Who Is Really In Charge of Marketing?
I’d hate to be responsible for marketing at Sprint (together with Nextel). There are people at Sprint dedicating their lives to trying to make people like this company – to say nothing of the millions they spend in that effort.
And for what??? To have it all ruined the moment someone walks into one of their retail locations and tries to transact business with any one of the battalion of thoughtless morons that they employ (or allow to conduct themselves draped in the Sprint brand).
You can tell I’m a little agitated.
I’ve been a Nextel customer for several years now. I’ve never missed a payment, and I have the most expensive plan that they offer – unlimited voice + unlimited data + the warranty on my Nextel BlackBerry.
The scroll wheel on my BlackBerry broke last week. Pleased with myself for investing in the warranty, I drop into a Sprint store to swap my broken device for a new one.
Taking great pleasure in the fact that I can be dismissed without any help at all, the store clerk tells me that despite their well stocked inventory of BlackBerries just like mine, I would have to travel to a store across town to resolve this issue.
So across town I go – reminded of how much I love my BlackBerry - and hate Sprint. I arrive at Sprint store #2. After waiting ten minutes to be acknowledged by clerk #2, I’m told that despite their well stocked inventory of BlackBerries just like mine – and the instructions I received at Sprint store #1, I would have to travel to yet another store some ten miles away to resolve this issue.
Irate, and wondering what it would cost to break my Sprint contract that seems to constantly renew without my knowledge, I arrive at Sprint store #3 – the biggest of the bunch. Here, I’m told that despite their well stocked inventory of BlackBerries just like mine – and my less than pleasant journey to their location, I would have to wait for three days to get a replacement for my broken BlackBerry.
I leave… amazed at how some businesses seem to make money in spite of themselves.
Returning three days later, I find a replacement BlackBerry waiting for me. As I attempt to claim it and depart, I’m told that I have to leave my broken BlackBerry at the store.
I keep a lot of information on my BlackBerry. And while I back up from time to time, I’m nervous about getting the information off of my broken BlackBerry and onto the new one. As you might imagine, if something goes wrong in the process, I’d like to have the old one handy to put my mind at ease.
Politely, I explain my anxiety. No one at the store can assist in the data transfer process, and that’s just too bad for me. “I don’t want to keep the old phone,” I say. “I just want to keep it for a few hours until I have all of the data transferred.” I went on to offer to leave my driver’s license at the store for the short time it would take.
The Sprint response – absolutely NOT.
I left WITHOUT my replacement BlackBerry and will some day soon return to the store with my laptop and perform the operation at their location.
Attacking a wireless carrier’s customer service is almost a cliché. They’re all terrible – which is probably how they all stay in business. But this sort of thing happens in all kinds of businesses every day. The marketers present a beautiful version of the company only to have those who interface with customers and prospects destroy their work. The experience simply doesn’t live up to the marketer’s presentation.
Now back to the poor marketers trying to make people like Sprint… How many great ads and direct mail packages does it take to neutralize the experience I just had? To what lengths must a marketer go just to make me stop HATING Sprint?
Answer: They can’t.
The experience trumps everything.
The world’s greatest marketing can be negated forever by one bad experience in dealing with the company.
Happily, the reverse is also true. A company that doesn’t “market” itself at all can attract new business in droves by delivering a remarkably good experience.
Arguably, the experience of doing business with you is the most powerful marketing medium you have at your disposal.
If the marketers in your organization don’t have direct influence over the customer/ prospect experience (and most don’t), then I would ask you…
Who is really in charge of your marketing?
customer experience, customer satisfaction, Marketing
July 13th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
This is post is great! I couldn’t agree more. True marketing should be A-Z and include the entire company.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I think this is the problem with marketing a product, company, or service that isn’t quality to begin with. When you have brilliant people in your marketing department they are going to do brilliant work. However, if you have other idiots doing the rest of the jobs then, in the end, as you said, “The experience trumps everything.”
This is similar in public relations. The best answer is upfront, honest communication. PR practitioners get a bad rap because of executives who refuse to do the right thing and be an honest, contributing force in society. Is it the PR professional’s fault that the company refuses to change its ways? That the CEO won’t listen to wise council? Then the question comes, “should I quit the job that pays the bills because the product I represent is defunct?”
I guess that is the question for the marketers at Sprint. Or, maybe, they actually believe that the product they market is as good as their efforts… But then again that’d have to be some strong delusion-juice they’d be drinking to come to that conclusion.