It is not surprising that corporations are struggling with how to budget for and use the Internet as a marketing tool and interface with customers. After all the Internet is a surrogate for sales people, and sales people are a surrogate for the image and reputation of the legal entity called a corporation.
Until accountants figure out how to put a dollar value on image and reputation, efficiency cotinues to rule supreme in many companies. Customer service departments are treated as necessary but onerous expense as opposed to an investment. Meeting sales quotas trumps customer satisfaction. Advertising budgets are determined as a capricious percentage of sales.
Writing in Chief Executive Magazine, consultant Bob Donnelly stresses, “succesful marketing is owning a share of the customers mind by creating an emotional bond with your brand.” He goes on to say that customers with disengaged employees become unhappy with the level of service they receive and eventually do business elsewhere.
Studies have shown that 60 percent of all customers stop dealing with a company because of perceived indifference on the part of employees. Some other disturbing statistics: about 29 percent of employees are fully engaged, while 19 percent are totally disengaged, which leaves over 50 percent with only average levels of engagement.
It is important for Human Relations executives to assert their role in developing and executing policies and plans that encourage and facilitate employee engagement. Donnelly concludes, “many companies today claim to be customer centric, but pay their employees to sell products rather than compensating them for engaging customers.”
It gets more challenging when HR people and marketing executives begin to think about the Internet as a surrogate for sales people. Donnelly says, “in a world that is changing rapidly and as the speeed of change increases, all product businesses are really becoming service businesses.”