Branding, Customer, Customer Experience, Customer Support, Social Media, Support, User Generated Content
Customer Service is the New Marketing
Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
Ha Ha, that’s funny, jolly joke, because customer service was always part of the “old marketing”.
People have been going on about it and writing books about it for the past century, so it can hardly be called new.
People like Jan Carlzon “Moments of Truth” and Tom Peters (and we all know how long he’s been around.) to mention just two.
Then there is of course Sam Walton who famously gave us the two rules about customer service.
So just because Zasppo’s applied the oldest marketing tactic in the book and got fantastic results, doesn’t mean everyone is going to suddenly jump on the customer service bandwagon.
I mean, they never have in the past, so there’s no reason to expect them to do so now.
A few companies might have an “ah ha” moment and get it, a few more will try to copy the Zappo’s model without really getting it, but most will simply not have the brains or guts to do what Zappo’s did.
It’s just human nature and has nothing to do with technology.
Paul,
I think just labeling it ‘customer service’ would be selling short what Zappos is all about. They are one the best examples of how overall customer experience (cx) can be a game changer and the backbone of a billion dollar business.
I believe CX can be broken into two elements: value and maintenance. Customer Service deals mainly with the maintenance part of the equation. Namely:
What is the buying experience like?
Do you make things turnkey or simple?
Are you responsive to problems / issues?
The other part of the equation is the value piece. I think this is often overlooked. Value is defined as:
What are tangible and intangible benefits the service or product provides?
Does the product or service go ‘above and beyond’ to exceed customer expectations?
Are you giving that little unexpected extra to ’surprise and delight’ your customer?
Zappos was just cited for the third time in Purple Goldfish Project (#107, #195 and #319). The Project cites examples of how companies differentiate themselves by ‘giving little unexpected extras’.
#319 submitted by Kelly Ketelboeter yesterday speaks volumes:
“Zappos delivers a purple goldfish to customers by upgrading their shipping for next day arrival. I also think that offering free shipping back for items you don’t want, like or don’t fit is a purple goldfish. Not many companies pay for shipping back.”
On any given day Zappos receives 75 to 80% of its business from repeat customers. It’s not because they have a great call center. It’s because they build high value into their offering and they are extremely low maintenance to deal with at every touchpoint.
Best,
Stan
@9inchmarketing
‘The average distance between the brain and the heart is 9 inches’
paul
interesting post – and you’re right – but as we all know – the commoditisation of products and services and the resulting pressure on margins – means in reality – improving customer service ends up being a long term value seeking strategy – in a short term, profit driven world
there is a reason why zappos could do what they did – they were unencumbered by existing business practice, overhead, protocol and legacy systems
we might conclude – the biggest threat to big business is small business…
m
@Mark – ok fair point – it reminds me of what a friend of mine said about being “customer centric” – he said “well then what were before that?”
@Stan – awesome examples from the Purple Goldfish Project! thanks for adding them to the conversation
@Mark – I agree – Customer Service is the last frontier and its easier for small companies to start out by giving great customer service or die trying!
Paul,
Very well written post. As the others point out, the concepts of customer centricity and great customer experience aren’t new.
What has changed is that the rapid advance of social technologies has enabled companies like Zappos to expose their culture to the masses, not through one centralized PR person or marketing department, but through every employee in their company. Great companies with great cultures have the ability to grow exponentially because of the viral nature of the social web.
Build a culture that puts the customer first, create an amazing customer experience every time, continually innovate, and enable customers, prospects, and employees to tell the world about it.
@Brian
Thanks for the compliment Brian
I agree Social Media has the ability to transform the whole business into being customer centric – not just marketing and comms – even R&D, Product Development, HR, Recruiting, Finance and Billing have all been touched by social in my org
Marketers who play their cards right have a unique opportunity to transform the whole company to becoming more customer centric
Customers always have the last say in the marketing industry. Which is why their satisfaction is the top priority of every entrepreneur there is out there.
@Contact Center Philippines – totally agree – thanks for the comment!
Very interesting post. Good points. I guess in the end, we have to go back to the old “The customer is always right” way of doing things. Just a fun fact, if you ever need a yacht or boat shipped anywhere, Yacht Exports is your best bet. They have done a great job with me!
@Tim thanks for the comment – its my goal in life to need a service where I need my yacht shipped for me 😉
I will continue to chip away at that goal now that I know the right vendor!
Me again.
I just had to say what great comments this story has generated.
Lots of smart people reading this blog.
I love the other Mark’s comment “the biggest threat to big business is small business…”
Thanks Mark!
@Tim Thanks! Im actually using Yacht Exports to do a job for me. Who would of thought!
Paul,
Spot on. I know in my personal life, the contact center very much shapes how I go about my business. On the business side, we overemphasize these points to our people.
You just pointed out some highly thought provoking Viral internet marketing tips that my partners and I were discussing, relieved I ran into it, so thank you for that.
It’s certainly an interesting topic. When you said that the biggest threat to a big business is a small business,it certainly made me stop and think. Here at Vendere Partners, our B2B lead generation experience corroborates your quote.
I couldn’t agree more mate! Customer service plays a very important role in keeping customers coming back to avail whatever product or services we are offering. All of us may not be businessmen or entrepreneurs but we once in a while are customers too.
Just one thing I don’t like with CS people sometimes, they think they are superior to us-customers. This kind of employees must be taught some lesson or get fired. Remember you are in a “service” must be “serving”.. just a thought.