customer service and marketing

These two critical departments in a company both interact with the customer. One during the pre-sale and qualification process, the other one in the sale delivery mechanism and after sale process. Companies have to agree a handover point between one department and the other which often creates a disconnect for the customer and that is when trouble begins. The salesman is not here to deliver on his promise any more whilst the customer service executive has to bring it all together. Typical examples of disconnect can be introduced by use of technology whereby, for example, a price displayed on a website is no longer available and the customer service team can not deliver the marketing message. Another one could result from undocumented conversations in a retail outlet which are not available to the customer service call centre when the client calls.

The solution has to be to bring these two areas closer so that customer experience improves. After all the definition of customer service below clearly shows the link with marketing