By Hansen Lieu
Director of Product Marketing at SAP
Is customer service the new marketing? Is customer service “the heart of marketing?” The answer is a resounding “Yes”, and the days of Don Draper marketing are over!
Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, my minivan was sideswiped by a driver in a hurry to drop off her kid at our neighborhood school. I was dreading the claims process with my insurance provider, Farmers. But to my surprise, my insurance company made the process completely painless, and I daresay, pleasant. When I called up to report the incident, the claim processor was courteous, patient, and helpful. She set up an appointment at my chosen body shop, arranged for a rental car and scheduled for them to pick me up right from the repairman’s. And when I got to the body shop, everything was all set up. I signed some documents and hopped on a shuttle ride to the rental car agency. A few minutes after arriving at the rental car office, I was on my way home with a rental car. It was a well-designed and well-executed customer experience. With a claims process like that, I am happily renewing my policies with Farmers and will continue to give them more business in the future!
I will wager that you have similar examples with leading brands and enterprises that understand and use customer service to win your heart and mind. At the same time, we have also experienced many subpar customer service incidents that have us taking our business elsewhere.
For those data geeks, here are some to chew on:
- 8 out of 10 customers spend half of their total buying time researching online, according Power Review.
And according to Global American Express Customer Service Barometer
- 48% of customers will praise company or brand about the good service they have experienced
- 66% of customers will spend more with companies and brands who provide good customer service
78% of customers will stop buying from companies and brands for bad customer service
If you are looking for more stats, check out our infographic here.
Clearly, customer service is at the center of an enterprise’s effort to build trust, goodwill, advocacy, and drive revenue. Aren’t these the same objectives for marketing?
Here are some implications for customer service leaders, as well as for marketers.
Customer service and marketing need to collaborate and align. Marketing messages must be grounded in reality and be backed up by customer service. Both groups must collaborate and work together in how they engage with customers. Marketing and senior management need to consider customer service as part of the marketing strategy and invest appropriately.
Service excellence can be attained with your customer service. This is a table stake and necessary condition to achieve other objectives. Not delivering the customer service your customers expect is essentially “negative marketing.” It will nullify all the wonderful perception and promises associated with your enterprise and brands.
Engagement with your customers is essential. This does not necessary mean that you must be their BFF. However, it does mean that you need to really know them beyond their latest issue. You need to have the insights to anticipate their needs and problems and proactively “call them” before they call you.
Advocacy and revenue is an essential outcome. Once you have continuing customer engagement, use it to develop active advocacy about your enterprise. Encourage, incentivize, and facilitate your customers to “market” your products and customer service. And of course, “sell” to them at the right time and in the right context.
What do you think? I will be hosting a panel discussion on this very topic at the upcoming Social Shake Up conference in Atlanta, September 16th – 17th. Join our conversation and hear from customer service expert Shep Hyken and experienced practitioners as we explore this topic and its implications for customer service and marketing leaders. If you can’t make it to the event live, join the discussion on LinkedIn and tell us your customer service story affecting your spend with that company.
The post Why The Days of Don Draper Marketing Are Over appeared first on The Customer Edge and is republished here with permission.
Photo: RTP, Flickr