The blurring line between Marketing & Customer Services
Customer Service - a definition
“A series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.”
In theory, this definition should always fit well with the methods used to sell and market the product or service to the customer, with the aim of fully meeting expectations and delivering high level’s of customer satisfaction. However, anyone who has been marketed to and then felt the service or product they were buying was sub-par will testify, this has all too often not be the case. Fortunately, largely driven by the proliferation of Social Media, the customer’s influence continues to become greater and greater as our word of mouth, opinions and experiences can immediately be amplified to a far larger audience than has ever been possible before. This has undoubtedly forced and scared brands into employing their marketing activity more intelligently, and focus on the customer than ever before.
Balance of Power Shift
Due to this ‘shift’ , we have seen many brands begin to interweave their marketing activity with customer services. In my mind this has been a positive move for both parties; the ability to use marketing platforms to communicate, placate, create and maintain relationships with customers is a good thing for the marketeer. The increased relevance, personalisation of communication and responsiveness of brands results in a far better experience for the customer on all fronts. The fundamental part of good customer service ‘meeting your customers expectations becomes far easier if you know who the customer is, and what their expectations actually are from your product.
Brands who have taken these developments seriously will continue to prosper
A great example of a brand who has already successfully begun to pave the way is our client Vauxhall.
Vauxhall have made it easy for their customers to post their queries, concerns and reviews across the company social network platforms. Both the Vauxhall and Vauxhall Corsa Facebook pages, and the company’s customer services Twitter have been leading the way in delivering top quality customer service.
All of Vauxhall’s social network accounts have ensured the customer is faced with a team that is available 24 hours a day. As part of this service Vauxhall also guarantees that their queries will be answered within 24 hours. The response has been overwhelmingly positive – Keep up the great work Vauxhall and long may this blurring continue!
If you have seen outstanding examples of brands successfully using social networks as a customer service tool Tweet Us, we would love to hear from you!
