The first step in your service marketing is your service.
Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible
Many business people seem to forget the fact that marketing is a means to an end. This notion of marketing being all-important is a concept that we see all too frequently among Internet marketing companies both large and small. The concept that creating a “winning” marketing campaign is all-important is a trap that is easy to set, but hard from which to escape. I am not saying that marketing is not important. To the contrary, a well crafted marketing strategy will ultimately be crucial to success. To have world-class marketing you must first have world-class service.
I am not suggesting that if you create a better service that the world will beat a path to your door. Many great service offerings have failed for lack of good marketing. But marketing will not save a poor service offering. Consequently, advertising and getting the word out about your service offering and attracting potential customers to a flawed service is a sure-fire prescription for failure.
Consequently, the first principle of services marketing should be Guy Kawasaki’s first principle of computer marketing, which is to “get better reality.”be true to yourself. Take the time to understand what your customer needs, and do not allow yourself to be fooled by your perceptions of how great you believe your service offering to be. Kawasaki suggested that getting better reality can make the marketing effort easier and cheaper. Some companies have been able to improve their reality such that they can virtually eliminate the need to “get the word out” in their marketing plans and strategies.
The first step in developing your service offering is to know your business. Learn all you can about your products and services. This seems to be a common problem with many affiliate marketers. The presumption that you can simply sign up as an affiliate an offer the products or services of another organization does not necessarily qualify for knowing your product or service. You must take the time and make the effort to discover all you can about the organization offering the product or service for which you are interested in serving as an affiliate. How can you answer the questions of your customers, and they are still your customers, if you do not thoroughly understand what you are referring for sale? Also, take the time to learn about the products or services of your competitors. Develop your strategies in accordance to what you know about those of your competitors.
Effectiveness is important to your customers. In order for you to be effective, you must be knowledgeable. That means that you must be knowledgeable about not only your products or services but about your organization as a whole. This becomes easier if you are a one-man operation, but the goal of most entrepreneurs is to grow. Consequently, you must manage and participate fully in that growth in order to possess the knowledge that you must have to appropriately service your customers.
Efficiency is important to customers. To be efficient, you must be productive. Finding the right solution to your customers problems, but taking too long is as inefficient as handling your customers request quickly but not finding the right solution. Strive to balance effectiveness and efficiency by finding the right solution as quickly as possible.
Ask questions and pay attention to the answers. Knowing your business means producing the appropriate solutions for each customer’s needs. That is the best way to satisfy your customers.
Good news exists for interested business operators. Truly memorable incidents of outstanding service are so few and far between that people write books about the great service providers. So if your service is somewhere between mediocre and satisfactory there is an opportunity for you to excel. Redouble your efforts in developing your service delivery. Every company has the ability to create a world-class service experience. Let that company be yours.
Copyright (c) 2009 Larry Crowson
Larry Crwoson is the owner of http://www.AbsoluteValu.com and is recognized as an authority on customer service programs. Crowson is a Professor of Marketing and has developed and implemented customer service solutions for dozens of clients nationwide, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses.
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