Customer Service and Marketing. Not the pairing you’d automatically think of. Two very different sectors, dealing with very different problems. Marketing to promote and drive more sales to your business (online or in store) and Customer Service to support those purchases, showing them why they should come back for more.
So when you think about it, Customer Service and Marketing actually have a lot in common. Both try to improve brand image, just in different ways. Different ends of the customer experience spectrum. And with the majority of Customer Service moving to more public forums on social media, the ability to use positive Customer Service as a Marketing tool seems more attractive than ever.
Personally, if I want to get a good feel for what a business is all about, the first thing I’ll do is check their social media presence. You can quickly see if they are open to queries and fast to respond, if they like to crack a joke, or if they rarely answer. Gaining an understanding of a brand's personality can make you more likely to buy. Throw in a fast response time and you’re on to a winner.
So, with all the great work being done by your Customer Service team, you’d be silly to not utilise this, right? As a Marketing tool? We all talk about what’s happening on social media, and already many large brand names are using this to their advantage. So here’s 3 reasons why YOU should be using Customer Service as a Marketing Tool:
Reason 1: Customer Service Improves Your Brand
Social media is an easy way to improve your brand awareness, providing you with endless opportunities to interact with any socially active person. There are so many examples of businesses who use their Customer Service to engage with every Tom, Dick and Harry, which has in turn lead to a more positive brand image.
Tesco is a prime example of using CS and marketing as one team, working together (they might even be the same people, for all we can tell!).
Not only will they jump into conversations they are tagged in, they’ll respond to nearly anything trending in the Twittersphere.
Tesco have made a valiant effort in their Customer Service online, which has paid off by improving their image and making them known as one of the best brands on social.
Reason 2: Showing You Go The Extra Mile
In the big world of business and consumers, sometimes it’s easy to forget to do something special for your customers. As purchasing moves more and more to online formats, the business-customer relationship can falter. Luckily, customer service on social media can relight that flame, and work in your favour marketing-wise. Obviously, going the extra mile cannot occur for every customer who contacts you, but it’s nice to treat the select few to that special treatment. And if you’re lucky, the kind gesture might go viral to make it even more worthwhile.
Bloomingdale’s recently shocked one customer, who lost her gift card on her way home from returning a pair of earrings, when they agreed to replace it no quibbles and sent it to her overnight.
Now I can imagine a few replaced gift cards don’t cause Bloomingdale’s too much bother, but for those customers it probably made their day. Win win for everyone!
Reason 3: It’s Free And Unlimited!
A lot of marketing can make your finance team sweat; Theres’s all the ads, there’s the videos and even then there may still be no concrete sign of actually getting your money back. But luckily with using Customer Service as a marketing there is no end, and no extra cost. You need to answer all your responses your Customer Service team receive, or pay the price of a backlash, so using them for marketing ticks two boxes in one!
So, there we go! 3 great reasons to start seeing your Customer Service as a Marketing strategy. You don’t even need to tackle the beast head first, start off by approaching with caution, one tweet at a time. Just remember though, once it’s online, you’ll be lucky to get it back! So as long as you trust your marketing team enough anyway, why not entrust them with a few cheeky tweets?
By Elena Lockett, PR at FM Outsource.
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