On Follow Through

January 10, 2007

Follow through.

It’s one of the hardest aspects of marketing to grasp. Sure, a company can make all the promises it wants. But if they’re not backed up, that company positions itself to lose more than it could ever win. Trust is obliterated. Goodwill negated.

This goes further than simply backing up the claims that make up part of a company’s message. This goes into the actual mechanics of customer service.

Today, I called my insurance company. I went through a long process of saying and spelling my name to a computerized robot. The robot came back and confirmed the spelling of my name, my birth date, and my zip code. It said, “Please hold for a representative.”

Guess what that representative said when he came on the line?

“Could I get your name and date of birth?” A little later, “Could you spell that?”

As a customer, I had just spent precious lunch break minutes wading through a somewhat complicated automated system. A system that was probably put in place to cut back on the number of dollars spent on customer service representatives and, at the same time, cut back on a customer’s phone time.

Unfortunately, this company put the system in place without making sure it followed through with its function.

My time was wasted. I’m assuming they paid to have the system put in, and additionally paid the customer service representative a wage for asking questions seemingly answered by the phone system, which means the company’s dollars were wasted.

Simply saying something is true doesn’t mean it actually is. Simply purchasing a timesaving system doesn’t mean time will actually be saved. Unless the words or actions are followed through – backed up and worked to perfection – the message will be worthless. Oftentimes, it will cause an opposite result.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep. We’ll never forgive you if you do.

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Criticism

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