Customer Service is Part of Your Marketing

Once again I am reminded how utterly crucial customer service is to the general perception of a business. Why is it that companies work so hard to get consumer money, only to ignore them once said money is in hand? Do your customers really not matter to you after that initial sale? If so, you really need to rethink your strategy.

It is getting easier for customers to tell others about great — or terrible — customer service. Social media has furthered the reach of so many people. A few years ago, I could have told twenty or thirty people about my experiences (before I got tired of repeating myself). With Twitter and Facebook, I’m telling closer to a thousand.

Do you think that doesn’t affect your bottom line?

For instance, even though it was months ago, I still tell people how Gerber/Nestlé helped me get parts for my son’s sippy cup when I couldn’t find them in stores. And I continue to get hits on my old post about my frustration with Target’s return policy when it comes to baby gift registries.

Regan at Formation of Me recently posted both her good and bad customer service experiences on her blog. Good for Lowe’s, but not so good for Samsung. When she couldn’t get her refrigerator fixed or replaced for well over a week, even though it was under warranty, she got frustrated with Samsung. In desperation, she called the company that she bought the appliance from. Lowe’s fixed it — they replaced the fridge. Some of my family had a similar experience with Lowe’s fixing a purchase issue for them.

So one company will get glowing reports and valuable word-of-mouth marketing. The other will also get word-of-mouth, but it isn’t the kind that most of us strive for. How you treat your customers will always reflect back on you. You can no longer operate in a vacuum, pretending that there are plenty of customers to go around. There are very few instances where you can tell a customer to take their business elsewhere, nor can you assume that their experiences won’t get around to other customers.

You have the opportunity to hear customer complaints and fix them. You have the chance to provide excellent customer service. Are you giving your employees the training they need and the empowerment to truly fix problems? What are you waiting for?

image: Newscom