Have you been in this situation? You have had a customer service problem with a provider. You have gone to their web site to solve the issue, except that the solution cannot be found on their customer service page. They offer an online chat so you give that a try, only to find that no one is manning the chat line. You then resort to calling their customer support phone line. You are put into a phone loop, punching this and that number after listening to an automated list of responses. You are told that you can find your answers on their website (no you can’t!) and there are extremely long waits to talk to a representative. You opt to wait and when you get a live person on the line, they can only read from a script when you ask a question and offer no real solutions to your problem. Something that seems so very simple is made to sound like it is the equivalent to scaling Mount Everest! You hang up frustrated and no closer to solving the issue before you started.

What do you do in that situation? If you are like most people, you start to look at your options with other service providers. Whether they realize it or not, your current service provider has driven a wedge between you - their customer - and them. They have opened the door for your departure into the waiting arms of their competition. After spending millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to woo you to try their product and paying a sales staff to close the deal with you, their business will crumble with lousy customer service. Does this sound familiar? I find that this is all too often the case with businesses today. The truth is, customer service is the lynchpin of marketing. If you are great at customer service, you will have customers for life. In fact, you can build your marketing campaign around great customer service. If you are failing at customer service and are unwilling to change, there is no amount of marketing you can do to retain your clients.

What are the components of good customer service? One, respond to complaints quickly. Two, fix their problem with a real person. Whether you are responding to them online, by phone, or face-to-face, make a personal connection with them. Three, come up with a solution that relieves their pain and costs them little or nothing at all. If that is not possible, make amends the best you can. Four, be honest and courteous. Never accuse or argue with a customer. Remember, they pay you! You don’t have a job without them.

If you can do these things well, you have a key component in making customers for life. If that is not a marketing goal for you, it should be. The other thing that good customer service creates is endorsements from real people. Happy customers should be prompted to express themselves on your social media reviews, like your posts, and tell their friends about your company. In marketing, we have known for years that word-of-mouth advertising works best. Without good customer service, marketing is nearly impossible. Make sure you are doing a good job of meeting customer needs after the sale and promoting their pleasure with your business.

The next time you sit down to evaluate your marketing, make customer service a key part of your discussion. Is your relationship with the customer after the sale moving you closer to them or is your customer service driving a wedge between them and you?