Gone are the days of traditional marketing techniques. Billboards, pamphlets, flyers, and radio ads just don’t pack the same punch that they once used to. Customers are done with gimmicks and mass marketing campaigns. Instead, people place more stock in what they or their friends experience directly.
In order to be truly competitive in today’s market, business owners need to find a way to blend tried-and-true marketing principles with modern tools and technology. There are some true-isms that will always remain in the world of business. It’s important to create a bond of trust between your company and your clients, it’s key to know who your ideal clients are, and it’s vital that your customers feel satisfied with your product, whatever that may be.
While it’s obvious that social media marketing and email campaigns are ways to accomplish these goals, you may not have considered that customer service is just as, if not more so, effective a tool as other modes of marketing. Here are three ways that customer service can be used to help you market your company.
Seamless and Inviting Experiences
In order to stay at the top of your game in today’s marketplace, you have to create a customer-centric business. A customer-centric business ensures that, from start to finish, the customer’s experience is easy, personalized, and most importantly, positive. This applies to the customer service experience, as well. When customers face a problem, they should be able to get in touch with customer service easily and quickly.
One easy way to accomplish this is to employ virtual call center software. Virtual call centers help you save money while providing the fastest, most reliable customer service experience possible. With the right software, call center agents will have access to all of your customer’s purchase history, previous customer service call transcripts, and additional account information. Their interactions with your agents will be tailored to their needs, and they’ll feel welcomed and understood immediately. In the event that a call is dropped and then redialed, virtual call center software will make sure that the call is delivered to the same agent that was helping the customer, further ensuring that they have the best and most seamless experience.
It’s also important to note that most customers expect businesses to respond to any email inquiries they send within an hour. Utilizing a virtual customer service portal that has SMS and email capabilities, along with voice and video options, will help you meet customer expectations. It’s these kinds of considerations that will keep customers returning to you over and over again, not mass mailers or print campaigns.
Self-Service that Actually Works
Another key area in which you can stand out from your competitors is to have a self-service customer service option that actually works well. With the constant improvement of AI (artificial intelligence) assistants and chatbots, it makes sense to integrate these resources into your existing contact center. Automation helps your customers solve their problems for themselves, without having to interact with your customer service agents. This keeps your agents available to handle truly challenging issues and empowers your customers to use your system. This kind of self-service capability is sure to make a lasting impression. When customers are asked by their friends and family who they shop with, they’re more likely to recommend the company that makes their shopping experience, and their customer service experience, easy enough to manage themselves.
Better Understanding of Your Customer Base
An added advantage of using a virtual call center as your customer service resource is that you’re more likely to understand your customer base as a result. Using a digital, cloud-based customer service portal not only guarantees that your clients will be well-serviced, but that you’ll have access to analytics and data that you wouldn’t otherwise have. The best tool for marketing digitally is data. By using a software that links together all customer purchases, emails, SMSs, calls, and social media interactions with your company in one easy-to-use platform, you’ll have new insights into their preferences, needs, and habits. This kind of information is vital in understanding your company’s target demographic.
Marketing techniques and tools may change, but one truth will always remain the same. A satisfied customer is a happy customer, and a happy customer is likely to refer new business your way. In today’s marketplace, enacting new technologies to provide top-notch customer service is the number one way to keep the customers you have while bringing new ones into the fold.
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