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Author - Rob Gemmell
Category - Customer service, Small business, Marketing
Posted - 03/07/2011
0 Comments | Add Comment "Customer service is the new marketing!"

“Customer service is the new marketing!”
—Bill Blum, General Manager, MacArthur Place Hotel and Spa, Sonoma, CA

MacArthur Place, West Lawn

I met with Bill Blum recently to get his feedback on how Addwater could help small and medium-sized local businesses. When I asked him about his own marketing methodology, he informed me of a new perspective he had on it.

It came after years of frustration in trying to manage and improve the hundreds of amateur online reviews and ratings he had received about his hotel, spa and restaurant.

He decided to call a staff meeting. In the meeting, he handed out copies of online reviews about MacArthur Place and its services – some reviews were positive, some negative. In many cases, members of his 100-person staff knew which of them were responsible for each of the reviews. He had their full attention.

This meeting was a turning point in Bill’s marketing philosophy. He told me that after reflecting on the staff meeting and his long career in hospitality operations and marketing, it hit him – Bill told me, “marketing as I’ve practiced it is dead. Customer service is the new marketing.”

TripAdvisor review of MacArthur Place

He explained that every wonderful deed a front desk clerk, masseuse or waiter performed could easily be read by thousands of potential guests or travel planners on review sites. However, that was also true of every missed opportunity or mistake made —and we all know that unfortunately, bad reviews have more impact than good reviews.

Bill decided to switch focus away from his traditional marketing efforts and to narrow in on providing the best possible customer experience.

So does this mean we should stop our local newspaper ads, email programs, Facebook posting, Google ads and other activities? Bill would be the first to say no! But he’d add that in this age of uber-internet-sharing, customer service and marketing need to be intertwined and in sync. Your customer service learnings should influence your marketing efforts, and vice versa.

Since my conversation with Bill, I keep this in mind: Good marketing gets the first-time customers. Good customer service gets repeat customers —and, potentially everyone they broadcast to. Increase the quality of your customer service and your customers will do half of your marketing for you. Not too shabby, eh?

For your next marketing effort, ask your staff what they think should be emphasized and what they feel most confident delivering day-in and day-out. Build your promotion or ad around this and see how it performs compared to your usual marketing activities. I suspect you’ll get happier customers and staff as a result.

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