The high tech expo followed my keynote to the customers of a large technology company. The expo booth guards around the giant ballroom created a cacophony reminiscent of an old fashioned small town fair. “Step right up and win the little lady a teddy bear!” The teddy bears were replaced with a chance to win an IPad. But, the sound and spirit were eerily similar.

The center attraction was the latest whiz bang customer relationship management system. It could slice and dice faster than a butcher on a cold January morning. The system’s pitchman made wild projections laced with time saving stats and cost reducing examples. People were memorized by his glitzy slide show and sound effects all run remotely from his hand held magic machine.

Thinking he was singling out a potential buyer, he shot a question point blank at me. “And, what CRM system do you use, sir?” He cocked his head back as if he was ready to outdraw whatever brand I mentioned. I bluntly (and honestly) responded: “A Rolodex®!” The crowd around the booth laughed. He returned to his super-duper demonstration without comment. As I wandered to another side show, I overheard one person comment, “I bet our customers would like it better if we used a Rolodex®!”

Here’s a hint:  it’s not your company’s web site. 

We’ve all been there.  Frustration after a poor IVR or call center agent experience makes it seem simpler to go online to see if you can solve your product or service questions yourself.  Studies show that frustrated customers turn to social media channels to look for help.  From swapping unregulated home fix-its or publicly venting about frustrations, more often than not customers are going online – and not to your web site.

Now here you are tracking, monitoring and responding to social media attacks.  Where is all of this negative sentiment coming from that is making you chase smoke?  Few companies take an inside-out approach about the customer experience and social media so they get the negative social media chatter to chase.  Your dial-to-disconnect call analytics should be telling you what is causing the failed IVR experiences or the failed interactions with your agents so you can deal with these internal issues (like being wrongfully disconnected, routed to an agent ill-equipped to answer the questions, unable to trouble shoot, etc.).  Social media venting is not a customer-focused service channel.

This article started out to be about how the little guy company can compete with a big company.  Specifically, in a recent interview I was asked how a small local business can use customer service to compete when a large national competitor, known for aggressive low pricing, comes to town.  As I wrote out the answer, I realized that the business strategies used by a small company competing against a big one are actually sound strategies for a company of any size.  By the way, customer service is important, but in this situation, there is much more to consider.

A “Big Box” store, such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, Costco, Sam’s Club, etc. comes to town.  Local businesses get nervous. How can they compete with the “everyday low prices?”  How will they hold on to their customers?  How will they attract new customers?  After all, they don’t have the advertising budget, the inventory, the buying power, etc. While there is some reality to all of the concerns that a local or small business might have, they are really just excuses.  Plenty of local and small businesses flourish, long after one of these larger stores move into their territory.

Now here is the reality of the situation.  It doesn’t matter if it is a major chain store, a big-box store, a discount store, etc.  And it doesn’t matter if it is a small or local business.  It doesn’t matter what type of business or industry.  Any type of business that moves into your area, large or small, will pose many of the same competitive threats.

My thinking on this subject has refined over time since I first wrote this post, encouraging customer service to grab the brass ring and seek its seat at the strategy table, along side marketing.  the main reason?  I think that well-intended message has been distorted.

Just a random guess, but I'm thinking its safe to say there's been thousands of blog posts written over the past couple of years declairing customer service is the new marketing.  I'm also guessing its safe to say that just about zero CMOs or other heads of marketing have since genuflected at the office doorway of their customer service bretheren in a demonstration of submission.  Just a guess.  

In most companies, marketing is king.  Always has been.  Marketing has the big budgets.  Marketing creates the positioning.  Marketing drives revenue (even though nobody can figure out how or why we even need to measure it). 

I'm not talking about a reversion to old internally focused, product centric culture.  No.  Customer centricity and a superior customer experience is still the goal.  Companies like Virgin, Zappos and Amazon will continue to create value through well designed customer-focused experiences.  But, maybe the better way for customer service to deliver on that goal is to work in support of marketing.  Allow each function to do what it does best, while learning the best parts of each others' value proposition.  Customer service serves.  why not serve marketing?