Customer service

When you think of marketing- customer service probably isn't the 1st thing that springs to mind or some people might not even realise how big of a part of marketing customer service actually is.
But although attracting customers to your brand and making them aware of your products is important; whats fundamental to the success of a brand is customer retention.

Have you ever noticed that the most profitable retailers are always the ones who provide impeccable customer service instore- Apple, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Boots, John Lewis are all fantastic at it. I really do believe it's forefront to success and keeping your customer.

I had a particularly pleasant experience in Boots recently- one which surprised me.

I'm usually a MAC devotee and always buy my make-up in there, however after visiting the Debenhams store in Bristol and having a really rude sales assistant more interested in chatting too her friend and what was behind the till than actually finding me the product I needed, I decided to leave the store. I had actually intended to make quite a large purchase that day but I was so disappointed in the way she had dealt with me that I decided to leave- to be honest I have visited loads of MAC counters, in London, Birmingham, Manchester and the Trafford Centre and have never experienced any treatment like I had in there. However the Bristol staff have always let me down- sometimes blatantly having had just come back from a fag break (not nice when they breathe it in your face) or just generally not been interested in me as a customer.

Anyway, so I decided to try a different counter and went to try Boots instead this time, not only to get my advantage card points (most successful loyalty scheme ever) but by this point I was sick of Debenhams! I had heard great things about the Clinique products in blogs and wanted to give it a try- but as I hadn't tried them before I was slightly apprehensive- however the sales assistant was amazing and talked me through the products- she had amazing product knowledge and I explained my apprehension at spending a lot of money on products I hadn't tried before and she put me totally at ease by taking my phone number and offering to call me a few days later and then scheduling an appointment a few weeks later where she would check I liked them and see if I had any problems and if not she said I could return the products!!

I was astonished at how well she treated me- no hard sell and she really did look after me, seriously a different treatment from the MAC counter!!! Will definitely be returning to the Clinique counter.

Good customer service not only means that customers are more likely to return- they are also likely to spend more money!

Yet- even when you get these loyal customers- good customer service is neccessary as even one bad experience can put a customer off for life. Especially with the extent of social media today- 1 bad tweet, facebook post or youtube video can be detremental to the reputation of a brand. It isn't just a bad customer service experience shared with one person- it's shared with the WHOLE WORLD.
Similar to my blog post of public relations- posts and shares about negative news regarding a brand are FAR more likely to be shared than positive ones.

Take this video:



It currently has 650,000 views- all seen how poor hollister's customer service can be- although this may have been one isolated case, it has been seen by thousands and provided a negative association not only with the brand, but with the staff and customers may think twice about buying from Hollister in the future.

This just indicates the extent to how important customer service is in the first place. And at the end of the day- good training and brand values to begin with which are set in place in all areas of the business means there is less for the PR department to have to deal with and ultimately- less to clean up afterwards


Steph x

Ever changing

Ok, so been a massive week at uni this week. Exams, assignments and today our group product pitch presentation which we have been working on for MONTHS and I am so glad it's over. I hate group work, not going to lie I like to be in control especially when it concerns my own grades and levels of input to my work. Anyway I think our product pitch went really well and I think developing a new product and pitching it is something beneficial from uni that you normally wouldn't do through literature reviews or exams. That's why I love my course! Lot's of variety....

Sad news about HMV going into administration this week, a truely British brand. However I remember saying a long time ago how they needed to up their game and develop a new strategy in order to remain current or else they were going to fall under..... touche. They never changed in order to suit customer demand and therefore they were never going to compete. Personally, I haven't been in a HMV store in years and would have no enjoyment in doing so.

And from another organisation crushed by the rise in technology, as comes a further development in technology. This one interests me as I love social networking as much as the next person.... However, I have started to use facebook less and less recently as I feel as though a lot of it is just marketing (ironic I know) and less about the 'social' aspect. However, I am becoming addicted to twitter. I feel that although twitter does incorporate marketing and brand promotion through its trends etc, it allows people to be social through doing so. For example, every night without fail there is a TV show trending which allows people to join in on discussing the programme or not if they choose not too. I feel twitter uses this interaction in a way that facebook is unable to. Twitter is definately less in your face and 100% more tailored to individuals, not only through demographics and people you 'follow' but also increasingly using twitter means your topics of interest or talking points become tailored into products or services you may be interested in.

Anyway, back to my initial point. Facebook have now launched a search engine or a "graph search" as they are calling it; it allows you to search your 'network' for images, statuses etc. which I think may be slightly more like twitter in that you can search for things which interest you and sort of tailor your experience with the site. So for example, I was recently trying to think of places to go on holiday and was struggling finding photos of people that had been to marbella, cancun etc. however the new feature would allow me to directly search "friends who have been to marbella" which I do think is going to be interesting and am looking forward to checking the feature out! Maybe see if facebook can make a comeback! Also interested to see how my facebook friends react!

Been working on my internship loads this week too! Been contacting review sites and bloggers ahead of the launch next week! This has been the most exciting element so far I think as I love reaching out to other companies and making a pitch! Also signed my contract with IBM! I am now a demand programmes specialist!!

Steph