Is your marketing campaign being scuppered by uninformed employees?
We’ve all been on the receiving end of bad service – someone unaware of how to answer your questions, unsure what a product is or simply unengaged because they have no passion for the brand. You are fully aware of this issue; your brand is constantly updating its technology and campaigns in order to please customers and avoid dissatisfaction. However, working behind a screen or in a board room, concentrating on out-of-the-box ideas, can make you forget who is representing the face of your brand.
The usual buzz: You have the most amazing new product, the most fantastic offer that’s going to make your audience flock to you like never before. You have spent millions on multi-channel, omni channel, above-the-line, below-the-line, through-the-line, around-the-line, programmatic, systematic, automatic, and your audience is loving it; the feedback online is phenomenal, website stats are through the roof, social sharing is higher than ever. Now, you just need that buzz to turn into sales.
Your excited consumer heads into the nearest store, desperate to buy this incredible, groundbreaking thing that will change their life forever. All they have to do is stop and ask a question to shop assistant, and there is the problem. They’re met by a blank stare, a nonchalant shrug, a non-committal, ‘Er, I’m not really sure…’
How many of your campaigns include employee communications?
A major high street retailer told us recently how they’d launched a new loyalty card for customers. They spent a significant portion of budget promoting it online, via POS, through direct mail – employee communication was an afterthought. Yet, employees are the ones responsible for delivering a customer experience that will create loyal brand advocates who will come back time and again, and spread the word online and off.
Statistics
A customer engagement index survey suggests that 47 per cent of customers will take their business to a competitor within one day of having a bad customer service experience. McKinsey discovered that 70 per cent of customers reduced their commitment to purchase after a bad experience, whereas, after a positive experience, 85 per cent increased their value by buying more products.
It’s clear that sales are often driven by emotion, and even if you don’t have retail outlets, the rules still apply. For an online business you need your chat staff to be equally switched on, and call centre businesses often solely rely on customer experience as a differentiator.
Yet, even with all of this information at our fingertips, employee engagement doesn’t seem to be a priority, and there is a clear disconnect between marketing and internal communications.
So what can you do?
Join the dots between marketing and internal communications
Open up communications between departments so that important information about your consumer marketing campaigns can be told through existing employee channels.
It’s all about managers
If you’re going to focus your efforts on anyone, make it managers and ensure they’re equipped with all the information they need to have conversations with their employees.
Offer incentives
You don’t just want informed employees; you want knowledgeable, passionate and enthusiastic employees. A great way to do this is through incentives and gamification.
Brooke Nolan is marketing and communications manager at Synergy Creative.
Content by The Drum Network member:
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