What Is Customer Communications?
As the term implies, customer communications is all about staying in touch with customers. Despite the lack of service you may have experienced dealing with some organizations, companies really do take customer satisfaction seriously. They want you to be happy! But not just for altruistic reasons. A customer who is delighted with a company's products and services is good for the bottom line.
Companies know that a loyal customer will buy from them again and again, and perhaps spread the word to friends and colleagues.
There's a term in the customer relations field called customer lifetime value. It refers to how much sales can be expected from a loyal customer over his or her lifetime. For example, if you love a particular brand of shampoo, you may buy $512 worth of this product over the years. Companies really do pull out a calculator and figure this stuff out.
So what role does persuasive communications play here? Companies produce a range of materials designed to motivate customers to become and remain loyal to its products and services. There are also strategies (cross-selling and up-selling, discussed in Chapter 14) that are used to persuade you to buy even more.
Typical copywriting projects include:
Brochures
E-mails
Flyers
Letters
Loyalty or incentive materials
Newsletters
Telephone call scripts
Support information
Customer communications is a bit of an orphan in the sales, marketing, and public relations fields. It doesn't have a home. Usually, it's the marketing department that handles the production of any needed brochures, newsletters, and other materials in this area. Increasingly, however, companies are dedicating resources to this function. It's not uncommon for a corporate manager to have a title like customer communications manager or even director of customer satisfaction.
