Perhaps you might not think that customer experience or service is a marketing topic. However, I am here to tell you it is. Customer experience is where a significant intersection between operations and marketing happens. I am not even sure what comes first – but I do know they are equally as important.

For all the companies out there that want great SEO, SEM, and Google reviews – when is the last time you sat down and thought about your individual customer experience? Especially with the post shut down days behind us – business has changed, our customers have changed – has our business model or execution of it changed?

I recently went with my family on vacation to the beach, and the gap is the staff available to serve in the hospitality industry or, maybe at this point, every sector. My question to all the businesses hanging on is, how are you taking care of the people who show up every day to serve your customers? I have a soft part in my heart for restaurants because I was a server, bartender, and front-of-the-house manager for almost five years – I know what it takes to create an excellent experience for customers.

It first starts with the expectation of the staff. Is your team set up for success? If you are running half-staff, do they have double the tables? Is this manageable to continue to get the 5-star Google Reviews your business is hoping to receive? You can have a great SEO, SEM, and paid marketing plan, but it is about operational what is happening at the end of the day.

Take the time to sit down with your team to evaluate your current assets, especially your staff and their expectation, to best serve your customers to keep them coming back. No matter how much money you put into your marketing, what is the point if you aren’t following through with the operational execution of service? What is your company’s mission – are you living it out as you serve your employees and customers?

I don’t pretend to have the answer, but I am thinking about ways businesses can pivot, adjust and adapt to our new way forward. Ping me, Nicole Boyd at Nicole.boyd@marketingstrategy.solutions, if you want to share some of the things you have done has an owner or leader of your business to ensure you are getting your employees engaged and customers coming back.