Your customers are already talking about you. The interesting question is what they’re saying.
There was a time when an unhappy customer had relatively limited broadcasting options.
They could complain to their spouse.
Tell a colleague.
Mention it to a neighbour.
If particularly annoyed, they might tell somebody in the queue at the Post Office.
The damage was annoying, but geographically contained.
Today, things are slightly different.
Your customer can tell Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Trustpilot, WhatsApp groups and several hundred strangers who have suddenly become deeply invested in why their delivery arrived on Thursday rather than Wednesday.
Every customer now has a microphone.
And businesses don’t get to decide when they switch it on.
Your Customers Have Joined the Marketing Department
This is one of the ideas I explore in Episode 14 of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing.
Marketing used to have considerably more control over the story.
You created an advert.
You told everyone how wonderful you were.
People had relatively few ways of checking.
Now your advert saying “exceptional customer service” sits alongside Dave from Dundee’s review explaining that nobody answered his email for eleven days.
Dave has evidence.
This is awkward.
Advertising still matters, of course. But it’s increasingly the opening statement rather than the final word. Customer experience determines whether anyone believes it.
Everything Can Become Content
Here’s the part businesses often miss.
Your customer experience is producing content whether your marketing team is involved or not.
The helpful email.
The returned phone call.
The engineer who arrives on time.
The invoice that actually makes sense.
The person who sorts out a problem without transferring the customer through six departments and accidentally ageing them by several years.
None of these was designed as marketing, but customers can talk about them.
And they do.
The same applies when things go wrong.
That dismissive email? – Content.
The unanswered complaint? – Content.
The forty-minute telephone queue accompanied by a piano arrangement that gradually removes the caller’s desire to remain part of civilisation?- Also content.
As Episode 14 explores, every interaction can now shape your reputation because customers can share those experiences with audiences far beyond their immediate circle.
Nobody Tells Stories About Average
This creates another problem.
Perfectly adequate customer experiences aren’t particularly interesting.
Nobody bursts into the office on Monday morning shouting: “You won’t believe what happened. I ordered something online, AND IT ARRIVED.”
That’s not a story. That’s Tuesday.
People talk about experiences at the edges.
The unexpectedly brilliant.
And the spectacularly dreadful.
Which means the question isn’t simply: “Are we providing good customer service?”
It’s: “Are we giving customers something worth talking about?”
A small unexpected gesture can do more for your reputation than another carefully optimised social campaign.
Remembering someone’s name.
Following up after a project.
Fixing a mistake without argument.
Taking five minutes to explain something properly.
None is revolutionary. But moments become stories, stories become recommendations, and recommendations become reputation.
Marketing Can’t Fix a Bad Experience
You can have magnificent branding.
Beautiful photography.
A clever campaign.
A website describing your organisation as passionate about putting customers at the heart of everything we do.
Then somebody actually becomes a customer.
And discovers you’re remarkably difficult to deal with.
At which point the customer has identified your real brand.
Customers don’t separate Marketing, Operations, Finance and Customer Service.
They experience the business.
Your logo introduces you.
Your customer experience defines you.
Give Them the Right Story
Businesses spend extraordinary amounts trying to make people talk about them.
Advertising.
PR.
Social media.
Influencers.
Events.
All legitimate.
But sometimes the most effective marketing begins with something much simpler:
- Do something worth talking about.
- Make life unexpectedly easy.
- Solve the problem properly.
- Keep the promise.
- Care enough that the customer notices.
Because customers are already talking.
The microphone is already switched on.
The only part you can really influence is the story you give them to tell.
Listen to Episode 14 of our Podcast
If you’d like to explore this further, Episode 14 of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing looks at why customer experience has become one of the most powerful forces in modern marketing and why reviews, recommendations and everyday interactions can outperform even the cleverest advertising campaign.
Because your customers already have a microphone.
Your job is to make sure they have something good to say.
