In this digital world, customer service is having a moment, and more businesses are catching up on this. Three years back, when I started my business, I realized that product is not everything.
I know most people would like to call this fake but hear me out. Nearly all companies, big or small, have issues with their product or service. From Google to Amazon, we have seen billion-dollar companies having glitches with their product.
However, these companies have exceptional customer support that helps them retain their old customers and gain more customers.
So how is customer service helpful in marketing?
Let us explore different strategies used by companies for using customer service as a marketing tool.
Customer Support vs. Customer Service
Before diving straight into the strategies, it is very important to understand that customer support and customer service are not the same. Most people use customer support and customer service interchangeably; however, they are fundamentally different.
Here is a quick overview of their differences:
| Customer Service | Customer Support |
| Focused on building relationships with customers and enhancing customer experience with the product and service. | Focused on resolving technical issues, filling complaints, and resolving basic issues related to product or service |
| Uses multiple mediums for communication i.e., social media, phone, email, etc. | Uses only one medium for communication i.e., phone calls |
| Helps with long-term relationships by streamlining the feedback cycle and enhancing product quality | Addresses basic issues that require quick response |
| Requires less tech knowledge and more soft skills | Use detailed tech and product knowledge |
| Every business offers customer service. | Only essential for tech-based business |
Top 5 Ways to Use Customer Service as a Marketing Tool
Advertise Feedback
Feedback is an excellent way to turn weaknesses into strengths. Most brands have a consistent review system in place; e-commerce-based companies seek review after each purchase. Cab-hailing companies like Uber and Grab work on review and feedback systems.
However, small brands with no consistent feedback system struggle to update their product and services based on the expectations and needs of customers. To address this issue, customer service can help. Moreover, after addressing the issues, a brand can roll out an advertisement, addressing the launch of new features or services.
For instance, Hubspot is an excellent tech brand that most digital marketing experts use. Hubspot started as a brand offering help and guidance to brands so they can earn more. Today, Hubspot has multiple tools, a CRM dashboard, and much more. The company proactively seeks feedback from the customers and then uses this feedback to update their product.
Go Organic On Social Media
Social media is excellent for marketing your brand as well as interacting with the customers. However, running a campaign on social media requires a marketing budget. Brands actively allocate budgets for social media and digital marketing ads.
For small brands, however, competing with these giants can be quite challenging. But social media is an excellent tool for customer support as well. A study concludes that more than 80% of customers expect brands to offer customer support for social media platforms.
Apart from customer expectations, offering customer support via social media also helps with organic reach. Brands like Duolingo and Wendy’s are using social media for marketing by engaging audiences with memes.
Address FAQ’s
Keeping track of customer support queries helps an internet provider brand understand its strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, these strengths and weaknesses can be used in marketing and improving overall customer experience.
Moreover, internet providers generally look through common concerns reported by their customers. Later, these concerns are addressed on social media platforms as well as on websites. This approach not only improves transparency but also helps with Search Engine Optimization, bringing more web traffic and helping brands strengthen their social media presence.
Spectrum is an excellent example of this strategy. The internet provider offers Spectrum Sales Support for customers so they can get answers to sales-related questions. These questions are also listed on their website in the FAQ section to help control customer call influx and allow users to easily find the information they need online.
Gain Insight from Customer Data
In the digital world of business, data plays a very important role. This is the reason companies invest heavily in data-scrapping tools, cookies, signups, and other details. However, most brands do not realize that customer support is an excellent way to gain customer insight.
With the help of customer service, brands can understand frequently reported issues, consumer behavior, purchase power, customer expectations, and priorities. This data can be later used to run and design successful sales campaigns. By leveraging tools that enhance customer interactions, businesses can gather valuable insights more efficiently, and StoreAgent Chat provides an effective solution for this purpose.
A common example of this strategy is Facebook. Facebook actively tracks user behavior online. This information is later used not just to improve the online experience of the user but also to improve the platform.
Use Follow-Up Process
The follow-up process is a very good way to engage the audience as well as make your customers realize that they are loved and cared for. Most brands have an automated follow-up process in place. These brands not only follow up after a purchase but also have a follow-up for complaints.
Follow-up via calls, texts, and emails is mainly used by e-commerce sites, especially Ali Express, Alibaba, Shein, and Amazon.
These brands get to know about the customer experience and then offer customers reward points just to build a relationship. This customer interaction is later used for retargeting customers as well as gaining more sales.