The Missing Link in Your Marketing
Marketing [mahr-ki-ting] noun The total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing and selling.
Marketing is a broad term. It can be applied to a wide variety of efforts, from packaging and public relations to social media and advertising. But there is one absolutely essential area of marketing that most companies – even the biggest and best businesses – fail to recognize.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Believe it or not, customer service is marketing. Check that: Customer service is the single most important form of marketing. It is a direct representation of your company to customers. And more than anything else, it can determine what the individual thinks of your organization, how they perceive your brand and whether or not they will ever invest in your product or service again.
Marketing is often removed from the customer service process. Why?
It simply doesn’t make sense. The majority of customer representatives – the people who actually talk about your company, product and services; the people who represent your brand to consumers – never receive any brand training. They don’t know the organization’s mission and message, and how they can use their role to relay that message and shape the way customers view your company.
As a result, customer service becomes a detriment instead of a benefit
Ask the majority of representatives what the message of the organization they work for is and they will probably give you a blank stare. When customer service representatives don’t know they are marketers, they don’t market. They don’t work to advance your brand or your services. They don’t understand the value of long-term customers. They don’t build and nurture the relationships that keep your business afloat.
How to make your customer service a marketing asset
If you want to truly advance your marketing efforts, start with your people. Especially the people who represent your company to the public. Your front line. Train your customer service team on your brand, your message, your mission. Impart to them who you are, what you do and why you stand out from the competition. If you outsource your customer service, bring in your providers for training. Invest your customer service personnel with the same strategic focus on message and meaning you work into all your marketing materials.
Encourage your customer service representatives to be marketers
You’ve heard the old saying “a key to a man’s heart is through his stomach” – well for businesses “the key to winning over employees is through their wallet.” It might seem like an easy out, but monetary incentives will always be a great way to spearhead involvement by your customer service employees. Give them compensation or rewards when they engage with new company policies and “ways of thinking” about customers. It will cause less headaches for management and build morale within the organization.
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