If you have worked within companies, you know that one of the most common issues is lack of internal communication. Departments tend to become clam-like when it comes to sharing information with colleagues not belonging to the same ‘tribe’. Having personally experienced such situations, I have noticed that the more departments become silos, the more tension grows. Consequently, it reflects outside with customers having poor/bad experiences. So, as this has a strong impact on customer retention, how can organizations build a winning link between crucial areas such as customer service and marketing?
A Real Story To Learn From
A few weeks ago I had an interesting call with Luca, a colleague of mine. He is a marketing man, whereas I’m a customer service one. So we usually work with clients having different perspectives one from another. That can be useful to get client-department results (marketing for him, customer service for me). But positive effects remain ‘local.’ In order to make a wider impact on overall business results, Luca and I agreed that we needed to join our forces. So we had a fruitful brainstorming session during which we’ve had the chance to know:
- Much more about our mutual activities (‘uh really? I didn’t know that you do also this/that…’)
- That we had more things in common than we thought (winning links)
Related: how to break down the silos and build up profitable relationships.
Use Online Reviews to Create a Winning Link
So Luca and I already had a strong link to work together on, but we just had not realized it yet. Guess what? It’s the same one that you may use to build a bridge between customer service, marketing, and sales. I’m talking about online reviews. Every day, customers use them to share their experiences with your product and services because they want to publicly express their feelings. Moreover, they’re also trying to start a conversation with you so they expect you to reply. This is regardless of whether they gave you a positive or negative review.
7 Actionable Tips For Your Business
- Regularly monitor online reviews sites such as GoogleMyBusiness and Trustpilot and nurture conversations (owner: marketing & customer service)
- Use a digital omni-channel platform to handle them just like tickets incoming from other support channels – e.g. email, social, live chat (owner: customer service)
- Do answer each customer. Show that you’re there and you care! (owner: customer service)
- Since online reviews and conversations are public, remember to answer to one but communicate at your best with many other spectators (owner: customer service)
- Share best practice based on successful answers given to customers (owner: customer service)
- Analyze data and improve the customer journey (owner: marketing with customer service)
- Embed online reviews in your corporate website to leverage social proof and at the same increase traffic (owner: marketing & sales)
Credit image: Trustpilot.com
Over To You
Customers use either digital channels and online reviews to get support and to share their experiences. In 2020, those who still do not reply to online reviews are ignoring customer queries. It’s just like not replying to an email. How would you feel if you were ignored?
How the customer feels is not a matter of a single department. It’s a 100% business priority. So sit down with your peers and find/build your winning link to slash silos and make solid-rock relationships with your customers.
Have great conversations.
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_semisatch‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
Paolo Fabrizio
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