Customer service is the new marketing because now companies can no longer control what people are saying about them. Everyday, customers and prospects are ranting and raving about your company on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Companies that don’t get customer service and don’t react to what customers are talking about are doomed to fail.

As bricks and mortar increasingly give way to virtual organizations, more and more interactions with customers are taking place via the telephone and the Web. Some organizations apparently believe that while good customer service principles might apply to face-to-face interactions, they don’t apply to phone and internet interactions. Wrong. They do apply. Everyone has gotten lost in the phone directory maze of “press 1 for this, press 2 for that,” and when (or if) we finally get to a live person, that person comes across as indifferent or rushed (probably because they’re held accountable for call volume only). Most of us have also given up on trying to navigate some Websites, let alone trying to get a response via a Web inquiry.

My main focus is on customers and how businesses can grow organically by building their success on their customer base.  I have written posts on customer experience, customer service, and customer-focused marketing (no, not all marketing is customer-focused!). Since I have been teaching my class at UC San Diego, “Marketing via New Media”, I have been spending a lot more time speaking about where social media fits in to all of this.

Most people will point to the cell phone as something good for customer service because no matter where they are, they can try to help the customer. While this may be true, the cell phone hurts customer service more than it helps.

My work focuses a little on getting new customers and a lot on getting them to come back. I believe the best marketing comes from running your business so well, people have a great experience so they come back and they tell others.

Recently, I received an email from my friends at the Village Hat Shop. In the email was a note about an article that explained search engine optimization (SEO) in terms anyone can understand. I clicked over to the article and took a look.

Last month I wrote about an article that suggests social media is driving growth in customer service jobs.  While I haven’t decided if this is true, it does seem the customer service sector is seeing strong growth. Based on data from Indeed.com, there are 29% more customer service jobs available today than one month ago.

Customer Service Jobs Available

March 1, 2010:     572,909
April 1, 2010:        737,286

Increase of 28.7%

I’m sick and tired of surveys. I’m tired of being interrupted at home or in my office by the caller who expects 5-10 minutes of my time as a reward for interrupting me. I am sick of being stopped mid-bite in chain restaurants to complete a 100 question survey. And I really hate being told by my car dealer: “We’d really appreciate if you could give us all 10s on the customer satisfaction survey you get.”

I am grateful for my friends and colleagues who send me fascinating examples of good and bad customer service. Yesterday I received an email from a friend who said, “Here’s a really cool rant on the power of twitter as a customer tool and how one company, from the top down, reacted.”

This lead me to a blog article written by Bob Lefsetz which you can read here: Twitterific

The popular notion stating that if a customer receives poor service, he/she will tell nine other people, has been grossly out of date since the advent of the Internet. In reality, customers can electronically tell millions of people about their experiences. And now, with Twitter, people can tell others about their experiences as they happen.

Often my conversations with people make me think we’re facing a growing technology divide. One group of my friends and colleagues are actively online and, for the most part, use social media like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. But others stare at me like I’m speaking in tongues when I talk about using these social media tools to connect with their customers.

That’s why I love Chris Brogan’s recent post about a small comic shop in Amesbury, MA that uses Twitter very effectively. As Chris points out:

I have been reading quite a few blogs and comments lately about how social media and customer service need to come together. There has also been a lot of talk about the Social Customer and its importance. I wholeheartedly agree, and as you might imagine, I have a few quick thoughts on the subject which I will share below (inspired by some comments on left on Esteban Kolsky’s post at the blog TheSocialCustomer).

About two-thirds of the times we write about a specific company, we get a comment or some sort of feedback from the company. Sometimes it’s an employee defending them. Sometimes it’s a PR person offering to help. Once in awhile it’s the CEO.

No matter who responds, I’m always impressed. Because it means they’re listening and they care. They care enough to speak up and get involved.