Put out a consistent message - and back it up with service

Your marketing mission for 2002: Forget bricks vs. clicks, snail mail vs. e-mail.
by Joanna L. Krotz
Microsoft bCentral
Original Article

Embark on a multi-channel strategy with a consistent set of messages. Then back it up with superior customer service.

Any business marketer who still separates online marketing from offline must have slept through 2001. Wake up, guy. Consumers now expect every business to be transparent and fully informed across all channels.

The bad news: Businesses still have a lot of work to do.

If you call your health insurer to complain about a bill for a covered medical procedure and the error's acknowledged, then you shouldn't receive another bill a week later, reasons Sam Kapreilian, partner in the customer relationship management practice at PwC Consulting. Nor the week after that.

But you do. Often.

Multiply that annoying gap in customer care across silos and industries — from bookshops to banks to backbone switches — and you begin to see the black hole of customer service.

"The small-business differentiator is service and the customer relationship," says Kapreilian. "The key is the customer experience — how he is treated, the impressions he receives, the messages communicated, the sense of trust and intimacy being developed. All of it adds up to a tangible experience."

In 2002, you need to:

1. Hone your message across multiple channels.
2. Focus on your best customers.
3. Get smart about how you use your resources.

These six suggestions can help.

1. Market a consistent theme to multiple audiences. Founded in 2000,Cerberian is a Web-based Internet filtering service, with 21 staffers, in Draper, Utah. Busy ramping up, the company sells its real-time monitoring capabilities to several markets, including families, corporations, government agencies and nonprofits.

Rather than create a dozen different marketing kits, Cerberian developed a single general product brochure, says Greg Heaps, vice president of marketing. That's bolstered by stand-alone inserts — "one-page slicks," says Heaps. He can customize packages for any client.

Cerberian also has designed its Web site into clearly marked channels, labeled "Business,"At home" and "Partners" (such as resellers or ISPs). Each user can click on appropriate information directly from the home page.

2. Cross-market several channels quickly and efficiently. Small businesses must harness every bit of customer attention, says Catharine Devlin, president of Devlin Applied Design, a Toronto-based Web development firm. "Write a succinct tag line that communicates what you do," she says, "and put it on every piece of company material — including your e-mail, brochure, business card, letterhead, voice-mail message, Web banner, newsletter and everything else."

The Devlin tag line? "Advancing the user experience."

3. Leverage technology. "You can't get intimidated by or lost in the notion that technology carries a big price tag," says consultant David Lewis, who runs OperationsInc.com in Stamford, Conn. Lewis advises small and mid-tier businesses on how to streamline operations and human resources in order to improve performance.

For a $100 installation fee and $20 a month hosting, an entrepreneur can launch a Web site and get a series of e-mail addresses. "For a few dollars more, you can get a forwarding service so clients can contact you via mobile phone or PDA," Lewis says. "You can also get e-mail messages on the road for a total, virtual office." (For more information on Web hosting and other affordable Web-based services, many with free trials, see bCentral's products page.)

But don't forget basic phone services. A very affordable Integrated Voice Response (IVR) service offers callers automated information and interactive options via a computerized database and the touchtone keypad. IVR, says PwC's Kapreilian, can handle 10% to 40% of customer care needs for low-value questions, including:

1. driving directions
2. hours of operation
3. how to return a product
4. status of orders
5. confirmation of delivery or order numbers

4. Make a clear impression. Last summer, to heighten the profile of its Athlon and other microprocessors, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hired Austin agency Tocquigny to build brand awareness on a budget. Says Trisha Woods, the agency's account exec: "We developed five to 10 different pieces from posters to brochures across customer channels of retail, system builders and direct sales." The budget was limited to a few hundred thousand dollars.

When the agency began, Woods says, AMD's marketing materials varied widely in look and feel between every channel and department.

To get bang for the branding buck, Tocquigny created an "overarching look and feel," including guidelines for style, palette and logo that would appeal to all customers. The agency also relaxed the copy and tone of AMD ads and brochures to make them more conversational — not so geeky or technical. The result? In 2002, AMD feels its brand is much better known.

5. Outsource. "Most small businesses can't afford an IT manager or department," says Paula Phelan, president of Nadel Phelan, a Squaw Valley, Calif., public relations firm with technology clients. "Outsourced services can provide high value and leverage the latest technology for you for a few thousand [dollars] a month. When the company grows, you can bring it in-house."

A fully automated call center, for instance, takes $100,000 to $200,000, Phelan estimates. But outsourcing part or all of your communications or service needs is more cost-effective. Dozens of firms now provide niche services or turnkey offerings. You can sign up for phase-by-phase services or pilot programs that measure results as you go.

Some examples: At San Mateo-based Global Customer Solutions, you can find end-to-end customer care outsourcing solutions for roughly 40% less than many competitors, says Randal Barrick, chief operating officer. That's because GCS's call center staff is both college-educated and based in India, which has lower labor costs, Barrick says.

Digital Envoy in Atlanta offers proprietary software for "geo-targeting." The firm's proprietary software can target Web content based on the geographical location of the user, down to a city level, worldwide. That means, says Rob Friedman, executive vice president of corporate development, "you can provide local content, currency or language for your products or services for online users."

It can also improve the effectiveness of advertising. Say you run a radio ad campaign in Podunk. While the ads air, you can track in real time whether there's a spike in site traffic coming from Podunk. Digital Envoy's costs start as low as $1,000 a month.

6. Bridge the communications gaps. Keep in mind that capturing data does not add up to marketing. What you need is customer information and seamless messaging available throughout the company. That means you must coordinate and fully brief your entire team — your staff and any outside contractors.

"It's no longer a major undertaking to be in touch from the road or from home," Devlin says. "What companies are not doing is deploying the data that exists in a usable way. That's where people should spend money today."

In 2002, make sure your customer knows who you are — and what you offer — at every point of every interaction.