The idea that customer service IS marketing is increasingly discussed. The success of Zappos.com through word-of-mouth about the remarkable service it provides is often cited as an example. Organizations are told to improve customer experience so it becomes a form of viral marketing.

Type “customer service is marketing” into any search engine and you will see a list of articles claiming that customer service is the NEW marketing.

Flip this idea around and you will see advocates who believe marketing should be approached as a service to customers and prospects.

Both ideas are interesting and encourage debate. Coming from a marketing background, I was engrossed and dug deeper, until a “Duh!” moment woke me up.

It does not matter if customer service is marketing, or if marketing is a form of service to customers. What matters is developing a new and bigger perspective about service.

Starting with the question: “What is service?”

Here, we believe “service” happens when someone takes action to create value for someone else. Seen this way, service can be provided to colleagues, not just customers. Service happens in the military, at home, from a country to its citizens and vice versa. In fact, service occurs in almost every constructive interaction between one human being and another.

It is time for us to simplify the meaning of service. Free it from the subservient shackles attached in some cultures, where the server is treated (and feels like) a “servant”. Service should not be an indication of status or class, but rather a commitment from one person to contribute to the care and well-being of others.

Let’s remove the blinders that keep us from seeing service as something that only happens in business and for “customers”. Service is not a commodity to be exchanged, or merely a tool for commercial profit.

It is time to focus on how learning to serve one another better is an idea every person can and should embrace. Service can truly make our world a better place.

The issue is not what marketing is or isn’t, or whether service is marketing, or marketing is service. The bigger issue is whether we are marketing the right message about “service”.

Idea #5: Survey and roll up (drilling down may be too late)

Customer focused surveys frequently collect data that is customer-specific. This ensures a regular flow of insights that lead to action. Common insights from these frequent surveys can be “rolled up” to provide an aggregate view of a market or a high level view of systemic issues in an organization.

This is in contrast to conducting an occasional (eg: annual) survey that starts at a high level then “drills down” to discover specific problems.

This latter approach is inherently lagging. It may be too little to close the gap, and too late to fix the problem. By the time you drill down to learn more about what’s wrong, your customers may already be gone.

Idea #6: Conduct a survey about your survey

Customer focused surveys and other feedback techniques are powerful ways to connect with customers, create value and remain competitive in a changing world.

But without occasional review and fresh ideas, surveys (and third-party survey providers) can quickly fall out of date.

Conduct a survey about your current survey. Ask your customers and your own team members:

•    Does our survey focus more on collecting data, or creating new value?
•    Is our survey a positive customer experience or a painful procedure?

•    Does our survey lead to action, or stop at analysis?

•    Do we reconnect with customers after a survey to see if action has been taken? Or do we still see that as “someone else’s responsibility?”

•    Is our survey frequent enough? Is it customer-specific?

•    Do we roll-up common findings, or drill down to find what’s wrong?

•    Is it time for us to relook, review and perhaps revise our customer focused survey procedures?

A well designed and deployed customer focused survey will find problems, discover opportunities, drive action and create new value. Will you settle for anything less?

(Read Customer Focused Surveys Ideas #1-2)

(Read Customer Focused Surveys Ideas #3-4)

Idea #3:  Your survey must drive action, not settle for analysis only

Your customer survey must drive new action inside your organization. Don’t allow your survey process to become disconnected from the practical levers of power.

You have a problem if there is a long lag time after a survey and your people ask “So what did they mean by that”, or “Now that we have all this data, what are we going to do with it?”

A customer focused survey is effective when it aligns and motivates your organization by showing you:

•    what customers say is bad, broken or painful and must be fixed right away,

•    what customers say is wanted or valued and might be offered or sold by your organization,

•    where customers say you are vulnerable to competitors’ actions and offers, giving you a chance to respond in a proactive manner,

•    where customers say you can win by taking new action, before your customer’s final decision is made.

Idea #4: Your survey should take responsibility for reconnecting

When you conduct a customer focused survey, you create expectations that something will be done with your customer’s response. Your survey process should close the loop with customers to ensure that something has been done.

Customer focused surveys are the starting point for a sequence like this:

Survey > Data > Analysis > Insight > Action > Create Value > Repeat Survey

You can create a powerful closed loop feedback system by asking your customers in the second survey:

•    if remedial action has been taken to their satisfaction, or

•    if new action has been taken to address the opportunities they presented, or

•    if they know what other options are available in the event you have chosen not to take the actions they request or recommend.

If your customer says something should be changed in the first survey, you have an opportunity. If your customer says something should be changed in the first survey, and nothing has changed by the second survey, you have a problem.

Low scores in the first survey will happen; in fact you want to find them to uncover new opportunities for action.

Low scores in the second survey are dangerous, and should lead to an intense focus on taking action for the customer, a commercial decision to allow the low scores to remain, or an escalation to higher levels to address and resolve the problem.

(Read Customer Focused Surveys Ideas #1-2)

(Read Customer Focused Surveys Ideas #5-6)

Customer focused surveys and other feedback mechanisms are commonly used to assess customer satisfaction and loyalty. In some companies, however, surveys can become entrenched and self-sustaining, generating mountains of data without a corresponding volume of valuable actions.

In other cases, surveys are little more than a mechanism to harness customers in the role of quality audit. (Think of the survey form you were given at the end of a flight, a meal, or a hotel stay. Were you really glad to see it?)

If your company suffers from a legacy of outdated survey techniques, take a fresh look at what a survey could achieve for your customers and your company.

Idea #1: Your purpose is to create value, not to collect data

A customer focused survey must create value for your customers. The primary purpose is to learn where, when and how you can take action to add more value, secure more business and increase loyalty for your company.

Survey results should not leave you confused or uncertain about what to do. They should help you prioritise what is most important to fix a customer’s problems, seize new opportunities, win against competitors and grow your business.

If your survey does not help you efficiently and pragmatically achieve these goals, it is time to review and revise.

Idea #2: Your survey should be a positive customer experience, not a painful procedure

Participation in your survey should be a positive experience for your customers.

Customers should look forward to this activity as a worthwhile investment of their time. If your survey process is perceived by customers as a pain or a time-waster, you may be destroying more value than you create.
In the B2C segment, surveys should not leave customers feeling like the auditors of your product or service. Instead, your survey should feel like an invitation to contribute to an even more satisfying customer experience.

In the B2B segment, an effective survey leads customers to see you as an attentive, carefully listening and quickly responding supplier. Customers who complete the survey process should feel more energized to collaborate and more optimistic about the success they will have with you in the future.

(Read Customer Focused Surveys Ideas #3-4)

Service can be a competitive advantage regardless of which industry you are in.

While safety and operational excellence remain bedrocks of success in an industrial B2B environment, Vopak Asia sees an opportunity to differentiate from the competition through the service it provides.

To achieve this, Vopak Asia aims to build a stronger customer service culture through a regional program that now covers 20 terminals in 9 countries.

80% of employees in Asia have attended the same College course in just 5 months.

Watch this video and listen to the results.