A great deal of effort may be spent by your company on the marketing of your business to prospects and customers, but have you considered marketing the business to your staff?
So easily forgotten, the staff of the business are critical to the success of any marketing drive;
- their attitude towards customers can be the deciding factor in whether a prospective client chooses to do business with you or your competitor
- their competence in producing the product or delivering service will impact on your image in the marketplace. You may make a promise in your advert or on your website, but do you deliver that promise?
- they know the truth about your organisation and in conversation with friends (and prospective clients) can act as ambassadors for you or give people reasons not to do business with you.
Consideration of the above points should make it quite clear why you cannot afford to take employees for granted. I would like to suggest that you;
- ensure that all staff are kept informed regarding any changes within the company as well as ensuring that they are aware of any changes to products or service on offer. If the products or service is of a technical nature, they at least need to know enough to be sensitive to customer conversations and be able to redirect calls efficiently
- put a system in place to monitor staff as well as customer satisfaction. You need to be aware of the problems they are facing and they need to believe that you are listening. Wherever it is possible, you need to make it easier for them to do a better job. The system should allow you to deal with recurring issues with the objective of eliminating them completely
- have regular update meetings. The objective of the meetings is to expose everyone to the bigger picture so that they can put activities that they are involved with in perspective
Marketing is about building the relationships, internally and externally. The relationship between your business and your customers is developed through your staff.
By: Karren Hodgkins
Managing Director / Brand Strategist