The Most Undervalued Marketing Tool You Already Have

If you've ever spent hours agonising over your content strategy, your ad creative, or your email subject lines trying to attract more customers—while giving very little thought to the experience your existing customers are having—this episode is going to reframe something important.

The most powerful marketing tool in your business isn't a new platform, a clever tactic, or something you need to learn from scratch. You already have it. You're just probably not treating it as the strategic marketing priority it deserves to be.

It's customer service. And not the reactive, damage-control version most people think of. Customer service as a deliberate, intentional experience that retains customers, generates word-of-mouth, and creates the kind of loyalty that no ad campaign can buy.

In this episode, I'm making the case for why customer service is one of the most undervalued and overlooked marketing strategies in business—and why the gap between understanding that it matters and actually treating it as a priority is costing most businesses more than they realise.

Acquisition gets customers. Service keeps them. And keeping them is where the real growth is.

Transcript

Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie, and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we dive into this episode, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Lutruwita. I pay my respects to eldest, past and present, and acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.

Now let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

If you've ever spent hours agonising over your content strategy, your ad creative, your email subject lines, trying to figure out how to attract more customers while at the same time giving very little thought to the experience your existing customers are having, then this episode is going to reframe something really important to you.

Today, we're talking about the most undervalued marketing tool most businesses already have and almost entirely overlook.

It is not a new platform. It is not a clever tactic.

It's not something that you need to learn from scratch or invest thousands of dollars in.

I am talking about customer service.

And before you think, yeah, yeah, I know customer service is important, stay with me, because I'm not talking about customer service as a nice to have, you know, as a box that you tick, as something that you know you do because it's the right thing to do.

I'm talking about customer service as a genuine, strategic and incredibly powerful marketing tool that most businesses are leaving completely untapped. And when you start thinking about it that way, everything changes.

Let's start by talking about why customer service gets so little attention in the marketing conversation.

Because I think it's worth understanding.

When most people think about marketing, they think about acquisition.

You know, getting new people in the door, grow their audience, their email list, a Follow account Finding new customers, new students, new clients the entire marketing industry is really focused on attraction.

You know, how do you get someone who doesn't know you to get to know you, trust you, and buy from you?

And that's important. Of course it is.

But it's only half of the story, or maybe less than half.

Because here's what we don't talk about nearly enough.

It's what Happens after someone buys. You know, what happens after they join your membership, enrolling your course, hire you for your service? You know, what is their experience like once they're on the other side of that purchase decision.

And for most businesses, the honest answer is that the experience drops off kind of significantly after the sale is made. You know, all that energy, all that attention, all that thoughtfulness that went into getting them to say yes, it usually disappears once they actually do.

And it's a massive and a really costly mistake.

I want to redefine customer service for a moment because I think it gets interpreted quite narrowly.

You know, most people hear customer service and they think about, you know, responding to complaints, handling refund requests, fixing problems when they arise. You know, the reactive, the kind of damage control version of dealing with customers.

And yes, that is a part of it, but customer service as a marketing tool is so much broader than that.

It's basically every single touch point that a customer has with your business after they buy.

You know, it's how quickly you respond to their questions, it's how warmly they're welcomed when they join. It's whether they feel seen and valued or, you know, whether they feel like it's transaction.

It's the quality of your onboarding, the clarity of your communication, the way you handle it when something goes wrong.

And it's also whether you proactively check in or whether you only appear when it's time to sell them something again, all of that is customer service and all of it is actually marketing, because all of it shapes how that person feels about your business and whether they stay, whether they refer, others buy again, or maybe they just quietly disappear.

Now, before I get into what great customer service looks like, I want to talk about what poor customer service actually costs you because I think we kind of underestimate it.

So the obvious cost is know losing a customer. They have a bad experience, or maybe not even a bad experience, just a so so experience. Like it's not a good nor bad,

but they don't come back. And that's painful enough on its own.

But the less obvious cost is what they do next.

You know, because people talk.

They always have, and now they can talk at scale.

A frustrated customer doesn't just tell their three closest friends.

They often, you know, leave a review.

They post in a Facebook group, they mention it in passing in a community, you know, where 50 other potential customers of yours are listening.

One poor experience handled badly, it can ripple outwards in ways that are genuinely difficult to quantify, but very real in their impact.

I mean, it's really hard to track and really put a quantity on any of this, but you're going to feel it.

And then there's a cost that never shows up in any report, and that's the referrals that you didn't get.

Every customer who had a mediocre experience and, you know, quietly moved on.

It's not just lost repeat revenue, but it's also all the people that they're never going to send your way. You know, the word of mouth that never happened because the experience wasn't remarkable enough to mention.

And this is the invisible cost of treating customer service as an afterthought.

It doesn't always show up as something that you can point to, you know, like a negative review, a cancellation.

Sometimes it's just something that shows up as slower growth than you expected for all the effort that you're putting in.

And a lot of businesses don't connect those dots.

Now, let's talk about retention, because this is where customer service really earns its place as a marketing strategy.

You know, in a membership business, and I know a lot of you listening are running memberships or courses.

Retention is everything.

It's the difference between a business that feels constantly exhausting because you're always replacing the members that you're losing, and a business that feels sustainable because your members stay.

And what drives retention?

It's not just the quality of your content or your curriculum, even though you know it's important.

What drives retention is how people feel when they're inside your world, whether they feel known, whether they feel supported, whether they feel like leaving would mean giving up something that genuinely serves them.

That feeling is almost entirely created through customer service, through the quality of the experience you create, not just the product that you deliver.

Think about the memberships or the services that you've actually personally stayed with for a long time.

And I'm going to be willing to bet that it's not just because the content was good.

It's because something about the experience kept you feeling connected and valued.

Maybe questions were answered quickly and thoughtfully.

Maybe the community felt warm and supported.

Maybe the host remembered who you were and made you feel seen.

That's customer service, and it's that part that creates loyalty.

And compare that to the experiences where you canceled.

Often it wasn't because the product was terrible.

It was because you felt invisible, like you were, you know, one of thousands in, like, a nameless subscriber and nobody would notice if you left. And sometimes that's true. You were probably right. And so you did.

And the difference between those two experiences is almost never about the quality of the core product.

It's about the experience wrapped around it.

And that experience is entirely within your control.

So what does genuinely excellent customer service look like as a marketing tool?

So let me get specific because I think this is where it becomes actionable.

Firstly, we have the welcome experience.

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities in business.

When someone becomes a customer, especially a new member or a course student, the moment right after they buy, it's emotionally charged, they're excited, they're hopeful, they've just made an investment in themselves or in their business.

And, and what happens in the Next, you know, 24 to 48 hours shapes their entire relationship with you.

Most businesses send an automated confirmation email and then call it done.

But what if you sent a genuinely warm welcome?

What if the tone of that first message made them feel like, literally like they made a brilliant decision and that you're genuinely delighted to have them?

What if you told them exactly what to do first so the overwhelm doesn't set in? What if there was a moment, like even a brief one, where they felt personally acknowledged?

That's not complicated.

It doesn't require, like a huge team or expensive software.

It requires intention.

And it makes an enormous difference to how someone settles into the experience with you.

The second one is responsiveness.

You know, how quickly do you respond to questions? And I know this can feel like a, like a logistical challenge, especially if you're a solo business owner with like, a lot going on.

But responsiveness is one of the most powerful signals you can send to a customer about how much you value them.

You don't need to be available 24 hours a day. Like, really, you need boundaries.

But having a clear, consistent response time and actually sticking to tells people that they matter to you.

A question that is answered thoughtfully within 24 hours. It builds more trust than a beautifully designed course ever would.

The third one is proactive communication.

Don't only show up in your customers inboxes when you want to sell them something.

Show up when you have something valuable to share, when you're checking on their progress, when you're, when you want to acknowledge something that they've achieved.

And this is particularly powerful in membership businesses.

You know, a simple monthly check in, how are things going? What are you working on?

Is there anything you need? And like, try not to make it like, sort of too automated because people scrolled past that.

But it makes a difference. It signals that you see your members as people, not as numbers. And People stay where they feel seen.

If you don't have that many members yet, send a personal voxer or, you know, a voice message that makes such a big difference.

The next one is how you handle problems, and this is a big one, because you know what, life is life, and things will go wrong.

Technology fails, Emails don't get sent, content has errors, People you know may have some bad experiences. And. And it's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when and how you handle those moments.

That's where your customer service becomes genuinely remarkable. Marketing people don't expect perfection.

At least I hope they don't, because I don't know.

I don't. I know my people don't. They know things go wrong.

What they're watching for is how you respond when they do.

You know, a problem handled with speed, with transparency, genuine apology,

and like, a meaningful remedy that creates more loyalty than like, a flawless experience because it shows your values in action.

It shows that you take your customers seriously enough to make things right, not just make excuses.

I actually have bought from businesses again after having, you know, some negative experiences specifically because of how they handled it.

And I have never returned to businesses that handled a problem poorly, even when the original mistake was, like, not a big deal, like, the mistake isn't the deal breaker, the response can be a deal breaker, and then the next one is offboarding.

Here's one that almost nobody thinks about, and that's how do you treat customers when they leave?

You know, if someone cancels your membership or doesn't renew, what happens?

Do they get, you know, a cold automated email and disappear into the void? Or do you handle it with grace? You know, thanking them for being part of your community, wishing them well, leaving the door, like, open if they ever want to return?

How you treat people on the way out matters, because people who leave still talk about you.

And people who are treated with warmth and respect even when they cancel, are far more likely to come back to refer others and to speak well of you in the communities that you both share.

All right, the next one is word of mouth multiplier.

So let me come back to word of mouth for a moment because this is where customer service as a marketing tool becomes really powerful.

Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing that exists. It always has been and it still is.

A recommendation from a trusted person carries way more weight than any ad, any sales page, any piece of content that you could create.

People trust people, and they share experiences worth sharing.

So the question is, are you creating experiences that are worth sharing.

Average experiences don't get shared. They get forgotten.

You know, you go through something fine, unremarkable, perfectly adequate, and you move on.

Like, you might not even consciously register it.

But remarkable experiences, like genuinely surprising, you know, delightfully good experiences, those get shared.

You know, people will say, you have to try this, or, I can't believe how quickly they sorted it out.

Or, you know, I mentioned it in passing, and they actually remembered.

These are the moments that turn customers into advocates.

And advocates are the most valuable marketing asset your business can have because they do your marketing for you to exactly the right people and with a level of credibility that you just.

You can't manufacture that.

And those moments almost always come from customer service.

You know, from an experience that exceeded expectations, from being treated in a way that felt genuinely thought, thoughtful, rather than automated and transactional.

I want to share something that I think reframes the importance of customer service very quickly, because sometimes we need the numbers to make it feel real. At least I do.

Acquiring a new customer costs significantly more than retaining an existing one.

I mean, you probably have heard this before.

It's not a new concept, so I hope you've heard it before.

Okay, there's no, like, exact number or exact science on this, but it costs anywhere from five to seven times more to win a new customer than to keep one that you already have.

So think about that in the context, you know, of all the time, all the money and the energy that you're pouring into marketing to attract new people.

Your existing customers are a fraction of that cost to keep if you're actually taking care of them.

And retained customers don't just cost less.

They tend to spend more.

They're more likely to buy your next offer.

They're usually less price sensitive. They're easier to sell to because the trust is already there, and they refer others, which brings in new customers at essentially zero acquisition costs.

And when you look at it that way, investing in the experience of your existing customers, it's not just the right thing to do. It's like a smart marketing decision.

Okay, I want to tie this together because I think the risk with an episode like this is that it all sounds obvious.

You know, of course customer service matters. Of course you should treat people well. Yes, Bianca, we know.

But knowing and doing are very different things.

And what I see in most businesses is a significant gap between understanding that customer service matters and actually treating it as a strategic marketing priority.

Because often it doesn't actually show up in the marketing plan.

It doesn't get A budget.

It doesn't get the same creative attention as the lead magnet or the launch sequence.

It's usually handled reactively when problems come up, rather than proactively, you know, as an intentional experience that is designed to create loyalty and word of mouth.

And that gap is costing businesses more than they realise.

So here's what I want you to sit with after this episode.

What is the actual experience of being your customer?

Not what you intended it to be, but what it's actually like, you know, from the moment they buy through their first week, their first month, when they have a question, when something goes wrong, when they consider leaving, what does all of that feel like?

And if the honest answer is, you know, I'm not actually sure, or, you know, probably pretty average, that's where your marketing work is right now.

Not in finding more people, but in taking better care of the people that are already there.

I want to share an example with you because we were on Hobart on the weekend and I have been looking at earrings from the beautiful brand Francesca. So Tasmanian brand.

I've been looking at these earrings for months, literally months, procrastinating over it. And then when I finally made the decision, I still didn't buy them.

I looked at them in the Melbourne store when I was there, I still didn't buy them.

On the weekend we went to Hobart. I had a birthday voucher still that I wanted to spend at Francesca.

Anyway, we went into the shop, I bought the earrings and I got to choose whether I wanted a printed receipt or whether I wanted an email.

Well, I'm already on the list, so I wanted an email receipt. I don't need more paper.

I also in the store got to choose whether I wanted a box or a pouch with my earrings. I think that was really nice to have that kind of option.

But after I bought the earrings, I have received a number of emails and like, really, really awesome ones.

Some completely focused on customer service. You know, how I was feeling, how I was doing, what my experience was.

Some obviously also serves, some of these emails, also serve them because they want to know how my experience was, you know, how did their staff do, how was the store, like, you know, the presentation, all of that, but it was all sent in the right order and it was all presented to me in a way that made me feel really valued, like I am part of this story, of this journey.

So if you want a really good example of how this can work, even after like an in person kind of experience, go and buy something at Francesca and you'll see how it all works. It's seriously. It's amazing.

All right, there you have it.

Customer service as the most undervalued marketing tool that you already have.

The one that retains the customers that you've worked so hard to attract, the one that creates word of mouth that you cannot buy, the one that costs a fraction of what new customer acquisition costs, and the one that delivers returns that compound beautifully over time.

I love things that compound.

So this is seriously such a big investment that it's going to keep returning.

So I'm going to leave you with an action step.

Think about that one specific touch point in your customer experience that you know could be better.

Maybe it's your welcome sequence, maybe it's your response time, maybe it's how you handle problems.

You gotta pick one.

And then I want you to make it like, amazing. Like, blow your minds off amazing this month.

I don't want you to make it perfect.

Doesn't need to be perfect, but it needs to be remarkable. Like, it needs to stand out.

It needs to be, in a way, good enough that a customer would mention it to someone else.

So that's your marketing task for this week.

And if you want to work building a business that retains customers, generates word of mouth, and creates sustainable revenue through genuine relationships, that is exactly the kind of thinking we bring into the Marketing Momentum membership.

I'll pop the link for that in the show notes.

Now, if this episode has shifted how you think about customer service as a marketing tool, I would love it if you left a review and sent me a screenshot.

I will send you my Marketing Momentum playbook as a thank you.

So just send your screenshot through Instagram or email me and I'll get it straight to you.

Now remember, the best marketing that you can do for your business is taking extraordinary care of the people that are already inside it.

Thanks so much for tuning into the new school of marketing. I'm Bianca McKenzie and I'll catch you next week. Until then, keep making marketing work for you.