The Customer is Always Right, Even for SEO

If you want to enhance your organic marketing efforts, talk to your customer support team. In most companies, the customer service department and marketing team don’t work together very often. One is there to keep customers happy, while the other needs to bring them in.

This is an antiquated view of how a company works considering that in today’s world of instant gratification, both departments should be working together on a daily basis.

For example, if a customer calls the support team with a complaint the goal is to work through the process and improve the customer experience. Through that conversation, the support team may find out about a product flaw or a piece of confusion regarding how a product or service works. This creates an immediate opportunity to make changes on the website that can help the company’s organic marketing while providing a chance for social media promotion.

Integrating a Strategy

This level of integration is fairly easy to do. When your support team gets asked a question by multiple customers, it is a clear sign that the answer should be made available online. Your marketing and web development team can add it to the FAQ section of your website, write a blog post about it, create a video tutorial, etc.

By answering the question on your website, you create the opportunity to rank organically for that query. Additionally, the piece of new content can be promoted through your social media channels, acknowledging that you immediately responded to customer feedback, creating the opportunity to foster customer loyalty.

How Does This Increase Local Rankings?

We also find that your support team can help to provide information that will make you rank better in a local search. For example, if they are getting calls from people wanting to know if you are in a particular city, you may not have the right information online to promote all of your locations. You can then take the opportunity to correct your local listings and enhance your website content in order to provide that data.

This can be particularly relevant if you moved or opened a new location. These calls can serve to inform the marketing department that they have missed updating your information somewhere – an easy mistake to make. Also, if are in a developing city or on a city border this can be an opportunity for more business.

Working with Customers for Reviews

You can also work with the customer support team to capture positive reviews. If they have a customer interaction that was exceptional, ask them to write down what was said so that you can post the comment or review on your website and social media. It is a good idea to ask for the customer permission and once you have it, blast that review over all of your platforms.

Studies have shown that when you incorporate reviews into your site, your conversions will increase, making this a simple yet effective strategy.

Communicate About Marketing Campaigns

Be sure that your marketing department also takes the time to communicate about new local search campaigns or social media blitzes that they are launching. These activities will likely generate more calls, and it is important for the support team to be prepared and informed so that they can answer questions and close the sale.

Schedule a meeting so that the two departments can get to know each other and begin working together to improve the customer experience and your bottom line.