Kevin Peterson has recently taken on the role of Vice President of Client Experience at The Marketing Squad. In this role, Kevin utilizes his gifts of creativity and leadership to better equip our team to delight our clients throughout their experience with The Squad.
Everything I need to know about the client experience I learned when I was 17 years old. My second foray into the workforce, after a brief stint as a food bar runner at a buffet restaurant, was as a hardware store clerk in my hometown of Junction City, KS. Between mornings of reorganizing pipe fittings and afternoons of inventorying endless stacks of 2x4s, I often found myself alone in the break room with nothing to keep me company but a Totino’s pizza and the retail-centric motivation posters on the panel walls. The message of one particular poster has resonated with me in the 20+ years since I first read it.
"A customer who has had a good experience will tell 2 people, but a customer who has a bad experience will tell 12 or more people."
Now, to be honest, I don’t remember the exact phrasing of the poster or the statistics it quoted, but I certainly remember the impression it left. The sting of a bad customer experience lasts longer and elicits a greater response than the delight of a good one.
I think the fact that I don’t remember the exact statistic further illustrates my point. The impression that little poster left me with has endured more than 20 years. A dissatisfied client may not remember exactly what was said or the chain of events that led to their dissatisfaction, but they will remember how it made them feel.
Now maybe it’s my inner cynic talking, but, for me, the reverse of that adage ingrained in me during my youth is now true. I’m surprised by excellent customer service these days, because I’ve come to expect the opposite – minimal effort and disregard for the customer’s needs. If a company goes out of their way to do the right thing and offer excellence service, I’m delighted – and, chances are, I’ll talk about it.
That’s my goal as VP of Client Experience at The Marketing Squad. I want to create an environment where clients are delighted. Every interaction with our people and every engagement with our product should exceed expectations.
Ultimately, the client experience comes down to two key factors: our people and our product.
At The Marketing Squad, we’ve built a team of people who work tirelessly to meet our clients' needs. They do that by listening to our clients, responding with solutions, resolving the issue, and following up to ensure we hit the mark. These four steps define all of our client interactions, big and small.
It starts with making ourselves available to hear from and meet with our clients. Our partner clients experience this through regular monthly strategic meetings and as many touch points as it takes to maintain unity and agreement throughout the month. Project clients are heard through kickoff meetings, follow up emails, phone calls to update project status, and more.
But we do more than listen. We’re invested in our client relationships, bringing our whole selves to the task at hand. We take a genuine interest in our clients’ development and are intrigued by the innovation and advances they seek to bring to their organization and industry.
Hearing is one thing, responding is another. We want to be Trusted Allies with our clients, putting their needs first. Emails are followed up with; phone calls are answered; time and attention are given where it is needed, when it is needed. We want to be relied upon and we position ourselves week-in and week-out do just that.
What good is a response if it doesn’t resolve the issue at hand? As Creative Problem Solvers we are dedicated to finding the right solution for the challenges our clients face. If it’s as simple as fixing formatting quirks on an email campaign that must go out or developing a strategy to break into a challenging demographic with a new product or service, our team is committed to finding the best solution. We’re about competent execution and results. Period.
We’re not on to the next thing. We are committed to our client’s success. When we launch a new website, we want to ensure it met the client’s needs. We seek feedback on our process and product, ready to hear honest feedback and committed to making it better.
It’s a cycle. Our team members consistently position themselves to hear from clients and offer solutions and execution that gets results, ready to receive feedback that will make all of us better.
We stand behind our tag line "Tell Your Story. Grow Your Business." It’s what we do and how we do it. If we’re doing the first part well, we believe the second part naturally follows. It’s what we’ve done for our clients from the start and what we want to be known for.
Your story is your company’s story. Everyone wants to be the hero of their own story, but when you’ve got your CEO or business owner hat on, you’re not the hero in the story, you’re the trusted guide. Our job at The Marketing Squad is to make you the Mr. Miyagi to your customer’s Daniel LaRusso. You’ve got to be the Yoda to your client’s Luke Skywalker. We want your customer base to trust you implicitly and it’s only through telling a compelling story that we can do that.
Your story should do two things. First, it should set you apart within your industry or geography. Your target audience should resonate with your story in such a way that they know they’ve found the folks who can help them solve their problems. Second, your story should give your target audience a plan they can follow that will lead them to the kind of life they’ve always wanted. Our client experience is built around telling this kind of story.
We’re Passionate Storytellers. We love to dig in with our clients and understand what it will take to tell that kind of story. If we’re helping you do those two things you’re going to realize the second part of our tag line.
What does it really mean for a marketing company to help you grow your business? Ultimately, it’s to do what any good marketing strategy would do, bring leads to your door step. We’re not satisfied as a team if we aren’t generating leads for your team to close. That requires strategic thought and execution on our part, which is why we want to be know as Strategic Doers. We don’t create for creativity’s sake and we don’t strategize for the sake of brainstorming and dreaming. We’re committed to increasing your bottom line, and for us, that means leads.
Beyond delivering leads, we want to also empower your sales team with resources to close new business. This looks like a lot of different things for our partner clients, but the goal is the same – increase revenue. Additionally, we see the value in helping your team attract new talent and encourage your current talent base. All of these efforts contribute to sustained growth, which is why you’ll find our team members going above and beyond to embed themselves with our clients and exceed your expectations in terms of client experience.
What feeling has your recent business interactions left you with? Are you satisfied with the product you’re receiving or has it left you wanting more? Do you get the sense that the people you interact with genuinely care about your story and want to see you succeed? If you're ready to experience authentic, intentional, and growth-driven partnership in your marketing, let's get coffee.
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