Marketing in Phoenix: Customer Service Collapses Can Undermine Marketing Efforts

As founder of a marketing agency in Phoenix, I ask the rhetorical question

, is excellent customer service becoming something of a rare commodity, or have I just been getting unlucky lately?

For more than 33 years, our Arizona marketing agency has preached the gospel of excellent customer service, yet just this past week, I have experienced three separate incidents in which the customer service I received was, to put it mildly, deficient. Two of these times involved auto repair situations (when it rains, it pours!), one at a highline dealership that speaks with a decidedly Teutonic accent and one that involved my (heretofore) trusty 2004 Hyundai. One encounter was characterized by seeming indifference seasoned with a pinch of arrogance and the other featured a frustrating blend of incompetence and undependability (I'll let you guess which dealership was which, though I suppose that is immaterial).

One case involved a repair bill just north of $1200.00 and the other - though it has yet to be estimated six days later! - will (just a guess) probably come in closer to $3,000.00. The latter will be entirely covered by a warranty, but, silly me, it seems expenditures on this scale (and the fact my P______ died in the middle of a busy intersection) merit just a little bit of TLC.

Yet another incident involved a purported "help desk" attendant at a well known, maybe "not-so-super" market chain, who for several minutes ignored me, then snapped at me when I asked politely if anyone was on duty there.

The lesson

The point to all of this, as I'm confident any advertising or public relations professional would agree, is: If major (or, even, minor) marketing budgets are not complemented by good and caring customer service does marketing serve its purpose? Or, to put it more succinctly, if a company makes a brand promise to attract customers, shouldn't that promise be kept?

The Hyundai case in point has caused me to strongly consider taking my future business - which may even involve a new car purchase - to a dealer 12 miles away, rather than this one, conveniently located only two miles away. And, rest assured, I am doing this neither out of spite nor as a demonstration of masochistic tendencies. It's just that I need to be able to count on a vendor, and trust their word.

Granted, these may be isolated incidents, but when three crop up in a matter of three consecutive days, it feels more like a trend. Well, now that I've vented, please heed the lesson imbedded within these stories. It is this: Treat customers like precious possessions, ones that once lost may never return.

Not only will this leverage your marketing expenditures, it likely will convert them to lasting relationships and -- that most valuable of all results - good word-of-mouth advertising.

Marketing Partners of Arizona (MPA) was founded in 1976 by Allan Starr, and serves a local, regional and national clientele with diverse services including strategic marketing, advertising, public relations, sponsorship procurement, e-mail marketing and online initiatives. Starr is former governor of the Southwest District of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), two-term president of The Arizona Small Business Assn. and is serving a sixth term on the board of directors of The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

Marketing in Phoenix: Customer Service Collapses Can Undermine Marketing Efforts

By: Allan Starr

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