How Does Service Connect to Marketing?
Everybody knows you need to train your team to talk to your customers and prospects. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could train your customers on making purchases from you?
Actually, that’s what contractors do through content marketing as you educate customers about the value of your services and the benefit of your products – and in person when you advise them of solutions that solve their problems.
You also train your customers (educate, that is) through your customer service as you lay the groundwork for their word-of-mouth marketing – whether through reviews, testimonials or personal referrals.
You want folks to go out and say nice things about you, right? Well, what is the message that your customer is most likely to tell that other party? Is it going to be how well their new electrical outlets work? Will they speak admiringly about how pretty the outdoor unit looks in their backyard? Will it be how glad they are that their toilet flushes again? No and no (but maybe a yes on how glad they are about that flushing toilet).
Customers will talk about how they were treated. Did you keep them waiting, or did you show up on time? Did you fix the problem the first time, or did they face aggravation after you left? If they did have an issue post-installation, they’ll talk about that – and, importantly, whether you solved it and apologized for their inconvenience. Or whether you left them in the lurch.
Your customers won’t likely use industrial jargon or technical terms to talk about you. But they’ll speak in a word-of-mouth language that people understand: how they were treated. That’s why it’s so important to reinforce service to your staff. Train staff on how to educate customers about who you are as a company – by treating customers with courtesy and demonstrating a willingness to serve.