Customer service and marketing are key objectives within the world of digital business, where the two depend on each other to give the consumer an experience that keeps them coming back. Let’s explore how these two entities work together to build success, brand reputation and customer loyalty.
Customer Service: The Face of the Brand
As the top representation of a brand, customer service stands out as the first action of customers who are looking for assistance, whether it’s through a return, damages or difficulty navigating the website. Customer service plays an important part in creating a consumer's perception of a brand because if an interaction goes poorly or a customer gets overly frustrated, the company may lose loyalty. Utilizing each interaction with a customer can be used for demonstrating brand values, building trust and overall creating a strong relationship between brand and consumer.
Along with this, customer service works tightly with marketing strategies through the collection of various feedback, complaints and suggestions that come directly from customers. Through this feedback, there’s also an opportunity for different trends to be identified, improvements to products and marketing campaigns to be tailored toward these critiques. Having feedback from an audience is one of the strongest tools a brand can have because it provides insight into how to create messaging and campaigns tailored towards what people want, which grabs attention, generates more sales and allows for the audience to feel heard.
Marketing: Setting Expectations and Driving Engagement
When looking at the other side of things, marketing is an important tool for creating awareness, generating leads and overall gaining more engagement. Marketing is also something that builds a consumer's thoughts of a brand and everything that it has to offer, whether it’s through advertising, branding and various communication channels. Through these perceptions, it’s key for a brand's marketing to represent the values, features and values as accurately as possible to improve customer experiences.
Along with this, marketing can also improve a customer experience through various resources and tools, which would include different educational materials, FAQs and even troubleshooting guides that can give customers the power to resolve issues on their own, which would reduce the load of customer service along with an improvement in customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Collaboration and Integration: Driving Success
After looking at marketing and customer service separately, it can be seen that together the two become a powerhouse. Through sharing different strengths, efforts and tactics, the two come together to create a more cohesive experience for customers, leading to even higher satisfaction, loyalty and business growth. An example of this can be seen through customer service giving feedback to the marketing team about different customer complaints or preferences, which allows for target campaigns that meet these needs.
Along with this, marketing improves customer service success stories along with positive feedback in various promotions that show how committed the brand is to improving the satisfaction of customers. Using real examples of strong customer service, making can then improve the brand's credibility and trust, which builds retention from customers.
In the end, customer service and marketing are two separate entities, but they are key strategies to put together for creating a successful business plan. Recognizing the relationship between the two allows for a business to create a brand that differentiates itself from the competition, creating a loyal relationship with customers. As brands work towards making more customer-centered approaches, it’s key to acknowledge and utilize the combination of customer service and marketing.
Don't Miss Out on Insightful Discussions!
Looking for more insightful discussions on marketing and customer service? Check out the Marketing Communications Today podcast episode titled "Why Customer Service Deserves More Respect" for valuable perspectives and expert opinions.
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Maddy Watson
Social Media Student Worker
Maddy is a senior journalism student with minors in marketing and public relations. This upcoming fall she will be a full-time M.S. IMC student. She is currently the student worker for the WVU Marketing Communications Graduate Programs. Maddy loves to spend her free time snowboarding, traveling and going to concerts!
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Marketing Communications Today is a collection of resources for marketing communications professionals filled with industry research, marketing trends, and career information about integrated marketing and data-driven communications. Learn industry insights through the Marketing Communications Today blog, podcast, as well as Integrate Online.
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