Good Advertising Bad Customer Service – SMX San Jose

So I am enjoying my Search Marketing Expo experience giving a few tidbits on local search seo and customer experience and I find this…

Spot lights to bring in new customers.

Spot lights to drive out current customers.

If you didn’t catch it, the spot light brought in to attract more customers to this San Jose hotel was spot lighting the windows of it’s guests. The reason I noticed the windows was because a guy in one of these rooms was standing with curtains open and arms spread out wide. While this is one extreme example of marketing efforts that piss off customers, I believe that this happens on a regular bases. Have you ever seen a company offer a promo for a cheaper price for new customers? What about the guys that have been paying you for 5 years? Or what about lavish spending? There are a number of cases when marketing screws up perception. In this particular case, it wasn’t just percetpion but a direct customer satisfaction conflict. Marketers listen up, customer service is not it’s own silo!

Marketing is actually most often the beginning of customer service. The marketing message sets expectations. Customer service is based on expectations. Customer service is often tasked with being the ears of an organization, and marketing the mouth. In conversation marketing these should be used sysyncly.

DON’T SEPARATE MARKETING AND CUSTOMER SERVICE.