Business to business (B2B) and agency customer service can offer a unique opportunity. In most cases with a business to customer (B2C) sale. You create or sell a product directly to an end user. The relationship ends with that customer. Hopefully, in B2C you’re doing everything in your power to make sure that each individual customer is as happy as they can possibly be with your product.
What Makes Agency Customer Service Any Different?
As an agency you’re generally providing a B2B product or service that enables a business to make their customers happy. This means you can take your planning an extra step. If your customers are happy, that’s great, but what if you can make your customer’s customers happy? NOW we’re really making waves.
Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive gave an incredible presentation at #MozCon that discussed this concept.
As a marketing agency, we at Queen City Media have a huge responsibility to our clients. We are tasked with making sure they get the most out of their business. We take customer service and quality of product very seriously which is why we choose to work with clients that care about their customers.
We would be doing them a disservice if we didn’t do everything in our power to make sure users got excellent customer service on all of the many digital channels that we manage.
It’s Not Just about Excellent Customer Service
It’s a sad world that we live in when brands need to be educated about good, genuine customer service; that part should be easy! Customer service needs to be a major focus for every business, but it doesn’t stop there.
Part of offering great service is making the customer experience better from the first step:
- Is the product or service easy to find?
- Does the website, app or landing page work on every device?
- If a customer has a question, is it easy to contact sales or support?
- Is our content providing value apart from product sales?
All of these question should be considered when creating a good user experience.
When generating a plan for SEO it’s important to think about what customers want instead of the vanity “rank #1 for my favorite keyword”. If the end user isn’t searching for your favorite keyword or your clients favorite keyword, then you’re missing the point.
A good social media strategy evokes emotion, engages the end user and creates a positive experience before, during and after a sale is made. It’s fine to mix in some elements that have internal benefit for our clients but in the end, it’s all about the end user.
Product strategy should be ever evolving. Pay attention to reviews and feedback from customers and see if there is room for improvement. If you can help to solve an additional product the level of satisfaction is likely to grow exponentially.
You Can’t Go Wrong
When everything is focused on the middle man, there is a risk that the end user ends up unhappy. If customer leaves, the middle man will become unhappy. So even when you are faced with some initial push back from your client, remember that the last step can be the most important step in a transaction.
If you can alter your sales strategy to ensure satisfaction past the initial sale you will raise the ceiling of your success. By targeting the end user and focusing on satisfaction your job will become easier and the relationship that you have with your clients will improve greatly.
I promise you, if you keep your customer’s customer happy, everyone wins.