Most businesses sell some sort of products or provide services to other businesses or consumers. This selling or providing process relies heavily on the staff in marketing and customer service department of a company. Marketing can be seen mainly as a pre-sale responsibility, while customer service traditionally takes care of the customer after the sale. In actuality, and most importantly in the current social media environment, the line between marketing and customer service is becoming more and more fuzzy. In fact from the customer point of view, marketing and customer service of a company may be slowly becoming one and the same.

It’s the case of “marketing promises me this, but service gives (or not) me that.” It’s one of the classic examples of customer dissatisfaction, and in the social network environment, the news goes far and wide, at a very fast rate. What a business needs to realize are two things:

1. Customers are now talking, researching and sharing on the Internet, in general, and on social networking sites, in particular.
2. You need to be where your customers are and engage them, especially with those who make the most noise.

The best customer experience is achieved when customer desires and needs are fulfilled by your products or services (good marketing,) and their issues are resolved quickly and satisfactorily (good customer service.) If these do not give you strong reasons to get your business into the social networking arena, then I don’t know what will.

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Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
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Marketing and Customer Service Are Really One and the Same to Customers