Consumers, marketers and decision makers unite for solutions
“Romancing the Stone-faced Customer” sounds like a marketer’s ideal night at the theater. The happy ending is requited customer love.
The key element is great word of mouth, a priceless asset for any business. Personal endorsements are hands down the most effective and reliable type of marketing. Entrepreneurs then need to make those referrals succeed with their customers.
During an Africa Tweet Chat, Dana Lemaster, a certified public accountant turned screenwriter and novelist, and junior marketer Jelle Postma delved into ways to create customer love.
“Customer service is listening to customers, helping them with their questions and problems, and doing whatever is needed to give them the best possible experience with your business,” Lemaster said.
“By dealing with their problems and questions quickly, every single time you create brand love through customer service,” she said. “Consistency plays a big part in winning repeat customers.”
Optimally, brands will personalize their customer service.
“Let the customers know you value their business,” Lemaster said. “There are lots of ways to do this — birthday greetings, thank-you messages on the anniversary of the day they became customers. Remembering people is a powerful way to let them know their business matters.
“A successful brand-customer relationship happens when the brand meets the customer’s needs over time,” she said. “That will take engagement and careful listening on the part of the brand. That’s worthwhile because of the goodwill generated.”
Personal Definitions
The definition of excellent customer service is subjective. Some consumers are easily satisfied while others make problems out of everything.
“Sometimes you can only do so much to solve a problem,” Lemaster said. “In that case, all you can do is offer your best solution respectfully.”
Savvy brands know how to deal with negative customer reviews and feedback.
“Jelle Postma really hits the important issues,” Lemaster said. “I would add not to take complaints personally. You’ll stop hearing the customer and be less effective at finding solutions.”
Small businesses gain an advantage with personalized client care
Postma compiled a mother lode of content marketing, community and creativity tips.
“Customer service is always perceived as straight forward, but it’s complex,” he said. “So many stakeholders are involved in solving an issue. They have many different needs and desires. The customer service staff merely function as connectors.”
Business owners must decide if they should publicly address an issue or instead use direct messages. Postma noted the benefits of publicly addressing problems:
- More convenient. Less effort to complain and faster response.
- Attracts eyeballs. You might find people with similar issues.
- Higher management might consider the issue.
Those are contrary to drawbacks of going public:
- Harms brand identity, even for the slightest or silliest issue.
- Might evoke responses from concurring brands.
- Puts social media managers under pressure.
Decisions as a Team
“Can social media managers solve the issue?” Postma asked. “They often are a one-person team. They have to search for a person who could solve the problem. They have very little influence on product or service decision making from the higher-ups.
“Social media managers are at the front of handling complaints,” he said. “However, it is difficult for them to solve an issue because there are many stakeholders involved.”
Excellent service surpasses your customers’ expectations
In Postma’s view, higher management might not be too involved in customer service. They instead spend their budget on things they think are more important. That leads to fallout from higher-management decisions:
- Too few people handle too many problems.
- The process of solving issues becomes too complicated.
- Little to no boundaries exist between social media marketing and customer service roles.
“Considering all that, it’s difficult for social media managers to address complaints that need to be solved,” Postma said. “However, the more people complain publicly, the more support the managers have when addressing the issue to higher management.
“As marketers, we’ve seen the other side of the discussion,” he said. “We have seen all sorts of things in our inboxes. We know how complaints make us feel. Most consumers generally don’t know that.”
Not Taken Personally
Although consumer complaints might at times sound harsh, Postma cautioned the words are not directed at individuals.
“Those who complain might have the perception that they are talking to robots or chat boxes,” he said. “Lots of customers really want your brand to succeed.
“Harsh feedback should rather be considered as genuine feedback,” Postma said. “Even the harshest outliers might be helpful. It is a matter of filtering and scanning rational and emotional parts.”
Consumers, marketers, brands and higher management need to work together for solutions.
“As consumers, try to have more empathy with the brands,” Postma said. “We’ve been in their position, too. Social media managers don’t solve problems. Other people do. We know some issues are difficult to solve, especially in difficult times.
“Marketers should not feel guilty when they can’t solve a problem,” he said. “They are just a communicator between the customer and problem solvers.”
Win big when coming to the rescue during a crisis
When complaints are handled publicly, Postma said brands should set boundaries and make statements when people go too far. This might even create a more positive sentiment.
Customer service needs full support from higher management, according to Postma:
- Make sure that customer service isn’t understaffed.
- Separate customer service from social media marketing.
- Train staff to handle harsh comments.
- Encourage staff to talk about the struggles they experience.
“Customer service is more complex than it seems,” Postma said. “Content manager Chi Thukral and marketing expert Victoria Morton greatly helped to clarify everything.”
About The Author
Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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