category of things that MUST be implemented in marketing.
- How can we make it easier for our customers to do business with us?
- Instant chat lines set up to answer customers concerns
- Have a profile and complete record of each customer
- Focus groups/Brainstorming sessions with customers
- Be accessible to customers
- How do we meet and exceed expectations?
- Customer advisory board
- Anticipate problems and solve them before the customer complains
- Determine customer expectations
- Set guidelines for being more reliable, responsive and credible
- Listen to them
- Ask the right questions to find real problems and concerns
- Open communication
- Say “NO” less often
- More recognition for both internal and external customers
- Showing the flag – get in front of the customer more often – visit
Where does your customer service IQ fall? Would you have selected these items for marketing? What other customer service best and effective practices should marketers implement?
[Image source: Savage Chickens]
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I love this post Beth. You know my marketing world is the tiny planet of trade shows and conferences…but this applies there as well. I have not yet read the entire list, but in my world I would add, the customer experience ends when they get home and are safely in their house.
Example: We recently had an event at a great location with great parking. It was really easy to find. It was not so easy to find your way out of the parking lot and back to the main road. GPS also struggled. We made up exit signs to lead our guests all the way out and back to the main road.
No matter how good of a time they had at our event. If they got frustrated trying to get out…it turns into a lousy event.
Traci Browne recently posted..What Meeting Professionals can Learn from Virtual Choir 20
Traci, that is a great example and totally true. How many times have we (yes, you and me) had a great experience up until the point of paying?! The true is same if you can’t get into the parking lot. The experience is bad before it even starts (need I mention our Ambler adventure?!).
Successful businesses consistently deliver a unique, valuable customer experience because they understand that the goal is to build a life-long relationship that’s mutually beneficial.
The other extreme is an experience that tosses obstacle after obstacle in front of the buyer – to the point where you could say that sales are made despite the business’ best efforts. That’s the retail store that has 4 pallets of a high demand product in the backroom, no products on the shelf, and employees that don’t realize that this is a problem.
And then there’s the bulk of businesses that are inconsistent and can go from one extreme to the other.
Here’s hoping your list of customer service best practices gets read and implemented by lots and lots of businesses.
Best, Pat