How To Use Great Customer Service For Your Marketing Strategy

It’s no secret that smart marketing is what sells your products or services. Yet, no company can last long without well-thought-out customer service. It is what really makes your clients stick with you and choose you over and over again, no matter how good your competitors are.

The only issue is that finding effective ways to combine customer service and marketing is a real quest. On top of this, there is way too much information out there, so it can get way too overwhelming way too fast. But does this mean that you should give up before you even get started? Of course not.

So, in this guide, we are going to cut through the noise and go straight to how you can use great customer service to improve your marketing results. Let’s just jump right in.

Customer service and marketing are two different aspects all businesses have to master. Even though it seems like they have little to do with each other, these two have to combine together and work like a well-oiled engine for any company to succeed.

The marketing team turns people into paying clients, while the customer service department creates and maintains that bond by providing the best support whenever needed.

Even simply having a functional after-hours call center can ensure better customer retention and satisfaction rates. It will help your clients find all the right solutions from you – no matter what issue they encounter.

Need proof? Data (almost) never lies, so here are the stats: 77% of clients remain loyal to businesses with great customer service. So, it’s safe to say that there is hardly any way to retain clients and get more lifetime value out of them without a good customer relationship.

But if you ace this, it becomes easier to attract new leads and turn them into loyal supporters of your brand.

You already know that good customer support and marketing help you retain customers, but that’s not the only benefit. When you align your customer service objectives with your marketing strategy, you will be able to see:

1. Higher customer satisfaction: Happy clients become repeat clients. This doesn’t only mean better profit margins but also more buyers who are likely going to recommend your brand to someone else.
   Up to 72% of customers share their good experience with at least 6 people, but the bad experience will be shared with a minimum of 15 people. Disturbing, isn’t it?
2. Improve your brand image and perception: The quickest way to ruin a company’s reputation is to neglect customer service. On the flip side, great client experience creates a positive perception of your brand.
3. Become more competitive: It’s no secret that competition is insane in pretty much every industry. But guess what? Great customer service that is closely connected to your marketing can be your solution. Make people feel valued, and they will never switch to your competitors, even if they offer a better deal.
4. Increase team morale: Great customer service doesn’t just apply to buyers; it also works the other way around. An aligned customer service marketing strategy means a highly motivated team who is likely to put in more effort to see the company grow.
5. Make more while saving more: You can significantly reduce your customer acquisition costs by simply improving your customer service experience. How? If you’re really great at what you do, your clients will recommend you to people they know. As a result, you get more new clients without spending a dime.

Now that you understand the link between marketing and support let’s check what marketing ideas can help improve your customer satisfaction.

Sometimes, businesses can make the deadly mistake of thinking they know exactly what their customer needs and when. But it’s quite easy to miss the mark, so talk to your clients as much as you can. After all, they are the ones who know what they really want. How do you get this information out of them?

• Conduct surveys and polls online. For this, you can use social media, whether it’s Instagram or WhatsApp. Yet, avoid any hard-to-use, unknown platforms for your polls. The main benefit of WhatsApp and other common messengers or social media is that people already know how to use them, so you have more chances to get a response.
• Check online forums to see what people are saying about you.
• Find and monitor your brand mentions (there are many tools for this).
• If possible, interview your customers and ask them about their experience with your products/services. You can give them a discount or a special offer in return.

What should you do with all this data? Analyze it to measure customer sentiment. Next, based on this information, think of the changes you can make to create an even better experience for your buyers.

Social media isn’t only useful for paid ads and more exposure; you can use these platforms for your customer service marketing as well. How? Address your clients’ doubts, issues, and both negative and positive experiences.

This doesn’t mean that you have to answer every single comment – not at all. But your brand has to feel accessible. Ideally, you should communicate with your followers regularly and promptly. The good thing is that social media is perfect for this almost immediate connection with your audience.

Make sure you have all the necessary information about your company in your SM profiles, and remember to keep an eye out for posts that mention your brand. Whatever you do, don’t ignore negative mentions because your adequate reaction can foster loyalty. And loyalty is everything in the business world – data proves this:

• 87% of customers actively avoid buying things from companies they don’t trust. So, share the good reviews and testimonials on your SM channels. This will increase confidence in your products/services and make more people choose you over anyone else.
• 83% of clients say they feel loyal to brands that care enough to resolve their complaints. Why? Because they feel heard and valued. Who doesn’t like that?

Usually, when it comes to customer service and marketing, most articles only talk about the clients. But here is a thing – the only people who can really make a difference are your people (aka your team).

What can you do? You can invest in the right tools that optimize your workflows, organize regular team training, or arrange expert masterminds for different departments. All this will help your team become better professionals. Besides, it is a great boost for their motivation.

People trust other people more than they do shiny ads and big celebrity endorsements. That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is so popular. Don’t you ask your friends, family members, or colleagues for recommendations? This is what most of us do.

Yet, how do you incentivize your customers to promote your brand? The most obvious strategy is affiliate marketing. You can start your affiliate program and get new warm leads who convert easily.

Word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to turn your clients into brand advocates and also improve your brand’s recognition. Besides, as you only pay for the leads who convert, it is an extremely budget-friendly technique.

But you shouldn’t limit yourself to affiliates alone. Reviews and testimonials also work great for marketing and customer service. The more testimonials you have, the more credible you look.

The great part is that reviews also impact your SEO and link-building efforts. That’s why many link sellers also use them in combination with sponsored posts and press releases to build quality links.

Businesses that focus on their customer satisfaction make more money than those that don’t. Naturally, the goal is to retain your current clients, attract new ones, and record more growth. So, you need to start by creating an experience that makes all that possible. Here’s how you can begin right away and get your customers coming back for more:

These days, content drives most sales. The reason for this is simple: the way people find businesses online has changed. It is now more information-driven. Many users discover new brands while searching for information about their issues. This is why mixing good customer service with marketing tactics works so well.

You need informative blog posts centered around relevant keywords to rank high in search engines. This is where your potential clients will see you and click to check out your site. It’s even better when you post personal stories and ideas that humanize your brand and make it easier for people to engage with you.

Apart from this, you can create a selection of guides that will help both your new customers and the old ones at every stage of their buyer journey. This means publishing:

• Your product/service tutorials;
• Onboarding guides;
• FAQs to address common issues;
• Case studies that show your expertise;
• Knowledge bases.

This will set you on your way to having all the customer service elements checked off and improving the overall experience your clients have.

The tone of voice (ToV) is a thing you can’t ignore, not only in your marketing strategy but also in customer service. While most don’t really pay attention to the tone of voice their support is using, it isn’t something that can be neglected.

It helps your clients build certain expectations of your products or services and remember your brand in a certain way. For example, when customer support sounds unsure, too casual, or just plain rude, you are already losing your bond with the buyer. Want your client to feel confident and reassured? Use straightforward and positive language and tone.

About 1/3rd of people will “jump ship” on a brand that delivers a terrible service more than once. At the same time, most will stay for longer if they feel like they are heard and their needs are being met.

For example, if you deliver the wrong product once, most people will overlook that, but do that twice in a row, and you really begin to look incompetent. Sometimes, though, the needs might not be centered around your offerings. What should you do in such a case?

Try to better understand what your buyers’ pain points are and how to position yourself as a solution for them. The important thing is to help in whatever way you can, even if it’s just by having a customer service team that knows how to listen empathetically.

This way, your clients are likely to remember you and come back when they need you. Guess what? Returning customers spend 67% more than new ones, so you will not only build a great relationship but also get more lifetime value out of them.

For 88% of clients, their service experience heavily influences their purchase decisions. That’s why, as much as possible, try to make it easy for your customers to reach you. This should be straightforward across all platforms.

Chances are that you already have some sort of system in place for your buyers to contact you. Maybe it’s via email, by clicking on an in-app icon, or through your social media page. But simply having your communication methods settled for your clients isn’t enough. Your marketing and customer support teams also have to constantly be in touch.

They should share their experiences, plans, and results. Why does this matter? Your customer service can’t be clueless about what the client is talking about. At the same time, your marketers can’t be cut out from the outside world without having any client feedback.

So, make sure your customer service department knows everything the marketing and product teams are doing and vice versa. If you don’t have this intercommunication culture in your company yet, it is time to start.

The verdict is simple – your marketing strategy is not complete without strong customer service. While, at first, these two might seem as far from each other as the poles, in reality, they are intertwined. So, make sure you don’t isolate marketing from customer service so you don’t miss out on all the amazing benefits we’ve covered today.