Marketing and customer service cooperation a competitive advantage

According to Dagmar’s Lead Strategist Samuel Tastula, marketing invests too much in lead generation instead of serving customers holistically. Dismantling sales and marketing silos is already a classic exercise, but the wall between marketing and customer service offices should also be demolished. 

Customer orientation and customer experience are already familiar words on companies’ strategy slides. Each of us is also a consumer, so it is easy to appreciate that we want to take our customers’ needs into account and try to make their everyday lives easier. Studies have shown that developing customer experience also generates revenue¹. 

Internal silos destroy the customer’s service experience

Unfortunately, policies that praise customers are often left to powerpoints. I am not just talking about development work that has not been done. Even the search for savings is targeted where customers need the most support: serving existing customers. Chatbots are a good example of such a savings target. Bots have been harnessed on most companies’ websites to automate the customer service process and bring cost savings. Savings are guaranteed, but do they come at the expense of the customer experience? According to our survey, only 6% of Finns are happy to use chatbots on company websites². 

Company’s social media pages are another good example of customer service potential that few companies utilise in the best possible way. The customer chooses the most suitable channel, method and time to contact the company. Often the channel is social media, where the customer expects a quick reaction and the ability to handle the problem in one channel. The company brings a surprise to the customer, as it has decided that operating in social media is a marketing job. In this case, at worst, the customer’s pain is not dealt with at all, even though customer service itself works well where the organization has decided it to work. 

The old structures and plot divisions defined for the company’s different functions are no longer worthwhile when the customer as a whole with many different needs is examined. When marketing focuses on lead acquisition and savings are sought throughout the company, the stage of the current customer relationship is one of the key points in the customer relationship, which is in danger of being left without a stool in a game of chairs. When looking for savings targets, it is essential to understand that retaining existing customers is significantly cheaper than acquiring new customers³. 

Silo demolition work has been classically arranged between sales and marketing. However, there is a lot of potential in increasing cooperation between marketing and customer service, as it would help both parties – not to mention the customer. 

What are the benefits of better cooperation between marketing and aspa? 

As biscuits die and their own channels become more pronounced, it has become a headache for marketers to collect marketing permissions. The customer is most willing to give permission when they need something from the company – when contacting customer service. The verbal permission given to customer service is valid and gives the opportunity to approach the customer and thus enhance marketing carried out through their own channels. 

In addition, marketing should regularly utilize customer service to deepen customer understanding. Often, just interviewing the customer service team and analyzing any log texts from the chatbot and site search function can help concretize what the customer’s concrete problems are or whether customers find what they want on the site. 

A better understanding helps marketing produce information that reduces the need for customers to contact customer service. This, in turn, lightens the workload of customer service. Clear help that is easy to find on the site reduces the number of contacts and shortens the average processing time. 

Through cooperation between marketing and customer service, the customer experience can be developed in a seamless direction. It is a pleasant experience when the company’s communication does not stop after the deal has been made, but the treatment models continue smoothly also to the stage of the current customer relationship. This engages the customer, ultimately translating into longer and more profitable customer relationships. 

The cooperation between marketing and customer service is full of low-cut fruit. Remember to harvest the crop before it molds on the tree. 

Interested in the topic?  
Let’s continue the conversation over a cup of coffee!  

Samuel Tastula is a goal-oriented Lead Strategist who enjoys music, runs long runs and cooks experientially in his spare time.

Written by

Samuel Tastula

Lead Strategist, Digital Transformation

samuel.tastula@dagmar.fi

+358407484301

Tavoitteelllisuudesta motivoituva Lead Strategist, joka vapaa-aikanaan harrastaa musiikkia, juoksee pitkiä lenkkejä sekä valmistaa ruokaa eksperimentaalisesti.

Sources: 

¹https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-from-dimension-data-reveals-uncomfortable-cx-truths-300433878.html 
²Muuttuva kuluttaja 2023-tutkimus, Dagmar 
³https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/12/12/customer-retention-versus-customer-acquisition/