Why customer service and content strategy go hand in hand

Engaging content has always been at the top of any marketers content strategy; it’s been a trend that we’ve just seen grow and grow over the years. Business owners are relying on their marketers to get it right, especially as leads and sales are the key objectives. According to research by the Content Marketing Institute, 83% of B2C marketers are in it for the sales. B2B marketers have a very similar content marketing goal – 85% of them said their aim was to get leads.

Improving the Customer Journey

However, creating engaging content is just the first hurdle marketers have to jump across. While it’s all well and good generating sales and leads, the key is to continuously improve the customer journey. In order to promote repeat sales and encourage customer loyalty, customer service and content strategy need to go hand in hand.

With so many ways for customers to vent their frustrations – or sing the praises – of a company they’ve had dealings with, customer service has become more important than ever. All it takes is one Tweet of a negative experience, to damage a brand. In a recent survey by Ipsos, 52% of customers shared their bad experience with a company. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as a whopping 56% of customers said they had shared a positive experience. So, how can the customer experience, and therefore the public perception, of a company be improved with content?

Key Points to Consider

The customer journey does not come to an abrupt end, as soon as a sale has been made. It’s an ongoing process that, if done right, can encourage customer loyalty and improve a brand’s reputation. Here are some key points to consider, surrounding the experience of your customers:

• What issues could customers encounter? Both with the product or service you provide, but also with elements out of your control that may impact your customers.
• Is there content that can be created to help combat these issues? Can you solve customers’ problems? Can you create content that can help prevent the issues?
• How can you distribute the content to your customers? Should you be proactive and send out content to help prevent an issue? Or is it best not to inundate customers and use a reactive approach instead?

Creating a Partnership Between Customer Service and Content Strategy

Using an example, let’s go over the points to consider, to see how best to partner customer service and content strategy.

Let’s say you are a company that sells cards for a range of different occasions. Valentine’s Day is coming up, one of your busiest times of the year. You know that there will be plenty of couples visiting your website, to buy cards. They’ve solved one thing, getting the card. However, now they’re stuck on gift ideas. While you don’t necessarily sell gifts, there is nothing stopping you creating gift guides for your customers. You could even personalise these, based on the information you’ve received from the card they purchased. Will they be looking for men’s gift guides or women’s?

You’re solving an issue – and it’s not even your issue, technically. However, you’re providing valuable content to your customers. Not the typical upselling route of “You liked this card, how about these?” Chances are, they’re only buying one Valentine’s Card. Add value to your customer journey and you’ll be surprised at how many return.

By working hand in hand with your customer service side of the business, it will soon become quicker and easier to find the right content and know the right channels of promotion. Becoming a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all of the advice customers may need in relation to your product (not just specifically about your product) will see them returning time and time again.