As a marketer, there is one thing that makes me cringe the most and that is when a customer service representative clearly isn’t engaged with the marketing direction of the business they work for.
Recently I was shopping for what I would deem, a large ticket household item, and so wandered to some local retailers. We walked in to one store and waited for a few minutes before being greeted by a bubbly sales person. As we went through the sales process, things were moving along well when, just towards the end it came to capturing a small piece of data which is invaluable to most businesses, the email address.
As I was ready to sign myself up for another newsletter, the staff member turned to me and said “and if you just tick the box at the bottom, you won’t get any spam”. I felt my mouth fall open in absolute astonishment. This seemingly small little instruction provided to me by the sales person, flowed so freely that I’m certain it was part of the every day banter in the store. As I found my words, I finished the transaction and left the store, with the small tick highlighted taking away any opportunity of me being marketed to by that company again.
I know that there are probably many people out there punching the air in delight knowing that they don’t have to read another End of Financial Year sale email, but for me, I recognised the lost opportunity that the instruction meant for the business.
It made me think too, what are we, as marketers doing, to ensure that this is getting through. Are we focusing enough on making sure our staff, the frontline team, are getting the message clearly. In short, I’m sure it’s part of all campaigns but the effectiveness is probably a bit questionable. There are a few different methods that I’ve seen but it’s difficult to ascertain how much really gets absorbed.
We spend a lot of time focusing on ensuring the reach and message absorption with our external audience, but how about trying internal first. Here are just some quick tips that might help:
Campaign packs:
- Make sure these are part of every campaign and delivered in an easy to read format through a channel that’s utilised
- Cover the key points starting with hero offers, key media channels and any instructions. Don’t over do the detail as you will lose your audience after page 1.
- Try to use pictures, less words
- Use a channel that’s well connected through your staff network, and easily accessible
- Create a Q&A channel that allows frontline to ask anonymous questions that are responded to quickly. This can also help aid knowing what information is relevant for future packs
- Allow enough time for the information to be absorbed. Sending this the day before the campaign I never going to deliver the right results
- Don’t use marketing lingo. Us marketers understand each other but that doesn’t mean that anyone else does
- If possible, make the tool interactive like a video or something that will help keep the team engaged.
Train the trainer
- Most businesses will have a conduit role that goes between front line and the office. Train these team members on helping to deliver the message.
Incentivise
- This can be a bit tricky but certainly works
- Incentivise your team to get it right
- Use the same campaign pack and comms tool to talk about the incentive
- Create a prize relevant for each campaign i.e. if you are wanting to collect email addresses, create an incentive for each correct and validated address. If it’s sales and conversion, use KPIs to determine region winners
- Set an incentive budget that’s realistic so that you can deliver it.
Provide a marketing contact
- Sometimes we hide behind emails or can be seen to be strategising in the ivory tower and not really understanding what’s really going on
- Create transparency and an open channel of communications by giving a name for someone to contact
- If you have multiple team members then use a generic email that is actively checked and responded to
- Provide a phone number for people to call if they need help.
Have a huddle
- Just like cuddles, team huddles can be very therapeutic!
- Before the campaign starts, encourage your teams to have huddles to run through the campaign pack or comms before the campaign begins
- Have a marketing lead appointed in each store who can help deliver the message with passion and excitement
- If your small enough, run the huddle yourself
These are just some very quick strategies that you can use to help get your frontline team engaged With your campaigns. The most effective way is to make sure everything is transparent, easy to understand, quick to absorb and to the point. Don’t over complicate as that would just lose your team very quickly.
The most important thing to remember is that your front line team are the ones who bring the campaign experience to life in your store. TV and other marketing channels help to deliver the message but the face to face can make or break a campaign and, if a team member isn’t excited or feels disengaged as they haven’t received the right support or communications, your campaign is not going to drive the results it should.
Good Luck!
The Marketing Elf
© July 2019