Errol D. Allen
Recently my wife contacted a carpet cleaning company for service after receiving a promotional mailer. During the conversation she was informed that this particular promotion was not available after a certain date, which by the way was the previous day. After hearing this news and reviewing the mailer, my wife advised the representative that she did not see the “good until” information on the document. The representative apologized and stated that yes; this was her company’s error. My wife then asked if the promotion would be honored because of the error, to which the representative replied, “Ma’am, yes we will honor your request. Believe me; we’ve received a multitude of calls because of this mistake.” Marketing plays an integral role in the success of any business. It’s necessary to promote one’s products or services to gain exposure and hopefully new customers. It’s also important to remember that your marketing efforts do create customer experiences. There’s more to a marketing campaign than just creating a marketing message. Let’s examine this a little further.
Whose Involvement Is Required? – Unless one is a soloprenuer or ultra small business, it’s rare that the marketing department develops, implements and processes the influx of phone, walk-in or internet traffic. Usually customer service personnel are tasked with responding to customer inquiries, order requests, etc. in regards to the marketing campaign. It’s crucial to identify what internal services are required to make the marketing campaign a resounding success! Asking simple questions such as what are we promoting? How long will the promotion run? What are we asking our prospective respondents to do? What will we have to do internally to process respondents? In answering these and other questions, you will certainly identify the persons or departments necessary for a seamless campaign implementation.
Say What You Mean To Say – In the above carpet cleaning company scenario, the representative was in the hot seat. It appears that she may have been instructed to hold to the deadline, even though it was not included on the promotional. If the customer did not bother to mention the fact that the deadline was not evident, then don’t offer to honor the promotional. If the customer does mention that the deadline was missing from the promotional then go ahead and honor it. The fact that the deadline was missing from the promotional assisted in creating my wife’s initial experience with this company. Make sure that your marketing material contains all the necessary/intended information for prospective respondents. Imagine how many more calls the company may have received as respondents sought to take advantage of the promotion before the deadline if it was plainly visible on the mailer. I wonder how many respondents actually mentioned the missing deadline and how much it actually cost the company to honor the promotion. Your marketing materials are often potential customers’ first experience with your organization. It’s best to start any relationship off on the right foot.
Are We Ready? After laying out all of the plans, make sure that the persons handling the hoped for traffic are fully educated on the marketing campaign. Pricing, product/service features, shipping times, refund process and guarantees are just a few items to cover during your marketing campaign education. Persons assigned to speak with campaign respondents create a customer experience through their ability to confidently answer questions and process new sales. If your marketing campaign requires respondents to receive service in their homes as in my wife’s scenario, are you adequately staffed to do so in a timely manner? Your ability to quickly provide whatever campaign respondents purchased is crucial to the success of the marketing campaign. When utilizing the Internet for marketing purposes, how easy is it for respondents to get the same information provided via an inbound phone call? Is the purchase acknowledged and is a timeframe given for expected receipt of goods/services? As more and more of today’s customers are utilizing the Internet to make purchases, make sure this option receives attention in regards to your marketing campaigns
Developing and implementing marketing campaigns are an integral part of an organization’s growth. Remember that the reason for marketing your products/services is to get people to take action. Make sure that your marketing campaigns are created with the understanding that they create customer experiences. If one takes the time to determine Who’s Involvement Is Required, reviews marketing materials to insure the marketing message Says What You Mean It To Say and considers what’s required to process responses in order to say Yes when asked Are We Ready?, then there is a great possibility that great customer experiences are sure to follow!
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Errol Allen – Customer Service Engineer can be emailed at [email protected] or call him at 1-800-830-4167. www.errolallenconsulting.com
