Good day everyone! Welcome to my post for the WIN Firm regarding marketing and our actual examples of strategies/tactics we use. I realize most of you following this blog have probably been inundated with media regarding Health Care Reform, and recently, Kanye West. Wow! We have seen a lot lately, and there still is plenty to come. I want to take time out for a moment and shed light on an important subject today, customer service.
Our firm is working on a promotion to help a local Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, win a tractor trailer truck load of food from Kraft. Being a cause-oriented marketing firm, we are always excited to help the less fortunate, and love partnering with organizations that do their part, whether they be non-profit or for-profit. Where am I going with this story? I'll explain.
Today, a colleague of mine went to Verizon Wireless in Johnson City, TN to see about obtaining a few wireless air cards that Second Harvest would use for an upcoming event. Now, I realize that most event marketing decisions come from corporate, but small event decisions are often made on the local level, especially if they do not involve money. We first thought of Verizon because they are the Food Bank's cell phone company. However, despite Verizon's crafty commercials depicting a wonderful cell service, their customer service is absolutely terrible, at least locally anyways. My colleague reported back to me that in our attempt to use air cards from the local Verizon store in Johnson City, the store manager would not even speak to him; rather, had an employee tell him "corporate handles events." My colleague did not even have a chance to explain what exactly we were doing, but was hurried out the door. Wow! That is EXCELLENT service, right!
What does this experience tell me? It tells me that corporate structure must have problems as well for Verizon if the local manager had zero skills in customer service. Why? As person who oversees projects with colleagues working on them, I take full responsibility of how each project is handled because it is a direct reflection of how I lead. Yes, leadership is key, and customer service starts from the top and works its way down. I wander how much emphasis is placed on training customer service for Verizon Wireless.
How does this lack of service relate to marketing? It is the foundation of marketing. Marketing is about managing a perception by communicating effectively with people. When your customer service is awful, your company is perceived as being awful. In this case, our company will most likely not ever use Verizon for our business needs thanks to one lousy manager in our local store. What can be learned from all of this? Think about how you treat people, because your advertising budget will not change someone's perception of you following a bad experience.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
This is not encouraging, especially for me. Now that Alltel has merged with Verizon, my carrier is Verizon.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the manager was allowing home issues or frustrations with their job get in the way of giving customers proper customer service.
Thank you, J.R., for your comment. I am not saying that Verizon is a bad company, but the example provided above is one that many companies deal with, especially the large companies. Perhaps the manager was having a bad day, and I hope that things are better in the future. However, the take away from this post is that sometimes you only have ONE shot.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm