How Customer Service is Essential to Marketing

by Lindsey Winsemius - Posted 9 years ago

Customer service is a very important part of your marketing. It might seem like common sense, but many businesses don’t practice this concept.

What is your most memorable customer service experience? Was it good or bad?

When a client becomes a customer, the job isn't over. It is only beginning.

No matter how exceptional your product or service, if your customers get bad service from you or your team, they will be unhappy with your business and your offering.



How exceptional customer service can be your most important marketing tool:


Angry customers cost you money.

Whether you are in retail or a service industry, angry customers will cost you more money than you spent trying to get a new customer. Unhappy customers will often want a refund, but the biggest cost will be in lost sales when that unhappy customer tells their friends or writes a review about their bad experience.

Happy customers sell your business.

Referrals and word-of-mouth are reported to be the most common way small businesses acquire new customers, according to eMarketer. Customers who are happy with your product and customer service experience will share their positive experience. They will write reviews. They will share on social media. They will talk to their friends and family. They will offer testimonials. Happy customers will sell your products for you, and it doesn’t cost you a thing.

Good customer service can turn a bad sale into a good one.

No matter how great your product or how hard you work at offering an exceptional service, some customers will still be unhappy. You can turn an unhappy customer into a satisfied one with good customer service. Respond to angry comments on social media with a solution, such as offering to replace a defective product or refund a service. Keep in communication with customers that might be getting a product late, or you are behind deadline for a service. Be helpful, apologetic, and transparent.

Satisfied customers are repeat customers.

By going the extra mile for your customer, they will see you are a company that genuinely cares about their business. Having a good product isn’t enough- what makes you stand out from all those other clever marketing campaigns and great products in a saturated market? The care your give to your customers. Customers who have a good experience in your store or on your website are more likely to buy from you again. 
  • Include a special thank you note with the packages you ship. 
  • Make sure whoever is behind your store counter is helpful and cheerful. 
  • Follow up with your customers to ask them about their experiences. 
  • Respond swiftly to comments on social media. 
  • Thank customers who share their purchases or experiences online.
Repeat clients cost less than attracting a new client, so make sure you are keeping them happy through your customer service.

Use customer service to improve your business.

You can’t please everyone. But you can definitely learn from the feedback of your customers. Find out what really makes them unhappy, and the things that they love. Then use that information to improve your marketing, your products or services, and your customer service. You can learn a lot about your marketing efforts through feedback from your customers. The better your customer service, the more feedback you’ll get, and the easier it will be to fine-tune your marketing efforts. Listen to your customers.


Marketing and good customer service go hand-in-hand to create a successful marketing and sales strategy for your business. Don't forget to include these important customer service elements in your marketing plan for 2015.

How important is customer service in your buying decisions? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Paul Brown 1 year ago
I like your thoughts, on your time here! I agree with just about everything you said about Korea…it is definitely not a cheap country compared to other places in Asia, that is for sure! Since I have been living here for about 6 weeks now, I have discovered the cheap places to eat in my neighborhood. Kim bap places are the way to go…two of us eat well for NULL, it is awesome.
Holly Hooper 2 years ago
Is a wash. Have you ever actually tried to “stock up” on produce? It doesnt work because it spoils way faster that you can eat it if you are a single or 2 person household. Also, by the time you drive to Target for this, CVS for that toiletry the few cents or dollars you may save, you have burned way more in time or fuel.
Jayme Silvestri 2 years ago
"Implementing or not implementing a responsive design website should fall under the category “it depends”. Not every website needs to be responsive and each project should look at metrics before making a decisions one way or another. Apps are nice and have a purpose, but maintenance of apps will kill you in the end. Server logs and analytics should indicate the type of browsers and platforms visiting your site. The last project was an even split of desktop to mobile visitors with over 90% of all visitors visiting surfing a small group of pages. So why build two different sites for a handful of pages. If your client is planning to post URLs on billboards, transit and transit stops, then a mobile first option should be considered. RWD is really about building for ubiquity. We do not know the platforms or devices that will be used six months from now. But we do know that they will most likely have a web browser or browser based services. Responsive, progressive enhancement and adaptive design are all part of the evolution of delivering content. In the end, users are only looking for content. So realistically, we should be looking at a content first strategy. Give the users what they want and let the content be the same independent of platform. If you don’t, users will get the content they want using clipping services such as Instapaper or Readability."
Kelly Hubbard 2 years ago
I agree that consistency of content is important. Unfortunately, the possibilities of responsive design lead away from that. Any tool or technique can be used in an ineffective way. If your site’s width is fluid, is it a responsive design? Yes. Sites have been designed like that for years, and it’s a simple, fast, easy change. When this new idea popped up, a lot of design already were providing a different design for different browser widths.
Joseph Donahue 2 years ago
Comment In trying to comment on your reply on my iPhone, the experience is extremely painful. ???? I believe the experience doesn’t have to be identical, but the design and abilities you give a user should be seamless. You showed a great example of bad responsive design, but there’s quite a good examples. The best argument against responsive design is if the business does not need to optimize for anything other than desktop. I think we both agree to that, correct? However, if you have users on a mobile device, responsive design can be a good solution as the site will fit any screen size, not just fixed breakpoints. It really all depends on what the business needs are and who the user is. Yet, this isn’t necessarily a case against responsive design. If the business doesn’t need it, it just means they don’t need to support mobile. Responsive design is one solution to mobile, not “the” answer. Thanks for your reply. (Ignore any typos as the iPhone experience on here is bad.) PS: Ironically, I initially tried replying to this via my iPhone and there was no Submit Comment button after typing it all out (very painful typing on the iPhone). Then I grabbed my iPad thinking “surely it’ll be there” and it wasn’t. So I’ve had to resort to using my desktop computer to reply to your comment. While this doesn’t support my argument at all, it at least shows a site needs to optimize for whatever their users are on and they need to test on multiple devices.
Alisha 4 years ago
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Alisha 4 years ago
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