Customer service is the new marketing
26th May 2009, 11:25 pm by Matt Rhodes
Image by LiminalMike via FlickrWe wrote last month about the Zappos story, about how they have used customer service to extend and enhance the customer experience and how this has had a positive impact on sales, satisfaction and growth. This example highlights the power of customer service – of listening to and then rewarding customers.
We know the real benefit that a brand can experience from engaging with its customer directly through online communities. Both in terms of the insights and ideas you can get from them, and also the way you can amplify word-of-mouth and build loyalty with them by listening to what they say and responding.
But even more than that. Customer service – listening to customers and having a direct dialogue with them – is a form of marketing. And an effective form of marketing at that.
This week’s Required Reading at FreshNetworks is a presentation Lane Becker from Get Satisfaction, delivered at Next09 that looks at exactly this issue. For Becker, customer service is marketing, and for brands who get this right, it is characterised in three ways:
- You put conversations at the centre of your business – focus on exchange of ideas and information, in your business and with your customers
- You get better at a smaller range of things – you can’t solve everything so you focus on the things that make a real difference to customers (which you identify by having a real dialogue with them)
- You break down silos – customers don’t see a business the way many businesses are structured, so when they want to interact with you silos can get in the way
Some more reading
- Customer service is such an important job, perhaps we should spread it around (myventurepad.com)
- Follow-up on “Get Satisfaction, Or Else…” (37signals.com)
- Customer Service Is Defined By Customers (staygolinks.com)
- next09: The Seven Rules of the Chief Meaning Officer (designmind.frogdesign.com)
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Customer service is the new marketing « Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog:
[...] http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2009/05/customer-service-is-the-new-marketing 26th May 2009, 11:25 pm by Matt [...]
27 May 2009, 4:57 amCustomer service is the new marketing | FreshNetworks Blog | Money Blog : 10 Dollars : Money Articles.:
[...] See the original post: Customer service is the new marketing | FreshNetworks Blog [...]
27 May 2009, 7:50 amAndy Hanselman:
Some great stuff there. I particularly like the ‘conversations’ with customers emphasis. So many businesses seem to have forgotten how to listen to, react to and interact with their customers. I encourage clients to go for ‘dialogue, not diatribes’ but it’s scary how much ‘marketing’ is still simply one way – ‘look at us, aren’t we wonderful?’
27 May 2009, 9:00 amAny other great examples of businesses having great ‘conversations’ out there?
Jenni Beattie:
Great post. As soon as companies put customer service first rather than sending out marketing messages we will see the reinvention of marketing centred on the customer not the product.
Cheers
28 May 2009, 1:43 amJohn Caddell:
Matt, as I was reading this post over on Futurelab, I thought, “Here’s someone who thinks like me.” So imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that you had linked to my post (“Customer Service is such an important job…”) under “Some More Reading.”
Thanks very much and thanks for sharing your post and slide deck. Great stuff.
regards, John
28 May 2009, 1:29 pmCustomers Are Talking » Blog Archive » Thinking about: customer service:
[...] Referred to in the video: Customer service is such an important job, perhaps we should… Matt Rhodes: Customer Service is the new marketing [...]
29 May 2009, 2:39 amFootprints (30.5.09) | Chris Deary:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing [...]
31 May 2009, 9:06 amIs customer service the new marketing? - RachelHawley:
[...] read an interesting article last week that waxed lyrical about customer service and its status as a new marketing method. The [...]
1 June 2009, 8:13 pmGet involved and make the most of your online community | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing (freshnetworks.com) [...]
3 June 2009, 2:05 pmHumanity and Business | Eric D. Brown - Technology, Strategy, People & Projects:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing (freshnetworks.com) [...]
12 June 2009, 12:04 pmسیاره مدیریت پروژه فارسی » Blog Archive » Humanity and Business:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing (freshnetworks.com) [...]
13 June 2009, 1:21 amAs a front office manager: never giving up to Make Cost Cutting Invisible to the Customer « Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing (freshnetworks.com) [...]
15 June 2009, 4:43 amDelight your customers with social media « Qubemedia’s Weblog:
[...] Social media puts customers and conversations with those customers at the heart of your business. It offers the potential to both manage your customers expectations and deliver an enhanced customer experience, to basically deliver delighted customers. I think it goes beyond just customer service (that term feels more about satisfaction than delight) but its a familiar place to start for most and i think Fresh Networks summed it up perfectly in a recent post about how customer service is the new marketing. [...]
3 July 2009, 11:40 amA Yellow Brick Road To Customer Experience Maturity « Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog:
[...] Customer service is the new marketing (freshnetworks.com) [...]
13 July 2009, 10:54 amKate:
Great article guys. Fully agree that customer service is the new marketing and Zappo are certainly embracing that fact with gusto. Following a particularly outstanding experience in Chipotle today I was inspired to blog on this very topic myself:
http://jaw-london.blogspot.com/2011/02/do-you-want-empathy-with-that.html
1 February 2011, 10:15 pm