Your undiscovered 1:1 Marketing Department and Why you should be Worried.

The marketing departments of most large corporate spend huge sums marketing to groups they don’t really know. Marketers  understand which segments they are targeting, and the expected behaviours of their potential buyers, but they know very little about who those future customers are beyond some fairly intangible attributes.

Once a sale is made that changes. The company now knows at least the customer’s name and address. They probably know or can infer a huge amount about their new client which in a CRM led organisation could be used to drive up-selling and cross-selling and consequently future profits if the customer is nurtured appropriately.

Often however, once a sale is made, support for the sale is passed to the service department. Service departments are, mostly, run as cost centres. They are understaffed, underinvested and discouraged from incurring unnecessary costs. They frequently irritate the customer beyond belief. Yet a few moments thought suggests that of all the departments in the company, only the service department is on first name terms with the customer. This is in essence your 1:1 marketing department.

Many companies have this insight and say “so what? It’s just one customer out of 1000’s and what can they do?”

Social Media is an odd term, with very little meaning. However Social Media websites such as Myspace, Facebook and Linked-in as well as newer technologies such as Twitter now enable a previously voiceless individual to communicate their views and opinions to a vast global audience. This gives disgruntled customers not only a voice but also the reach to be able to influence and possibly deter future buyers way beyond their immediate friends and family.

A quick search, for almost any brand, on Youtube and Twitter  will show dozens of people complaining about the service they’ve received, the most infamous is the “United Breaks Guitars” song and video posted by Dave Carroll. Check out the video if you haven’t seen it and be aware that this caused a significant drop in the airlines profits.

As with most insights like this, the first step is to recognise the potential problem and then to change the attitudes and behaviours of you organisation to address it. A very good book on the subject, which I guarantee will give you more sleepless nights than “Jaws” is “Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business" by Josh Bernoff, Ted Schadler. (Harvard Business Press (September 14, 2010)).

As always, if this strikes you as being an issue affecting your company or clients get in touch and lets talk over how to address it.