Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALIVE

The final new rule is an obvious one. It essentially highlights or mirrors an organization with an entirely new set of criteria, beliefs, and characteristics that reflect a company truly in touch with its customer base.

If a company can see their customer service as a perfect chance for them to deeply connect with and evolve alongside its lifeblood, it becomes a cultural obsession instead of a mere department. It’s a vital point of differentiation that propels innovation and creates new revenue streams, products, and barriers to entry.

The pursuit of cutting-edge lessons, insights, and ideas from the inside out cannot occur accidentally. There has to be a direct pathway back to the nerve center of the organization, and where better to begin than customer service? I cannot tell you how many suggestions I’ve given to customer-service agents. I have no clue (or faith) as to whether any made it back to the company’s decision-making units. Even if they did, they probably fell on deaf ears . . . as opposed to actually incorporated and acted on.

Regardless, it’s time to transform customer service from a one-dimensional, one-off, and transactional-based exchange into a fluid and integral part of doing business. Combining all physical or store encounters, live chat, and e-mail exchanges—and most recently, social media or virtual conversations—in an evolved Voice of the Customer program is just the beginning. Incorporating this feedback into the very engine ...