Marketers: Beware Customer Service

April 18, 2025
Scott Pemberton

Is your customer service department practicing what you’re preaching? Or is it turning the faithful out almost as soon as they walk through the door?

Successful marketers understand three, tried-and-true axioms of marketing ROI, and are coming to understand a fourth, relatively new one. However, recent personal experiences have reminded me that customer service departments may not be as well informed.

Here are the old and new marketing axioms.

1. Keeping current customers is much less costly than acquiring new ones.

2. For every customer who complains out loud, 10 others just quietly take their business elsewhere.

3. Lifetime value counts for a lot, especially in highly competitive, price-sensitive markets.

4. In the social media world, bad news travels fast–really fast.

It’s important that marketers ensure customer service policies are structured with the four axioms in mind. Have a chat with your customer service people. Are they working as effectively to keep customers as you are to get them?

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