Last week, online marketing blog Trimmed.com An article by our Online Dialogue colleague and strategist Michiel Jansen. He wrote about Service as the new Marketing based on developments at Vodafone.

In early June, an ANP post came along that made me happy: “Instead of the maximum mobile internet speed, Vodafone is going to state what speed customers can expect ‘in most common situations’.” Vodafone, in my opinion, is rewarded for this transparency. Not only because it is a fresh approach in a market characterized by empty promises, but because the promises you make are an essential part of the customer experience.

Vodafone shows guts

Vodafone is engaging with its customer and based on this, is adjusting communications around their bandwidth products this week. Is this smart? The ‘real connection speed’ is typically something an industry has spent years trying to pull the wool over consumers‘ eyes. It takes guts to break through the glaringly unrealistic claims and communicate the ’real speed. Even if it may be lower on paper than what an optimistic industry peer claims. But I think Vodafone is going to be rewarded for their guts. Customers know that telecom companies have been predicting them unrealistic connection speeds for years. Both home and mobile. I assume consumers will choose a provider that communicates a ‘real’ speed to them. I would not be surprised if this becomes the new standard of communication over bandwidth. At least for the market players who can afford to state their ‘real’ speed.

Acting: gaining momentum

Vodafone understands that when you talk to someone it is not nice to wait a very long time for an answer. Starting the dialogue creates expectations. The ANP report states ”Vodafone launched a discussion with customers and stakeholders in April about the clarity of internet speeds, and so this is one of the results of that.” From talking to customers to internal consultation, decision and then adjusting PR and communications materials in about two months. There are companies that take that long just over a press release. Vodafone uses dialogue with their customer to give marketers input on product development. And for the further development of existing products, that's fine. You're not going to use it to spark revolutions like the ‘iPhone’ or mobile calling. Customers often have no idea about that. But for improving existing products it is a good source of ideas. If customers then see that their ideas are subsequently taken up, it increases their commitment to the brand.

Look at the whole dialogue with your customer

The classic approach to Service is quite instrumental; the quality of after-sales support or the call center response time. Service is then a cost you have to pay from the revenue you have been able to realize in your Sales apparatus. But if you consider the whole customer experience, everything that determines the perception of the quality of the product and the relationship with ‘the brand’ belongs to service. Take, for example, a TV commercial in which only new customers are offered a great benefit. If you see that as an existing customer something happens to your product perception anyway. Something negative in this case. We therefore look at the entire dialogue with the customer. This includes the product features, the warranty conditions but also the promise you make as a brand about the product or service. And Vodafone shows with this action that they have understood that very well.

Service is the new marketing, especially if you already have a lot of customers.

So adapting product communications to customers‘ calls for ’real information‘ is more than ’a nice gesture. It's smart marketing. If you have more than four million customers, it's a good idea to convince them that you care about them. With that many customers, it's better to pay more attention to retention than sacrifice four million by screaming for new customers. Those four million customers-if served well-are the best conceivable sales force for Vodafone. And this knife cuts both ways: even new customers can get the idea from this kind of communication that Vodafone is a better ‘place to be’ than the rest. So I think this is not an ‘isolated’ action by Vodafone and expect more announcements of this kind because......I say it more often but here it certainly applies: Service is the new marketing!

Originally posted on June 27, 2012 at tutored.co.uk