Barry Moltz is serious about customer service. So much so, in fact, that his nightmares center on bad customer service scenarios, he told attendees of the GrowSmartBiz Conference this month. Moltz says he even owns a button that says, “Just give me good customer service and nobody gets hurt.”
That’s serious.
Businesses of all sizes that are serious about surviving and thriving need to listen to Moltz’s assertion that customer service is the new marketing. In other words, the best way to promote your business and attract new customers is through providing exceptional customer service, not through traditional marketing techniques.
The reason, he explained, is fourfold:
- The recession has made people think more about how they’re spending their money.
- Technology — namely social media — is changing the way consumers interact with brands and companies.
- People expect a new level of personalization in the service they receive. Moltz calls this “faux personalization” — think about the way so many online retail sites greet you with your first name each time you come back.
- Advertising, which was king back in the day, now is unable to control the conversation about a company and its products.
Your customers and your competitors are online and watching what people all over the Internet say about your company, explained Moltz. Current and prospective customers are using that information to decide whether they want to keep doing business with you. The competition is watching for you to mess up so they can seize the opportunity to do better.
That’s why you need to be online and ready to provide good customer service there — outside of your store and off of the phone.
Your customers aren’t as likely to tell you they’re unhappy with the service you provided as they are to get online and tell the world. That may seem scary, but it’s better than the alternative, which could be them never doing business with you again and telling all of their offline friends they should do the same. When that happens, you don’t hear about it and can’t do anything about it. Online, you have the opportunity to respond well, keep the customer and convince other people they want to do business with you.
That’s why Moltz assures people not to get too down on themselves when they make customer service mistakes — they’re inevitable because you’re human. The secret is to admit you’ve made a mistake and not try to ignore it away, then tackle it head-on and resolve it well.
Image credit: f4f, via iStockPhoto
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Great post Brooke. As you highlighted, the best way to promote your business and attract new customers is through providing exceptional customer service. I could not agree with you more. My company, TeamSnap, is a web-based application to manage teams and groups online. We have designed the site to be intuitive and easy for anyone to use but we have also made customer support a key initiative. We send personal responses to every inquiry and feature request and customers often go out of their way to tell us how much they appreciate this.
What we have found is that in going the extra mile to assist our customers, they have really helped us to be a better company and produce a better product. We just posted about this on our blog: http://blog.teamsnap.com/customer-service/who-is-… With the advancements in technology and social media it is important for companies to be out there listening and acknowledg inquiries and complaints. As you said, we are human and mistakes happen, it is a company's response and resolution where the impact is made.
I wish Comcast would listen to this.
Thanks for this – I completely agree that the customer service channel is more than just servicing the customer. How that "feels" to the customer is also part of marketing. My concern with social media channels is that they make customers think that because they complain on twitter, that they should be serviced ahead of people who call with customer service issues. All customer complaints have merit because they are looking for redress. I've not seen how we can treat everyone fairly in a channel agnostic fashion… I'd hate to think that some customers are treated better than others simply because they are more technologically savvy.
Calling customer service marketing diminishes respect for proper customer service and diminishes respect for marketing efforts.
"Let's just get rid of the marketing department entirely" is the next logical step of "Customer service is the new marketing." And this is NOT a smart business decision. Both marketing and customer service are needed to help a business to grow. Each plays its part in the success of a company.
When you try to make one into the other – instead of having both and getting them to SUPPORT each other – you end up failing. Typically, you end up either making your customer service seem like marketing – which makes it feel like lip service, or you end up believing marketing is unimportant, which results in a lack of focused efforts on promotion for your company.
Customer service impacts the believability of marketing, it's true. Poor customer service can destroy marketing efforts. This is also true. But calling one the other is a bad plan.
@Karin – I completely agree! That's why in large corporations, customer service and marketing are two separate departments! Good marketing will get potential customers to see your product benefits, and good customer service will give your existing customers satisfaction if there is a problem. You absolutely cannot have one without the other
My recent post Successful Keyword Rankings – You Get to Celebrate
I agree with this article, bad service makes me forget about good products.
The landscape is changing quickly. There's a whole generation of 20-somethings that have different expectations about customer service than Gen X'ers, like me. We grew up dealing with crummy service across the board, therefore, we've uncoupled much of it from the brand. But millennials – growing up with the world at their fingertips and with instant gratification as the norm… customer service and the customer experience is a HUGE part of today's brand. Marketing needs to collaborate with customer service folks (in the call center for example) to figure out ways to surprise and delight customers and affirm their decision to remain your loyal customer. When customers call for service…it's an opportunity to create a positive experience and reinforce your brand . A marketing strategy that encourages customer service to be transparent and to use emerging channels of communication (SMS, social media) will go a long way.
Retailing is all about customer sevice. Your best marketing strategy is to have the best customer service and that is only spread by word of mouth. This is assuming you have the best product for the your paricular market. Marketing for the small business owner really comes after you have established yourself in the community. Once established you can add the marketing extras, ie. web site, facebook, emails, direct mail, etc. Before that…it's hard work and due diligence.
Good post – I would argue that successful companies realize that from day one customer service is and has always been the most important facet of marketing. I do agree that the new tools of social media afford companies the opportunity to have more conversations with consumers. And (thankfully) consumers are realizing that "the way its always been" does not have to be. I have a pizza restaurant and I love that Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc. are there for my customers to use as a tool to help me and our team become better.
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“In other words, the best way to promote your business and attract new customers is through providing exceptional customer service” – couldn’t have said it better myself! Customer service can make or break a company, so it’s important to make sure you are where your customers are, listening and going above and beyond for them.
How you treat people is strengthening your brand, whether it is positive or negative. It's our human touch on customers.
[...] Found at Customer service is the new marketing. [...]
Pardon me if I sound rough but….this is "great stuff". WallyTomBo's Antiques LLC is brick and mortar and in recess at this time until Spring 2011. Our on line site is not our primary revenue but it could be. In our down time as co-owner I am on line reading and taking note of anything that can improve our brand in the market. They say if you read a book and gather only one thing from it then the reading was time well spent. The insight Brooke Howell has provided should be a boost to local businesses who also employ on line activity provided this information is put into practice. Thank-you
Your post got me thinking. Certainly, customer service is critical to the ultimate success of marketing. Both marketing and customer service involve listening and being responsive to the customer. But I think marketing is also about proactively getting the message out and promoting. Done right it's education and seduction. Promoting doesn't have to be a dirty word – especially when customers are hungry for information. On the other hand, I don't necessarily want customer service to "upsell" to me. I want them to help solve my problem or answer my question in a timely manner. I will say that thanks to social media – the two are becoming increasingly interdependent on one another, but I am not sure they are one and the same.
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[...] If emails could chant, a collective “We Agree” mantra could have been heard emanating from the Outlook accounts of many VIPdesk employees on Monday. What were we agreeing with? It was Brooke Howell’s recent blog, “Customer Service is the New Marketing.” [...]
All very valid points but great customer service also requires:
A.) A product that works and fills a need
B.) Operations to support the fulfillment of the product
Social media has transform customer service and bad experiences gets amplified with social media, pros/cons. Great for businesses who value customer service, not so much for monopoly public utilities, etc.
My recent post How to Leverage Customer Service to Improve Your Bottom Line
[...] in the blog/Twitter/marketing world about customer service being the new black, or at least the new marketing. Responding to a problem that a customer experienced is certainly essential, but the public and [...]
[...] Customer service is the new marketing [...]