A must read – and a must act!? These findings should frighten all of us as professionals, let alone marketing professionals!
The council, whose study, “Giving Customer Voice More Volume,” surveyed around 500 senior marketers at major corporations, found that only 33% of survey respondents said their companies claim to be good at handling customer complaints.
Of the executives who responded to the survey, only 23% said their companies track or measure customer emails, and only 17% use that feedback to identify potential customer advocates.
And 59% of marketing officers surveyed by the council said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics.
This report led to an interesting series of questions from Ted Minni in his column at Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog.
- Shouldn’t marketing and sales managers be able to access all customer data? Shouldn’t it be integrated now, more than ever?
- Shouldn’t listening and engaging customers be job #1 for everyone in every company right now?
- Shouldn’t the marketing department take ownership of monitoring this information and use it to retain customers?
- Lastly, can you think of examples of company interactions you’ve had recently where your problems, observations and requests were truly listened to and honored? Conversely, can you think of examples where they weren’t? In either scenario, how did it make you feel?
Ted, in response to your question regarding access to customer data – “Sure – as long as everyone understands what it means and there is consensus surround how to respond.”? Sorry, I have seen too many organizations view access to data as the ‘be all, end all’ and it’s not – you need consistent, clear analysis that leads to appropriate action and too many organizations can’t deliver on this.
As for questions 2 and 3, YES!? Marketing needs to move beyond ‘generating leads’ and ‘building brand’ and start focusing on engaging their audience in an ongoing dialogue for the purpose of improving performance so that customers are converted into evangelists.? Marketing can’t do it alone – but neither can sales or service.? It requires leadership, vision and collaboration.
Finally, as for examples of good customer service, I must admit that I can’t.? Marginal experiences barely meeting my lowered expectations are more common.
Sad, isn’t it?
