Customer Feedback

By: Jen Mylett

There’s no denying the value of customer feedback. Effective feedback can be positive and negative and still be helpful for the overall growth of the company. Having continuous improvement is a true focus based on feedback from across the whole business – customers, clients, employees, suppliers, vendors, etc. To make sure your business is getting the most from customer feedback, here are three tips to go by:

1. Ask Questions

It may be more beneficial and effective for the company asking for feedback to gear more towards open ended questions rather than rankings. Although using a scale of 1-10 on the likelihood of the customers recommending the good or service to a friend may be easier to complete, the may be not be as valuable for the company. The company will not know why the customer has this problem, or better yet, how to fix the problem. Also, it would be important to address what stood out to the customer, about their experience, whether it’s good or bad.

2. Listen to the Customers

Whether the feedback is verbal or via a survey, the customers want to know that the company understands and knows their feedback is valued. If you think that asking more questions will guarantee more valuable feedback, you may have been misinformed. Customers tend to find long surveys tedious and time consuming. Therefore, it’s effortless for the customers to say what they want to say in more  open-ended response or simple questions.

3. Utilize the Feedback

It’s not enough to just know that ‘X’ amount of people rated the good or service a 2 out of 10. Instead, apply this feedback from the customer to improve your business. For example, if a customer complains about shipping taking too long. Check the shipping provider to find an underlying issue if it wasn’t just a one-time accident. Then, decide how to improve that customer’s experience by offering discounts, or free shipping on the next good shipped to them.

Today, everything must be done to please the consumers. This means that communication must abide by their schedule, and what their used to (email, phone, etc.). To meet all customer expectations and come across as a customer-oriented business, it’s essential to follow these tips listed above!

What is Internal Marketing?

By Shuting Qi

Internal Marketing is a term to describe when a company’s employees are treated as “internal customer”, the employees as the customer as well. The business must make sure their employees know their business value. I will give an example to illustrate how does a successful business practice their Internal Marketing-Four Seasons Hotel.

The founder of Four Seasons Hotel, Isadore Sharp, realized that the external customer and internal customers both need to take care. In order to make sure their internal customers realize the significant of hotel’s principle, Four Seasons chooses to trust their employees, motivating every one of them and giving them authority and responsibility.

In another word, Four Seasons lets their internal customers be self-concerned, spreading out its values: respect, fairness, honesty, and trust. Only by training such people who consider their jobs extensively in a way put them into customers’ shoes, Four Seasons could be a success. Therefore, the responsibility of every employee holds up Four Seasons’ long-standing position.

Internal Marketing, in a word, is hiring the right employees and tell them their business value. The purpose of this strategy is let every employee thinks working is not for anyone else; instead, it is working for themselves.

None the less, providing employee benefit is important as well. For example, Four Seasons provided Company-Wide Benefits to their employees:

1.        Career growth opportunities

2.        Unique strong culture

3.        Best-in-industry training

4.        Luxury environment in magnificent locations worldwide

5.        Incentive bonus/competitive salaries

6.     Complimentary stays at Four Seasons properties (based on availability), with     discounted meals

7.        Paid holidays/vacation

8.        Educational assistance

9.        Dental and medical/disability/life insurance

10.     Retirement benefits/pension

11.     Employee service awards

12.     Annual employee party/social and sporting events

13.     Complimentary meals in dedicated employee restaurants

The reason why I typically talk about Four Seasons as an example of internal customers is that Fortune Magazine named Four Seasons is 70th on the ranking of “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2016.

http://jobs.fourseasons.com/home/working-at-fs/benefits/

Brand Positioning: Nokia 3310

By Allison Zwarka


Brand Positioning refers to the strategy a company uses to convince a person to buy thier product over another company's. HMD Global has completely changed their brand position of the Nokia 3310.

The Nokia 3310 is being marketed as "standing apart due to its human centricity". (Vizard 2). The phone is back due to popular demand from customers. The company believes the phone has a purpose and isn't just going along with the trend of finding the latest technology. The company is using brand positioning to change who they are selling to. Some don't think there is anyway this phone can compete with the latest smartphones and the reliance we have on them. Nokia is thought to be extremely successful by trying to reach that market that still doesn't own a mobile, or smartphone, device. By creating such an efficient, easy to use phone they may truly be rewarded. The reason brand positioning is so important to marketing is that it sets your company or product apart from everything else. In order to have an effective marketing campaign you must have a clear reason and strategy for your product in order to effectively market, and sell it.


Vizard, Sarah. "The Nokia 3310 Is Back as a 'modern Classic Reimagined'." Marketing Week. N.p., 26      Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

MSG Experts. "MSG Management  Study  Guide." Brand Positioning - Definition and Concept. N.p., 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.   

www.ETBrandEquity.com. "Will Nokia 3310 Survive in the Smartphone-obsessed World? - ET BrandEquity." ETBrandEquity.com. N.p., 26 Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.                                                                                            

How Marketing Has Evolved

By Lindsey Murphy

With the vast increase in social media and technology use in the past decade, the ways companies interact with consumers has surely changed as a result. The seven key ways that marketing has changed recently include:

1. Marketing and its tools change so quickly, that your marketing team needs to become a research department. In order to keep up with the always-changing modern society, marketers must constantly remain aware of consumers's needs and patterns. Always using different platforms such as Pinterest or Facebook is essential in the cutting edge of marketing.
2. The changing tools of marketing mean that your initiatives have to shift. Using different tools of communication is a good way to interact with consumers. A new inexpensive form of marketing is video, which can help introduce a website, for example.
3. Your entire business has to accommodate the use of social media. Customers are more in control now than ever because of the growth of social media use. Being flexible and open is a key component of being "social."
4. Your marketing department needs to become a media and education department. Marketing has changed to producing content that requires writing, video editing, analytical skills, etc.
5. How you spend your marketing dollars is different. With social media sites costing nothing, money can be used in different areas such as digital media.
6. The four Ps of marketing have changed. The four basics of marketing, or the four P's, are product, price, place, and promotion. But Brian Fetherstonhaugh believes that marketing is now centered around experience, everyplace, exchange, and evangelism.
7. People have changed. People are different because they expect fast responses, rather than being on hold for half an hour. People now also have shorter attention spans, with higher standards from marketers. Consumers don't just want a great product, they want their life to be changed in a meaningful way.

Rabinowitz, Ilana. "7 Ways Marketing Has Changed." Social Media Explorer. N.p., 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017. <https://socialmediaexplorer.com/content-sections/news-and-noise/how-marketing-has-changed/>.