It’s easy to think of customer service as a passive endeavor. Companies hire teams of employees whose main job is to sit and wait for customers to call them. This week, we are turning the traditional view of customer service on its head— we propose that successful companies take a proactive approach to customer service, whether it’s through digital transformation, innovative CMOs or even capitalizing on pre-purchase service opportunities. Proactive service shows customers you are a provider of solutions- not problems.
The Contact Center and Customer Service – Road to Business Success [iscoop.eu]
Customer service has become the “new marketing” and excellent customer experience has become the ultimate goal for every organization. A satisfied customer is a profitable customer. This shift has made contact centers and customer service departments a central part of both the organization and value creation. Additionally, the single customer view has become increasingly important in creating positive customer experiences.
The business challenge for companies is not only facilitating customer satisfaction, but getting these customers to act on that satisfaction – and become brand advocates - in a globalized, connected and super competitive market reality. Will companies step up to this challenge?
Digital Transformation Impacting Customer Journey [data science central]
Customers don’t interact with departments. They interact with a single organization. A customer’s journey today involves: awareness, research, buying, engagement and service.
All the customer touch points should be connected to a central system to have a single view of the customer. Digital Transformation should optimize the entire customer journey and help deliver tangible results. Companies are starting to identify key journeys, measuring performance over each touch point, redesigning the customer experience to give the optimum result. Understanding customer journeys, including the decision-making process and the influence of emotional reactions, is an essential part of digital transformation.
Where to Find Proactive Customer Service Opportunities [forbes.com]
This is the second in Adrian Swinscoe’s series on the importance of proactive customer service. His first article, entitled “Why Relying Only on Reactive Customer Service Is No Longer Good Enough”, established the business case for proactive customer service.
In this article Adrian explores where the opportunities lie and he provides some examples of companies that are experiencing great results thanks to their proactive customer service strategies.
Some of the opportunities for proactive customer service include:
- Pre-Purchase: Service begins when a potential customer comes to you with a question.
- Purchase: Reduce customer effort and frustration with real-time guidance and support.
- Post-Purchase: Communicating with customers about potential problems reduces future potential inbound calls.
Are You a Company of Believers? [chiefcustomerofficer.customerbliss.com]
Great CMO wisdom from one of our favorite influencers, Jeanne Bliss: “Beloved companies know that the outcome of their decisions and their actions reveal who they are and what they value. Companies who decide to believe make belief a competency of their business, people, and operation.” This simple idea can have a profound impact on the way we interact with customers and the overall functioning and health of the organization.
How do you know if yours is a company of believers? She follows with a helpful 10-point checklist that can help you determine this. Here are some highlights:
- In customer relationships you honor the dignity of customers.
- Actively decide to be transparent with customers.
- Believe customers are an asset, not a cost center.
Be sure to check out the rest of her points in the link above.
Who Owns Customer Service? (Jim Karrh On Marketing) [arkansasbusiness.com]
Everyone agrees that excellent customer service is key to a successful business. However, when it comes to customer service, many organizations play defense, especially when they see another companies’ customer service failures splashed across Twitter. But it pays to remember that good service leads to retention just as bad service drives customers into the arms of your competitor.
So who owns customer service? Every company has its own answer, but for many it’s the extremely busy person with the title “CMO”. A key factor for successful customer service is not letting it get lost in the mix of all of the ever-pressing Marketing responsibilities.
We hope you enjoyed our picks and bookmarked a few articles for future reference. Please don’t forget to share with other CMOs.
Are there any other marketing topics that interest you? Tweet us, or comment below to let us know!