June 12, 2007

Biznology Blog by Mike Moran

« Do It Wrong Quickly: the Musical | Main | Global Marketing 2.0 »

Are You "Customer-Facing"?

Last week, I posted about how big-company marketers must influence other employees within their company to make the most of the new Internet marketing opportunities. But someone commented to me, "Well, not everyone must be influenced, right? I mean, not everyone is customer-facing." So it made me wonder just who is "customer-facing" in Web marketing?

"Customer-facing" seems to me to be just another piece of business jargon that may be wearing out its usefulness. Another person once lamented, "I'm not considered 'customer-facing,' so does that mean that I am turning my back on our customers?" I advised him to "just show a little shoulder."

You see, with Internet marketing, just about everyone is customer-facing.

Anyone in your company can be a blogger. Or haunt the message boards. Or optimize your Web pages for search. Or record a podcast.

So, maybe it is an overstatement to say that absolutely everyone is customer-facing, but everyone potentially is. Don't let your competitors swarm your customers with their employees while you sit back and think marketing is for the marketing department and sales is for the sales department. Decide to become customer-facing today and to start recruiting the rest of your company, too.

Posted by MikeMoran at June 12, 2007 7:57 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mikemoran.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/270

Comments

I think if you say "everyone", you're going to be putting inexperienced people in front of your customers and potentially push business away as a result. So, I believe customer-facing messages should come from those qho are qualified; not from Jethro who can fix a pc blindfolded but can't spell worth a darn. -No stab at pc techs as I was one, but just using that as a an example.

Posted by: Alan at June 20, 2007 12:15 PM

I think that horse has already left the barn. Jethro can already represent your company in front of your customers--you can't stop him--so you might as well explain to him what the rules are and train him. That way you can take advantage of what he can do and warn him away from the mistakes. It won't work perfectly, and not everyone will do it right, but I have seen the value outweigh the risk.

Posted by: Mike Moran at June 20, 2007 12:19 PM