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"Customer Service" Marketing
Developing a Customer-Focused Culture and Promoting It
"Customer service" is one of those things that’s as over-used as it is rarely delivered upon.
Great customer service is a must for any business to continue to grow without constantly turning-over its customer base, but what is customer service? More to the point, what is good customer service?
Good customer service begins with the realization that "You will be judged, not by what you say, but by what you do."
To give you a starting place on your path from good customer service to great customer service here’s our "7 Sure-fire Paths to Great Customer Service" and a few keys to marketing your new-found level of service.
7 Sure-fire Paths to Great Customer Service
7. Answer the phone.
Email, IM, Fax are all fine, but in the 21st century people still want to talk to a human being. Ideally, they would like to speak to the same human being more than once. Get call forwarding, an answering service with access to your calendar, hire someone--whatever it takes to stay in contact with your customers.
Nothing says "I don’t care about your business" more than an answering machine and no call-back.
6. Under-promise and over-deliver.
Don’t promise even what you think you can deliver. Don’t plan on delivering only what you promised. It’s in the delta between what you promise and what you deliver that anyone cares about.
Set your customers expectations high enough to make them happy, but nowhere near as happy as they are going to be when you’re done. Keep to this and you will never disappoint and always dazzle.
5. Ask for feedback and listen.
Contrary to popular belief, your customers know more about your business than you do.
What your customers know about your business, their opinion of it, and their experiences with you and every facet of your business trumps your vision of what you want your company to be. Their opinion is what it is, not what will be.
Ask your clients for feedback, whether through an online survey, written letter, or personal visit to their office. Ask them for feedback and take it seriously. It’s their objective feedback that will make a greater impact on the success of your business than all the consultants money can buy.
4. Welcome complaints and fix problems
Don’t be afraid of complaints and take their resolution seriously. It’s likely that for every complaint that makes it to your desk, there are tens or hundreds of customers with a similiar complaint that prompted them to quietly take their business elsewhere.
3. Be helpful – even when it’s not necessarily profitable
If the resolution to a new customer’s problem is a simple one, why not just help them out free of charge? It’s a memorable and powerful gesture to offer to help a prospective customer for free. Weigh the actual cost of what you are giving away against the opportunity to generate priceless good will.
As point of fact, our best and most profitable clients were born out of just such a gesture.
2. Make an extra effort
Nothing screams "great customer service" like when you put in that little extra effort. This is the difference between telling someone it’s on aisle 9 and walking them over to it and making sure that it’s really what they want.
1. Build a relationship
The fasts way to build a customer base of Raving Fans is to actively cultivate a relationship. Show your customers that they are more than just a number. Show them that you care about their success, care about their well-being, and care about their every interaction with your business.
Customers like doing business with friends. Become a friend providing a much-needed service and they’ll become a life-long customer.
Tactics for Marketing Customer Service
Case Studies/Testimonials
A favorite among service firms, case studies and client testimonials in your marketing communications allows your actions and successes to speak for themselves. After all, everyone can talk-the-talk. Can you demonstrate that you have walked-the-walk and will continue to do so?
Open Reviews
There’s little or no value to censored customer reviews. There’s also nothing more interesting than a bad review. Allow your customers to review your product or service openly. Their uncensored reviews are far more interesting than marketing communications that just pound on their chests.
You can always moderate the reviews after the fact and delete any reviews that are slanderous. Open reviews are a great way of validating what you’re marketing has been saying all along.
Customer Feedback Surveys
Customer feedback surveys, especially online surveys, are a great way of asking for and aggregating feedback from your customer base. Today, there are many easy and cost-effective ways of producing a successful feedback survey campaign.
For more information about surveys, visit our marketing services page.
Customer Retention Campaigns
Sometimes referred to as "customer appreciation" marketing, this should be done at a time it's not 'expected'. Christmas cards are nice, but bland and forgettable. Send a "thanks for your business" on some random Tuesday. Send a "get well" card to your customer point-of-contact if he or she is out sick for some time. How about a "Thanks and we'll miss you" note to clients who have been lost?
Bet you've never gotten that one.
Recommended Reads:
For more information about marketing invisible services like customer service, we recommend Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith.
Click here to listen to the audio podcast of this page.
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