The Importance of Customer Service

Marketing and advertising campaigns aim to influence the way we see brands and try to position them favourably in our minds over another competitor. Memorable advertising stays clear in our minds. A classic example from Apple, is their mac vs pc campaign. Apple declares a position of superiority over their competitor by constantly outlining why they are the brand of choice. The use of a young, fresh person in their ads are as important as the product information. The actor, young, smart, attractive and funny, describes the culture and persona of the company, something that they want their audience to be a part of. This is an example of an intelligent and strategic marketing campaign, and one that drives the viewer to go an enquire further into the product.

Although, for all this hard work done by advertising agencies for their brands, an important piece of the puzzle is the customer service assistant. Ads influence us to consider a brand or product, but once we are in the actually at the shops, the sales assistants become the face of that brand. Most customer service assistants are working their casual jobs without really understanding the power they hold with consumers. What we see advertised on our screens, we want to see when purchasing the product also. For the most part, Apple succeeds in doing this, their stores always buzzing and bustling with potential customers, with an abundance of young, friendly and approachable staff members waiting and willing to talk to you about their product.

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Common customer service complaints include being hassled into a sale “used car salesmen” style, just wanting to speak to a “real person”, lack of attitude, and general lack of care to the consumer. All of this contributes to the way brands are perceived. Recently I purchased car insurance with Youi due to the fact I spoke to a real person, and they went out of their way to do the best deal for me that they could. These are also examples of the power of word of mouth, and how quickly a bad or good reputation can be spread through a community through someones positive or negative experiences.

Great experiences with a brand can create a very powerful word-of-mouth campign, which has the ability to produce a great amount of spread for your business. Businesses should be thinking about this if they aren’t already, because you can spend millions on great advertising without great reward. On the other hand, having great people at the forefront, and in-store promoting your brand, is priceless.

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