by Dr. Dov Reichman, Spectra Analytics Ltd.
Marketing tasks combine advanced technologies which influence potential customers' conscious and unconscious minds.
Marketing communication, which is sent to and applied upon customers, contain many promises regarding the expected benefits of the advertised product. The main affecting and stabilizing factor for these promises are the integrity which the company and its representatives must project at all times.
Most people identify integrity and credibility and easily feel their absence. Marketing operations which lack the projection of the required level of integrity is bound to be useless.
Identifying the integrity happens mostly through reading body language and listening to the presenter's tone of speech. These days, the extensive usage of electronic media, many times lacks the customer's needs to receive verifications to the marketing messages conveyed to him.
Advanced and modern marketing communication has to be accompanied with professional customer services, which complements the interpersonal communication aspect, which is vital to a company's business realization.
Customer Service – Preliminary Foundation
Any company which would like to see successful results of business development appear on its sales reports, has to devote resources towards customer service and build this important function with the help of professional specialists in this field.
This doesn’t have to mean setting up a computerized center of customer service, rather to create the appropriate awareness to the subject, while fitting it to the company's operational parameter.
Allocating an employee as a professional function which focuses on customer service, would be a revolutionary step for a company which doesn't have this function. The positive results would certainly be identified in a short time.
Customer service should project expertise and an understanding as to the customers needs. It's within this department's power to transform cardinal issues of dissatisfaction of an important client, into leverage towards future intense cooperation within the company.
Customer service is the heart and soul of marketing operations. It's difficult to sustain loyal customers without this important component, which is meant to provide the component of integrity and credibility to the company and its products.
The array of customer service can consist of a single employee, who was identified as talented and who holds the fitting interpersonal qualities required for this important task. In small companies, as mentioned, most customers, like most people, won't be impressed with responses by customer service which isn’t honest and professional. Without credibility and professionalism, the right connection won’t be made with any client.
Customer Service – Quantitative Measures
In medium and large companies there is an option of establishing a computerized array, which assists in quantitative processing of different customer service parameters. Among them are: percentage of abandoned calls (after the costumer despaired from waiting for an answer), average waiting time for a phone call, tracking extents of customer complaints and more.
It's recommended for companies to formulate a comprehensive training program for all of its employees, especially those who have direct contact with clients and aren't professional sales personal, such as: drivers, technicians, etc.
Customer service is the true test, from the clients' point of view, to all of the statements and promises given by the company and appears on its internet site, exhibition stands and in its publications.
Creating a gap between the promises given and the company's service in practice, will damage sales immediately and cause long term damage, which the resources required to repair it, override the costs of creating a training program on the subject.
Customer service has to be part of a company's outlook and in its basic awareness of its management.
Training employees who work in this field, has to include the smallest resolutions, beginning from the way they answer the phone and courtesy on receiving phone calls, through the exhausting route a customer goes through until he reaches the service provider he intended to reach and in all aspects regarding updating customers on the time of supplying their reservations.
In medium sized companies and bigger, where the products are technologies, it’s advisable to allocate a technical expert in the array of customer service.
There is no replacement of professionalism, courtesy and credibility provided by service personal in electronic marketing communication.
Customer service can create a meaningful competitive advantage in the market – create it in a professional manner in order to achieve it.
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Dr. Dov Reichman, is the CEO and owner of Spectra Analytics Ltd. which specializes in strategic planning for high tech
companies and accompanies business throughout processes of business development and international marketing
