Content marketing and customer success alignment are a power couple for sales. Content marketing has quickly and successfully adapted online. Have you noticed the number of websites offering great content marketing? It’s hard not to. Companies provide free webinars, podcasts, whitepapers, videos, e-books, demos, trials, slide shares, and online interviews to help us, as buyers, make informed decisions.
To boot, online content marketing is enabling buyers to access these valuable resources themselves. Now, buyers can gather the information they need in the format and time frame they like best to choose the best product or service to meet their needs.
Marketing and Customer Success Alignment Go Hand in Hand
Content marketing engages visitors, but watch the customer experience.
Has content marketing done its job by bringing us to the company website and engaging us with relevant information? Is self-service to content on a landing page all we need to make our choice and buy?
What if we have a question or concern? Who responds to our email? Who answers our call? Who engages with us during a chat? Is the response timely? Accurate? Was the interaction satisfactory and pleasant?
Customer Success and Marketing, Not Just Information, Converts Visitors to Leads
In other words, was the buyer experience exceptional because we had access to relevant content marketing? Or was it a combination of having our “content needs” and “buyer service needs” satisfactorily met by the organization? I define buyer service needs as having buyer questions answered quickly and accurately using the buyer’s preferred communication medium.
If buyers need service in addition to content, buyer service satisfaction levels also play a role in converting a visitor to improve growth and improve revenue.
Causes of Buyer Satisfaction and Buyer Frustration
In some cases, my buyer service satisfaction level has been outstanding as I interact with companies and their websites. I’ve experienced immediate, knowledgeable chats, immediate, helpful phone connections at any hour, any day, helpful, pleasant, service-oriented inbound responders, and immediate, personalized, accurate email responses.
In other cases, my buyer satisfaction level has caused a critical rise in my blood pressure. Here are some of the following reasons this happens :
- Many nonworking phone numbers to get a question answered.
- No one at the other end of the chat
- Receiving the same delayed, nonhelpful, automated email response that someone will promptly respond to, which never happens
- Someone who cannot answer my question or solve my problem at the other end of the chat, call or email
The unanswered phone calls, emails, and dead chats show poor company support.
Excellent Customer Service Makes the Most of Your AI in Marketing and Sales Dollars
In many cases, content marketing does a great job of getting visitors to the website; for companies that provide exceptional buyer service (and many have), hats off to you. You’ve spent your dollars wisely. For those companies with poor buyer service and customer support, you are wasting valuable dollars and sending your visitors to your competitors to become influencers, recommenders, and customers.More than ever, sales, marketing, and support need to align just as urgently as sales and marketing need to align. What has been your experience?