This is a marketing blog, so why am I reading and sharing customer service articles? Well, because as with all things time and learning leads to change.

And one major change that needs to happen is for us marketing, public relations and communications professionals to pause for a moment to learn from our friends in customer service.

Our customers don’t silo their experiences with us; they never have and never will. Any outreach or interation is from the brand, not from the silo. From that perspective isn’t there value in understanding how servicing the customer at any point of communication or interaction provides an experience that benefits the organization overall all?

As we know, great customer service never goes out of style and below are insights into how 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 service them better.

1. Retail’s Big Blog: Southwest co-founder shares how to show employees the LUV

“We don’t have any secrets; we are an open book. But every time these companies came in they would want to know ‘what are your programs?’ And I would say over and over—and you could see the shades go down because people didn’t buy it—we don’t have ‘programs’ it’s a way of life. It is who we are. We spend an incredible amount of time hiring the right people who want to do the right thing. But we don’t have programs for handling things.”

[President Emeritus Colleen Barrett, also shares insights on why the customer is not always right. This interview is about 3.5-minutes and absolutely worth the time just to hear her response to inappropriate customer behavior and SWA’s employees.]

2. Knowledge at W.P. Carey (Arizona State University): ‘Warrior Spirit with a Servant’s Heart’: SWA’s Thriving Culture of Service

“Southwest’s product, Ridley explained, is the service: taking a customer from point A to point B, with his or her bags, on time. However there’s an intangible element — an experiential piece — that is critical to success, and Southwest tends that part with great care.”

“…a warrior spirit has a “servant’s heart,” he said. ‘You want people to serve others,’ he said, ‘but are you calling it out in your job descriptions? Are you telling people that’s what you want? People who are other-oriented, not self-important, who put others first — these are the people who will deliver service like Southwest Airlines.’ Last, they have a fun-loving attitude. ‘We take our customers and our competition seriously — not ourselves,’ Ridley said.”

3. Harvard Business School/Working Knowledge: The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

“When I began this research, I naively assumed that all firms must indeed have an outside-in orientation whereby they put their customers first in all their decisions and actions. After all, that is what business is about. Much to my surprise, I found that this was the exception rather than the rule for most businesses.”

“Best Buy, the largest dedicated consumer electronics retailer in the United States, provides a good example of a company that developed an outside-in orientation by tackling its own internal silos. Best Buy came to understand that true customer centricity cannot be achieved by simply listening to customers about their experiences with Best Buy; the company has to commit to owning the customers’ problems and working creatively to solve them.”

4. The Social Customer: Publix announcing online-curbside customer service

“…the customer can select their desired pick-up location with a guaranteed 30 minute window. The customer actually gets a personal shopper, and they can call in an order using a computer, fax or telephone. An estimated total is given after the order is taken, but the exact totals may vary depending upon the weight of produce, meat, and deli items. Sales prices for that day are in effect for the customer. A $7.99 service fee is charged, no matter if a customer is picking up a gallon of Haagen-Dazs or a week full of ingredients and grocery supplies.”

“’Publix Curbside is a natural extension of our service commitment, especially for time-starved families,’ states Marla Brous, Publix director of media and community relations.”

[Not only is this a great example of customer service, it’s also very customer-centric. Publix has a strong understanding of their customer’s wants and needs. They aren’t just in the ‘food-selling’ or retail business, they are in the product business—like Southwest Airlines—and that product is great customer service that leads to a great experience that can be repeated.]

Yeah, you. You’re the genius I am referring to!

In all the years of blogging here at The Harte of Marketing, I haven’t really asked for much, but I need your help.

I am looking for examples, case studies (I dread using that term, trust me), or even bread crumb trails that might lead me in the right direction. I’ve been digging around for examples of smart integrated marketing and customer-centric organizations to shine a spotlight on here at The Harte of Marketing.

While exploring the depths of the interwebs (my friend Tish Grier says it’s akin to spelunking), I have found some great articles, examples, interviews, but I know there is more to uncover.  I am looking for examples where companies have…

• Integrated social media* into any part of the marketing mix (product development, distribution, etc.)
• Integrated social media* into promotional campaigns (mixing social media with other channels)
• Used data to interact (digital) or message (traditional) customers/prospects based on previous buying habits
• Put their customers at the core of their business through customer service or social media (e.g. customer-centric organizations like Best Buy, Zappos, By Lauren Luke, FedEx)

[*The concept of social media or social media tools]

I’m not picky. I am looking for all sorts of examples! Large companies. Small companies. B2B. B2C. B2B2C. Music. Travel. Sports. Consumer Goods. Food. High-Tech Products and Services.

If you’re the genius behind an organization’s success at making customers or stakeholders happy by not bombarding them with marketing messages but by giving them what they want or need when they need it (or you’ve helped a client to do the same), let me know?

Want to contact me privately? Understood. Reach out to me at beth [at] theharteofmarketing [dot] com.

Thank you in advance!

A few weeks ago I went to Best Buy to get a new laptop and software. I asked for what I wanted and left with my new laptop fully loaded with software. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed the Microsoft Office version and Internet protection software loaded wasn’t what I had asked for. So, the following week (when I had time), I went back and explained that they had provided and installed the wrong version of Microsoft Office (it was a non-commercial use version). They told me an upgrade would solve the problem.

Today, I finally had a chance to load the upgrade and well, you guessed it, it was still a non-commercial use version and not what I wanted at all.

I packed up the laptop and all the software boxes and trekked back over to Best Buy. This would be my third trip and last time I was there I got a bit of resistance (they didn’t want to deal with returning opened and used software). So this time around, I thought I should see if Best Buy customer service was on Twitter.

A bunch of folks on Twitter let me know that the CMO of Best Buy, Barry Judge (@BestBuyCMO) was on Twitter (thank you @LenKendall, @DMASocialMedia, @KeithBurtis, @PhilBaumann for letting me know). I tweeted the CMO of Twitter and got a response from Gina, Best Buy’s Community Manager (@gina_community). Gina sent me an e-mail address and asked me to let her know what was going on at the store. I sent her an e-mail from my BlackBerry to get her up-to-date.

In the meantime, the Product Manager (Dwayne) at Best Buy was working with me to figure out what the next steps were. Simultaneously I was interacting with Gina on-line and Dwayne offline. Gina also e-mailed the store to see what progress was being made.

Dwayne was great and I was able to return all of the software that I couldn’t use and I finally got what I needed.

I was really glad to see that Best Buy was listening on Twitter, but unfortunately, they paid the price for not listening off-line (they are now stuck with a bunch of software that they can’t re-sell).

By the way, this whole situation was resolved in about 10-15 minutes and I can finally give kudos to Best Buy. I guess it’s true what they say… “third time’s a charm.”

[Image: San Fransisco Chronicle, SFGate.com]