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Marketing Mondays - Setting up an account is hard to do (8th ed., 2010)

3/8/2010

3 Comments

 
Welcome back everyone! 

When I was thinking about what to write for this week, I wanted to zone in on customer service.  I’ve had some really interesting experiences the past few days that I’d love to share.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to setup an Israeli bank account…not the most exciting task to accomplish when you don’t have a firm grasp of the language.

Since I’ve been working in the banking industry for nearly 4 years, the past year in customer research, I know that customer service can be a sore subject.  I also have a better understanding than most on setting up a bank account as I’ve been the woman behind creating account opening forms in the past.  On a personal level, I’ve also opened up accounts in a number of countries.   

A couple of weeks ago, I went into one of the top banks in the country and asked a few simple question about fees, type of accounts and access to funds.  This bank in particular, to be frank, confused the heck out of me.  They had no marketing material to present me (in English or Hebrew) and gave me the impression they weren’t even interested in me as a customer.  I ended up walking out of the branch with no account to speak of.

After this experience, I was told by many not to expect much more as customer service wasn’t the norm across banks in the country.  Giving the Israeli banking industry some benefit of the doubt, I kept pushing forward…

Round two…last week I walked into another bank – not as big but still a national player.  I asked nicely if there was anyone who could assist me in English.  I was met by a lovely woman who asked me a few questions about my needs, if I had the required documentation to open the account and handed me an information leaflet that she would walk me through.  And so began the account opening experience. 

Considering most of the information presented to me was in Hebrew, she took the time to explain everything to me – including fees, types of accounts available to me and access to funds.  So, all the information I had asked the other bank now became clear to me.  She also took the time to reiterate that she was here to help anytime and even gave me her direct line – which in this day-and-age, I think we can all say, is rare.

So what is the point of this example?  My point is that customer service is so important for so many different reasons. 

Not only am I going to continue to have my account at the second bank (customer loyalty) I’m also going to tell people I meet to go to this woman to open their accounts (word of mouth). 

One of the sad things that comes out of this tale, is that the woman at the bank I now have an account with, is a part of the customer service minority.  I think we can all agree that most of us don’t expect to get a fantastic service at a bank but even at a restaurant or an airport.  We have begun to accept that mediocre service is all that we will be on the receiving end of most of the time.

If this is all about customer service, how does that relate to marketing?

Servicing the customer is what marketing is all about.  Marketers have a duty to understand what the customer thinks about the company’s brand and that is intrinsically linked to the service they receive. 

It's a simple equation - Happy Customers = Good Marketing 


One of the ways marketers can influence customer service is by feeding back what we find out from customers.  This is the reason why market research – whether on service, the brand or products - is so crucial to differentiating and staying competitive in this global market.

What do you think?  I’m sure we all have had positive and/or negative customer service experiences.  Share away!!

Have a great marketing week and see you next Monday,

Miriam Berger

3 Comments
Keith F
3/8/2010 09:43:30 am

Well I suppose most people could speak at length about the importance of customer service, myself included. In the end, I don't think most companies cared that much because negative experiences to that end tended to be isolated to one individual. And large organizations, especially, don't seem to feel that individual experiences matter much. After all, individual customers have historically not held much power vs large multi-national businesses. Unhappy with the utility company? Who cares--you can't do anything about it anyway and you have to buy their power. Unhappy with your bank? Well they've got 100,000 other people waiting to put their money there so who cares. So it went.

Well guess what? Now that we have blogs, viral marketing and especially social media like Twitter and Facebook, suddenly that dynamic changes. I, as an individual, can have a noticeable positive or negative impact on brand perception via these sources now. The individual can influence in a big way. I can Twitter 1,000 friends telling them that Toyota treated me badly when I complained about a quality problem with my car.

And that is what marketers must really be wary of now. I think customer service is going to gain a new importance in the marketing of today and tomorrow, because today's bad experience can turn into tomorrow's hottest video on Youtube. And that, I think, is a good thing.

Reply
Randall T
3/8/2010 10:56:35 pm

Hi Keith, Miriam: I agree that the power of the individual customer is grwoing and will continue to do so. It's also been shown that the way senior management treats their employees translates all the way down and out to the customer. It would be interesting to know if the bank's senior management have care or contempt for their employees. Keith, you mentioned Toyota. I worked with Toyota for several years and although they worked people hard, their approach was to be very receptive to employees' ideas about quality. I sense from talking to friends at Toyota that this has been lost over the last 10 years with rapid expansion - a point reflected in recent news releases. So the message for marketing people is that part of your job involves exploring how senior management feels about their employees and customers - then it's easier to craft a message aligned with better customer service. At a retirement party for one of my friends, I asked him if he had any advice for me as I entered the protective apparel business. "Never forget", hes said with a fierce expression, "that this business is about protecting the worker". This message may seem obvious, but I watched our business lose market share year after year becuase we neglected to reinforce the fact that our products were designed to be best at protecting the worker. In my opinion, to the company's leadership the customer had become a vague mob, instead of individuals who needed our technology to work safely.

Reply
Miriam link
3/9/2010 03:25:10 pm

Hello Randy,Keith:
I think your thoughts around customer service are totally valid.

The power of the customer is growing, especially because of the accessibility and use of social networking sites.

At the same time, to your point Randy, a lot of companies haven't realized this new found power.

The voice of the customer is such an important concept - well before Facebook and Twitter, but it got lost somewhere. Now with these sites, customers can fight back and put their voice front and centre.

In my opinion, companies who don't wake up and smell the coffee and respond quickly are going to struggle.

I think all 3 of us have the right idea - hopefully many more people out there will start to wise up before it's too late.

Thanks again for your support on my blog and your comments!

Miriam

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