Here’s an easy but high effort way of growing your marketing – think for your customer. The mistake most companies make is having a silo mentality with marketing. Instead of incorporating a marketing mindset throughout the organization, they assign it to a group and think that sales, customer service, operations and the rest of the company is something different than marketing.
The truth is that the message that a customer gets lured by has to remain consistent in every touch point and experience they have with your brand. If you told a story of the delightful service the customer would experience and later the experience feels robotic and machine-like, then you failed. You lied. Your marketing stopped working.
Thinking for your customer means laying out the pleasant experiences and continuing the story whenever they experience your company. Consider the following areas of marketing in your business:
- How your phone gets answered
- How your phone directory delights or wearies the caller
- The helpfulness and clarity of your email communications
- How a software developer gets direct feedback from end users
- The speed and communications of your customer support
- How you excite your employees and influence attitudes
- The experience your salesperson provides in providing a proposal
Customers are looking for a continuity of experience. The story you told at the beginning has to hold water for every part that touches them. Speed, quality, delight and passion have to be part of the overall experience.
Otherwise, what do you have in a crowded world? You look boring like everyone else out there who is peddling their wares and content with the mediocrity of unimaginative and lazy thinking.
You don’t have to tackle everything at once. But you do have to care. You do have to see your company in the business of marketing and you do have to think for your customer. Give them what they want and surprise them every now and then.
How can you make marketing your business?
