Marketing is fine. But it will only succeed if other aspects of your business, especially customer service quality, are top-notch.
Let us start with the basics. If you are a business owner, you are trying to tell the world what you have to offer (your product) and how it will benefit people. Marketing attracts potential clients. If they like what you have to offer, they eventually pay you to own or use your product. At this stage, customer experience and especially customer service, become the dominant factors in transforming your customers into brand advocates.
Brands should also promote their quality of service they provide to their customers, not just the products
Establishing a stellar customer service process aids in marketing efforts. As a result, companies constantly strive to provide the best service to their customers, which is critical to modern-day marketing strategy.
- Prompt, result-oriented service leaves a lasting impression on customers.
- Efficient service attracts customers, increases their retention, and drives revenue.
- Your service standard also boosts customer loyalty and brand advocacy.
Brands try to forge excellent and strong relationships with their target audience to build trust by providing excellent service.
Including customer service in marketing strategies
Now that we are clear about marketing and the importance of service, let us understand why customer service is becoming an integral part of modern-day marketing strategies. Most organizations believe that marketing involves engaging people until they become customers. The idea is that marketing is essentially a ‘pre-sales’ process. And this could not be further from the truth. Marketing professionals are tasked with putting the best image of the organization out to the world. And that does not imply portraying a shiny facet alone.
Customers today are more discerning than ever, which means they want to know everything about what an organization has to offer and how they go about providing it. This means portraying a 360-degree view of the company to everyone—customers who did business with the organization in the past, present, and future.
Based on their observations, consumers will decide whether or not to sign up as clients of the brand. As a business owner or marketer, you have a very limited chance to attract customer attention, engage them meaningfully, and convert them. How a brand approaches its customers before a sale is essential, but perhaps more important is how it treats customers after the sale is completed.
Scenario: Joe is flying into Florida for some official work. After completing his official engagements, Joe wishes to make a trip across the beautiful and historic state. He wants to start in Orlando and has not planned a fixed destination yet. For this, he has decided to self-drive across the states, making stops at important tourist attractions.
Joe approaches a car rental agency and inquires about the various packages. For him, the best travel experience is one that grants him peace of mind. Therefore, he is looking for a flexible short-term rental package with 24/7 roadside assistance and a backup vehicle ready for him in case of any unfortunate incident—across multiple locations in the US.
Most car rentals in the US offer carefully inspected and certified cars. They also have paperwork where they have service level agreements where they promise to provide all customers immediate support in case of any incident. However, not all organizations stay faithful to their promises word for word. Sometimes, help arrives late. In other instances, paperwork may be lengthy, or customers may get caught in rigid plans and pay more. These things create a negative customer experience, and Joe is in no mood to have any of that ruin his short holiday.
So, what does Joe do? He checks on Google for various car rental agencies and looks carefully at the ratings people have given to these agencies. He reads the comments of previous customers and makes up his mind to visit the agencies that have the best ratings. On the website, the assurance of quality and 24/7 customer support, including flexible plan adjustments and free-of-charge cancellation for all customers, draws Joe’s attention.
One dealer prominently mentioned the importance of keeping customers safe, and that is why they have high standards of vehicle quality controls. Everything from the engine to the controls and even the interiors is scrutinized multiple times across various stages. In addition, customers can book their cars through a dedicated mobile app and get their choice of vehicle delivered to their doorstep and benefit from the contactless experience.
Joe is impressed with the dealer and makes inquiries. Two days later, he is on the road cruising on the highway and enjoying every moment of the road trip. What impressed Joe and helped the rental agency get a customer? The answer is service marketing.
Poor service drives consumers away
When a brand’s after-sales support is poor, it leaves a bad impression on customers. Excellent pre-sales behavior but pathetic after-sales support gives customers a feeling that the company has used them solely to make money. No one likes to be used and then discarded by a business. A transaction or sale should be a symbiotic relationship and benefit both parties. A company cannot think only for itself (and its profits) while undermining customers.
With each passing day, customers are getting more astute. If they are not taken care of holistically by a business, they have every right to turn down any of their attempts at sales and marketing.
Customer success comes from great customer service
Customer success has shifted from focusing solely on business value. Instead, the focus is on customers and the efforts undertaken by the company to drive customer value and revenue. And how can a business augment customer value? By taking care of customers from the beginning of their journey and staying with them long after the sale has concluded.
As a brand, you need to ensure you market your trustworthiness and reliability to consumers. If you must get ahead of your competitors, you have to communicate why you are better than them to consumers. In addition, you need to elicit the trust among your clientele, both old and new, about your unwavering commitment to be with your customers, irrespective of the time or place.
How can a company communicate its customer-centric stand and policies to its target audience? By incorporating the same in their marketing strategy. Communicate to your customers that you truly stand by them and always abide by your promises.
Advantages of service marketing:
- Helps customers in decision-making.
- Creates better awareness of the product or the brand itself.
- Increases sales and boosts revenue.
- Customers get a 360-degree overview of your brand, and they can choose what appeals to them.
One of the most remarkable customer experience (CX) advocates, Zig Ziglar, said, “If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you.” Establishing a solid base of long-term customers requires fantastic service marketing. Differentiating one’s brand from competitors means identifying strengths and working on them until everyone sits up and takes notice of your efforts. That means being present where your customers are in the service marketing context.
1. As a brand, you should engage with your customers across multiple touchpoints, analyze their sentiment, and resolve any issues instantly, making your customers happy. Happy customers are your best brand advocates.
2. Attend to your customers’ concerns on social channels. Be empathetic towards them. Let the audience on social media see how you care for your customers. This helps portray a positive image of your brand.
3. Create better customer relationships with AI-powered customer service software that you can trust. ThinkOwl helps you stay connected to your customers across multiple channels. In addition, it is designed to boost agent productivity. When you use ThinkOwl, you can confidently include your unfailing customer service as a stellar point in your marketing strategy.
4. Service marketing requires brands to have a golden customer record that collects relevant customer data from multiple touchpoints. This information helps the organization personalize service and support and helps improve the customers’ experience. When brands use ThinkOwl to resolve customer tickets, the conversation is carried out on the channel of the customer’s liking. So the conversation between the brand and the customer is happening at the customer’s convenience.
Your company's sincere efforts to resolve the customer’s problems and please them do not go unnoticed by their target audience. Customers reward the brand by doing business with them. Polite interactions and kind gestures by support agents result in brands earning a good name for their quality of service. Providing excellent service to customers requires brands to adopt a customer-centric behavior. Successful sales and incoming support tickets should not be viewed as mere numbers or statistics. Instead, every interaction is a chance to build a long-lasting relationship with customers.
The quality of service and support sets expectations for existing and potential customers. Happy customers are more likely to return to your brand. Happy customers recommend good service providers to friends, family members, and co-workers. Your company’s reputation for excellent service becomes critical in determining customer satisfaction and indicates if they will want to avail of your services in the future.
Therefore, it is crucial to include your service marketing with your product marketing and create a synergized strategy that makes your customers go wow! To know more about how ThinkOwl can help your service agents deliver a smile on your customers’ faces, sign up for a 30-day free trial now.
