Success in a business can only be adequately maintained if business owners and employees understand the symbiotic relationship that exists between marketing and customer service, and if they do everything in their power to nurture it. Here are the facts that you need to know.
Why Customer Service and Marketing Go Hand in Hand
Think about it — without one supporting the other, both aspects of the business fall flat. If you do not have an efficient customer service team to assist customers in making the most of the various products and services on offer as per your marketing efforts, it won’t be long before they start looking elsewhere. Also, if your marketing strategy just isn’t up to scratch, your customer service agents simply won’t have any customers with whom to interact!
Ultimately, both departments are strongly focused on dealing with customers, understanding their needs, and keeping them happy. Both departments have the same goal, and yet in most traditional businesses, they tend to operate completely separate from one another. It is this fundamental flaw that business owners need to address, and fast.
How to Embrace this Pairing
Once you decide to embrace the fact that marketing and customer service work closely together, you will start to notice an improvement in various aspects of your business. The question is, how do you go about embracing this perfect pairing in the first place? Here are some tips:
Merge the departments
This is the best course of action to take if you want to notice positive changes within your organization. If both departments are on the same page, you can be sure that more consistent levels of customer satisfaction will follow shortly after. If customer service has a thorough understanding of what is being marketed and the challenges that might present themselves as a result, they will be better equipped to assist customers with their queries. If the marketing experts are being kept up to date regarding these challenges, they can better tweak and target their advertisements to provide clearer messages to the right individuals.
Give your employees the tools that they need to excel
Tools and technology play a significant role in empowering employees focusing on marketing and/or customer service. For example, investing in state-of-the-art call center software with advanced features like interactive voice response and workforce scheduling can make the jobs of customer service agents endlessly easier. Marketers can also benefit from the use of tools and tech like MailChimp, Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and HubSpot.
Train employees in these department to be more well-rounded
Many modernized companies are now hiring marketers who can double up as customer service executives. If you are already equipped with staff members with either of these skills, consider having them mentor each other in the opposite discipline. It is a wonderful opportunity to upskill your employees, increase customer satisfaction, and enhance the chances of optimizing employee retention in the process. Research shows that employees who feel that they are constantly developing in their profession will be more likely to stay at a company for a longer time.
Best of luck!