TOPIC 2

INFORMATION MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

DEFINITION

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT – encompasses all the internal and external factors that drive and
influence an organizations marketing activities

Types of Marketing Environment

2 Major Types:
-Micro Environment
-Macro Environment
There are basically two types of environment which affects marketing
decisions namely:

1. Company’s micro environment

2. Company’s macro environment

1. Micro Environment:
-Philip Kotler explains this environment in his definition as, “The micro
environment includes all the actors close to the company that affect,
positively or negatively, its ability to create value for and relationship with its
customers”
-Thus, Customer satisfaction and communication should be developed for
healthy relationship
-Marketing managers cannot make this relationship working because of
several factors affecting at the same time.

The factors are as follows:

a. The Company:
-The company is a hierarchical entity consists of different departments like
purchasing, production, top management, research and development, finance
etc. All these interrelated groups forms the internal environment of
organization
-Top management is responsible for companies’ mission, objectives, and
broad strategies, policies. Marketing management make decisions within the
actions and decisions of top management.
- Other departments also have impact on marketing department. Harmony
must be established with all the departments.
b. Suppliers:
-Suppliers are important part of the overall link of customer to company.
Suppliers supplies goods and resources needed to produce goods and services
to the company.
-Their problems must be studied because they can seriously affect marketing.
Cost and supply availability must be checked by marketing department.
-In current scenario marketers treat suppliers as their partners in creating and

delivering customer value.

-Many suppliers provides valuable information on their web portals about
their marketers and give important feed back to them about customer
responses.
-Supply shortages, delays, labor strikes and other events can cost sales in the
short run and affect customer satisfaction in the long run.
c. Marketing Intermediaries:
-Intermediaries helps the company to promote, sell and distribute its products
to final buyers. Marketing intermediaries includes resellers, physical
distribution firms, marketing services agencies and other intermediaries
including financial intermediaries.
-Reseller includes distribution channel firms that help the company to find
customers or make sales to them.
-In India it is a growing trend that in near future manufacturers will now be
facing competition of large and powerful intermediaries. Some resale
organizations in India have emerged and troubled the manufacturers. For
example Big Bazaar, Shoppers Stop. Pantaloons retail. Like suppliers,
intermediaries form an important component of the company’s overall
marketing strategic management.
For optimizing customer satisfaction company must become partner with
these intermediaries to balance the performance of whole system.
d. Competitors:
-Marketing Management must takes into account the activities of its
competitors because of their similar aim of satisfying customer. Marketers
must take strategic advantage by performing more efficiency in this modern
age of cut throat competition.
-Every organization must study its own nature and structure and implement
marketing strategy accordingly. All policies are not suitable for every
organization so choice must be made and policies must be planned
accordingly.
e. Public:
-Public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on
organization’s ability to achieve its objectives.
Noted marketing author and thinker Philip Kotler identifies seven types
of public which attracted and which affects organization’s decisions
which are:
.

2. Micro-Environment:
Factors that influence macro environment
1. Demographic Environment:
Demography is the study of human population in terms of size, density,
location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statistics. Changes in the
demographic environment would include changes in the forces. If the gender
mix changes it would mean people will buy different type of products.
Better education, increased life expectancy, geographic shift in population,
etc. will all have effect on the market behavior. Awareness of such changes is
necessary to be prepared for them and to design appropriate strategy for such
changes.
2. Economic Environment:
Economic environment may be defined as those factors that affect consumer
buying power and spending patterns. Change in income will change the
consumer spending pattern, more is per head income more will be potential
for spending. An analysis of such forces will be of great help to a firm in
deciding its marketing strategy.
3. Natural Environment:
The natural environment involves the natural resources that are needed as
inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities.
4. Technical Environment:
Technological environment constitutes those factors that create new
technologies to create new products and market opportunities. Technology
affects not only the finished products but also the raw materials, processes,
operations and customer segments. In today’s time rapid changes are
happening in the technological environment. IT Sector, for example, has to
cope with a change, which is extremely rapid. Telecom industry is another
example of rapid technological changes.
5. Political Environment:
Political environment is another very important component of the macro-
environment that the firm must live in. Infact economic and technological
environments may be a by-product of the political environment.
Developments in the political front keep affecting the economy all the time.
Industrial growth is highly dependent on the political environment, legislative
regulations are formulated based on the political ideologies of the ruling
political party.
Ours is a democracy and we have since independence worked on a five-year
plan system. Also we have had political consensus on the emphasis that must
be laid on economic growth. The country has also started moving towards
market controlled economy. Today the government provides a lot of support
to consumers, changing the attitude of the marketer’s altogether.
6. Cultural Environment:
Culture is a combination of religion, language, education and upbringing. In
every society some cultural values are deep rooted; they are termed as core
cultural values. They are very difficult to change. There are other cultural
values, which may change more easily. Meaningful inputs on such forces can
be of great help to the firm in designing their marketing strategies.
The marketer must very closely watch any shift in the cultural values and
adapt accordingly. In recent times there has been a marked change in how
people view themselves, others, organizations, society, nature, universe etc.
Such changes have also affected their buying behaviour.
7. Legal Environment:
Businesses have to operate within the bounds of the law of the land. They
must clearly understand the provisions of law and abide by them. In the last
few years much new legislation has entered the statute books. Some of them
are to abide by the international laws. Recently, though, we have seen a sharp
reversal of trends to the reforms and liberalisation.
Effects of marketing environment in information marketing(assignment)

Topic 3
Marketing research in information marketing
Definition
-marketing research- is the systematic gathering ,recording and analysis
of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing
products and services.

Importance of marketing research

1. Easily Spot Business Opportunities

After you’ve done your market research, it'll be clear to you who you want to reach
out to (your target customers), where you can reach them (your marketing channels),
and what they're interested in. Once you’ve defined these, you’ll be able to easily spot
business opportunities. For example:

 Form partnerships with other businesses. Learning about who your

customers are, such as their demographics, can help you find other small
businesses that serve them. You can approach these businesses for joint
promotions that'll be mutually beneficial.
 Create profitable order upgrades. Knowing the other products and services
that your customers tend to buy can help you come up with add-ons, product
bundles, and upsells that increase the average value of each order.
 Find new locations to sell to. Knowing the geographical areas where most of
your target customers live will allow you to create compelling targeted
campaigns that suit the needs and culture of that area.

2. Lower Business Risks

Around half of businesses with employees don’t survive past the fifth year, according
to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The way to make sure that your business
survives for longer is to ensure that you've got a steady stream of sales and customers.
To do that, you need market research.
Regular market research will be your way to check in with your current customers and
potential customers to ensure that you’re still meeting their needs. Here’s how you can
apply this:

 Test new designs and products before launching. Before you go all-in on a
dramatic change for your business, you can test it on a smaller subset of your
audience to see if the change would be welcome. For example, if you plan to do
a redesign of a popular product, show the new design to your most frequent
buyers. Test or ask them if they’re more likely to buy the new design versus, an
alternative new design, or the old design.
 Find out why customers don’t come back. Ideally, your small business
should have recurring customers. If they don’t come back, you can conduct a
survey of previous customers or set up a focus group to find out why you’re not
making any repeat sales.
 Get insights on problem areas. If your most popular product sees a big drop
in sales for three consecutive months, you need to find out how to fix it before
it ruins your profits completely. Survey your most frequent customers about the
product and find out where the problem lies. It could be anything from a
decline in the product quality or a glitch on your online store. You’ll never
know unless you ask.

3. Create Relevant Promotional Materials

If you’ve ever wondered what text or images to put on your fliers, website, or social
media accounts, with thorough market research, you’ll know exactly what to do. Since
target customers have already expressed all their wants, needs, and frustrations with
you, you’ll know exactly what to address and how to address it when you start
creating your marketing materials.

4. Know Where to Advertise

One of the problems that small business owners face is a limited budget. Because of
this, your marketing budget should be optimized to give you the best returns possible.
Your market research can help ensure that you’re reaching your intended audience in
the channels where they’re most likely to see your message.

These are some of the budgetary tasks that your market research can help with:

 Buying ads on social media. If your market research shows that your target
audience spends most of their time on Instagram and almost never use Twitter,
 you’ll know to direct most of your social media ad budget to Instagram and
forget about Twitter.
 Placing flyers and posters. Knowing the physical spaces where your customer
spends their time will tell you where you can best place your advertising. For
example, university students are likely to be on campus, so placing ads for that
market means that you can try bulletin boards on campus or outside local
establishments that their crowd tends to frequent.
 Targeting ads. Online ads such as social media ads and pay-per-click ads can
often be targeted with precision. This means that you can target based not just
on the usual demographic data, but also based on online behaviors, life stage,
and interests. If you truly know your customers, you'll be able to maximize the
potential for targeting. For example: here are some of the targeting options
for Facebook Ads:

5. Outsell Competitors
The business that knows their customers more tends to win more. If you can beat your
competitors at finding out your customers’ needs and you aim to fulfill those needs,
you've got a better chance of standing out from the competition. Here are some ways
you can use market research to outsell competitors:

 Target dissatisfied customers. Asking target customers about their

frustrations with your competitors’ products or reading their product reviews
can help you improve your own products and market them to an audience ready
to switch brands.
 Find an underserved customer segment. Your market research might reveal
that there's a segment of the market that your competition has neglected. This
will give you a new customer segment to reach out to.
 Identify unaddressed customer needs. During your market research, you
might uncover some customer pain points or desires that you don’t see
addressed in your competitors’ marketing materials. Try including them in your
own marketing and see if the results show an increase in sales.

If you need to know more about conducting market research with competitors in
mind, here are some helpful guides:

6. Set Better Goals for Your Business

When business owners set goals for their business, it’s typically related to growth in
sales or customers. But without market research, you won’t be able to know if your
goal is achievable and how to achieve it in the first place.
You might say that you want to double sales by the end of the next quarter. How
would you know if this goal is feasible if you don’t know whether the size of your
target market is more than twice the size of your current customer base? Without
knowing the current size of your potential market, you’ll just be setting arbitrary
goals.

With market research, you’ll be able to determine the specific directions you want to
grow your customer base. For example, do you want to grow your customers via a
new untapped market segment? Or do you still have room for growth among your
current target audience?

If you need help setting growth goals for your business, the following tutorials can
help:

7. Decision-Making Becomes Simple

The need for and importance of marketing research frequently comes up when making
tough business decisions. Instead of having arbitrary criteria for the decisions you
make as a business owner, you can always go back to your market research report.
Based on that report, will this decision lead to more customers? Will you be able to
reach more people who are likely to buy from you? Will it be clear to them that your
business can meet their needs?

While not all decisions should be solved by market research, many of them can be,
such as:

 where to spend your advertising or marketing budget

 whether there’s a demand for a new product you want to make
 if you should open a storefront in a new location
 which products to discontinue and which ones to merely improve
 how to price all your offers

policies governing marketing research

1. Frequency. Over-surveying can lead to customer frustration and ultimately, poor response
rates. Thus, a key policy is to specify how many times a year a single customer can be
invited to participate in research. Three times? Five times? There is no “right” answer for all
organizations—it varies by customer type. But a rule should be in place. In this way,
employees can avoid inundating customers with volumes of survey requests. Of course, this
also requires having a mechanism in place to track this.
2. Quality. All direct communications coming from your company are indicators of
your brand’s quality, and surveys are no exception. You must ensure that a kind of “quality
control” resource exists to ensure that nothing sub-par gets released. This job includes
 checking grammar and questioning content and logic. For example, one common complaint
about colleagues who do ad hoc research is that they may ask too many intrusive questions (a
big turn off for customers). This resource could be a person, a team, or a defined process.
3. Permissibility. The best way to prevent unsanctioned surveys is to make sure everyone
knows how to request and get approval for market research projects. Your company can
specify what types of research must be done through central market research (if it has such a
department) and what can be done by other functional areas. A simple research request
process should be in place so that employees can submit a standard form that can be used to
trigger an assessment and approval process. Too onerous? Then how about a simple policy
stating, “Any surveys over 10 minutes in duration must be approved by the central market
research (or if none exists, marketing) department– no exceptions.”
4. Methods. Company guidelines should state policies for both qualitative and quantitative
methods. For example, “All online surveys must be fewer than 30 questions.” Or,
“Recruiting customers for in-depth interviews must be coordinated with the VP of sales at
least two weeks ahead of time.” These are just two simple examples, but you get the idea.be
5. Incentives. An incentive policy should include guidelines for types of incentives and under
what circumstances they can be given out. Inform your employees ahead of time about
whether or not your company restricts cash incentives or any type of “gifts” to customers.
6. Solicitation. A strict non-solicitation policy must be in place. Selling “under the guise of
research” is entirely unethical and must be avoided. Even the appearance of solicitation can
lead to big problems for your company. Surveys must not be used as thinly veiled lead
generation mechanisms. [Click HERE to get more tips on survey design.]
7. Confidentiality. A confidentiality policy will ensure your employees understand how to use
research information responsibly and will show your clients that you value their privacy.
Obviously, it is essential that confidential information is protected, so train people on what
information is confidential, how it should be stored, and how it should be treated (internally
and externally). Another realm of confidentiality lies in what company information is shared
in a research study. Consider rules that will avoid unwanted leaks. For example, a policy
may be that any research related to new product concepts must be approved by the VP of
marketing.
Puroses of marketing research

to Verify Market Need

Markets come in all shapes and sizes. To correctly position itself in any one industry, a company
must understand who needs a product and why they need it. It must understand when and where
people buy certain things and how they use them. The size and diversity of a consumer base will
necessarily dictate the ways in which a company attempts to meet its demand. Thus, companies must
conduct market research, asking questions so that the answers can shed light on the direction they
need to go.

to Identify Competitors
Of course, competition is always a concern in any market. Market research helps businesses identify
other players in the game (as well as those who might be waiting on the sidelines). Knowing who
you’re playing against is vital to planning a strategy for defeat in any situation. In a business one, it
 helps companies position themselves; they can copy the practices that work for others and disregard
the ones that don’t.

to Improve Company Offerings

Market research also helps businesses create offerings that either fill a void or provide better value
than those already available. Potential products and services can be evaluated against current market
offerings, as well as tested before a full-scale market launch. This helps companies manage their
valuable resources, saving their time and money for only those offerings best suited to favorable
outcomes.

to Satisfy Customers
In essence, it could be argued that customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of market research.
Satisfied customers are happy ones because their needs have been met. If a business’s number one
goal is to maintain a profit and/or improve lives, then a happy customer is a good indication that it’s
doing that job well. Surveying customers provides the feedback companies need to maintain or adjust
their practices in ways that satisfy the people they serve and build brand loyalty.

Methods of marketing research

1. Surveys for market research
With concise and straightforward questionnaires, you can analyze a sample group that represents
your target market. The larger the sample, the more reliable your results will be.

 In-person surveys are one-on-one interviews typically conducted in high-traffic locations such
as shopping malls. They allow you to present people with samples of products, packaging, or
advertising and gather immediate feedback. In-person surveys can generate response rates of
more than 90%, but they are costly. With the time and labor involved, the tab for an in-person
survey can run as high as $100 per interview.
 Telephone surveys are less expensive than in-person surveys, but costlier than mail. However,
due to consumer resistance to relentless telemarketing, convincing people to participate in phone
surveys has grown increasingly difficult. Telephone surveys generally yield response rates of
50% to 60%.
 Mail surveys are a relatively inexpensive way to reach a broad audience. They’re much cheaper
than in-person and phone surveys, but they only generate response rates of 3% to 15%. Despite
the low return, mail surveys remain a cost-effective choice for small businesses.
 Online surveys usually generate unpredictable response rates and unreliable data, because you
have no control over the pool of respondents. But an online survey is a simple, inexpensive way
to collect anecdotal evidence and gather customer opinions and preferences.

Check out HubSpot’s helpful guide to Questionnaire Examples, Questions, & Tips for advice on
where to start.
 2. Focus groups
In focus groups, a moderator uses a scripted series of questions or topics to lead a discussion
among a group of people. These sessions take place at neutral locations, usually at facilities with
videotaping equipment and an observation room with one-way mirrors. A focus group usually
lasts one to two hours, and it takes at least three groups to get balanced results.

3. Personal interviews
Like focus groups, personal interviews include unstructured, open-ended questions. They usually
last for about an hour and are typically recorded.
Focus groups and personal interviews provide more subjective data than surveys. The results are
not statistically reliable, which means that they usually don’t represent a large enough segment
of the population. Nevertheless, focus groups and interviews yield valuable insights into
customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to new products or service
development.
More articles from AllBusiness.com:

 10 Ways to Make Remote Employees Feel a Part of Your Company

 7 Tips for Conducting a Successful Virtual Job Interview
 4 Ways Market Research Can Benefit Your Business
 Top 10 Market Research Mistakes

4. Observation
Individual responses to surveys and focus groups are sometimes at odds with people’s actual
behavior. When you observe consumers in action by videotaping them in stores, at work, or at
home, you can observe how they buy or use a product. This gives you a more accurate picture of
customers’ usage habits and shopping patterns.

5. Field trials
Placing a new product in selected stores to test customer response under real-life selling
conditions can help you make product modifications, adjust prices, or improve packaging. Small
business owners should try to establish rapport with local store owners and websites that can
help them test their products.

Tools and facilities used in marketing research

Surveys
-are useful for determining which products to create and also for
improving or upgrading existing goods
Google analytics
-if you have an online business or your company has a website,google
analytics is extremely useful. It gives you an overview of where your
visitors are coming from.

Direct mail
-it specifically targets potential customers
Media monitoring tools
-these marketing tools can inform you of conservations that are relevant
to your company ,products or brand
Automation
-these are marketing tools that save a lot of time .Marketers can save
time wastage doing those daily tasks like saving files and emails to
spreadsheets.
Social media
-in the world of internet marketing,social media is a marketing tool
where you try to develop an interactive online relationship with
consumers

TOPIC 4
Market segmentation of information marketing
Definition
Marketing segmentation
- is the process of dividing a target market into smaller, more defined categories
-is a marketing strategy in which select groups of consumers are indentified so that certain products or
product lines can be presented to them in a way the appeals to their interests.
Types of market segmentation
1. Demographic segmentation:
Demographic segmentation might be the first thing people think of when they hear ‘market
segmentation’. This is perhaps the most straightforward way of defining customer groups, but it
remains powerful. Demographic segmentation looks at identifiable non-character traits such as:

 Age
 Gender
 Ethnicity
 Income
 Level of education
 Religion
 Profession/role in a company

For example. demographic segmentation might target potential customers based on their income,
so your marketing budget isn’t wasted directing your messaging at people who likely can’t afford
your product.

Luxury goods manufacturer Montblanc worked with Yieldify to present a selection of offers
across their website. One sought to raise conversions using a Father’s Day deal that offered a
free gift to those spending over £200 – an amount that acknowledged the spending expectations
of Montblanc’s target audience and saw a +118% uplift in conversions for those targeted.

Another offer was aimed specifically at corporate gift buyers – a market segment that Montblanc
particularly appeals to – and resulted in a +30% uplift for that segment.

Market Segmentation isn’t just about your business reaching customers more effectively – it’s
also about those customers seeing messaging that is more relevant to them!

2. Psychographic segmentation:

Psychographic segmentation is focused on your customers’ personalities and interests. Here we

might look at customers and define them by their:

 Personality traits
 Hobbies
 Life goals
 Values
  Beliefs
 Lifestyles

Compared to demographic segmentation, this can be a harder set to identify. Good research is
vital and, when done well, psychographic segmentation can allow for incredibly effective
marketing that consumers will feel speaks to them on a much more personal level.

In our experience working with luxury resort business Omni Hotels & Resorts, for example,
were aware that a big sector of the company’s target audience was always keen to get the very
best price they could. By targeting a notification campaign specifically towards comparison
shoppers, Omni Hotels & Resorts achieved a 39% conversion rate uplift.

3. Geographic segmentation:

By comparison, geographic segmentation is often one of the easiest to identify, grouping

customers with regards to their physical location. This can be defined in any number of ways:

 Country
 Region
 City
 Postal code

For example, it’s possible to group customers within a set radius of a certain location – an
excellent option for marketers of live events looking to reach local audiences. Being aware of
your customers’ location allows for all sorts of considerations when advertising to consumers.

Using Yieldify’s tools, an online shoe store could show different products depending on where
the visiting customer was based: wellington boots for someone in the countryside, pavement-
friendly trainers for a city-dweller, strappy sandals to resort visitors, and so on!

In large nations like the United States, customers could be presented with options that match
with local weather patterns. Geographical identification is an important part of seasonal
segmentation, which allows businesses to market season-appropriate products to customers.

Some recent examples of proper geographic segmentation came from the response by e-
commerce businesses to the coronavirus pandemic. During lockdown stages, many businesses
shifted their focus to local communities to highlight how their services could still be accessed
online.

Conversely, as public spaces began to open up again purely e-commerce brands had to shift their
marketing plans to maintain the levels of business they had seen over the lockdown period.

4. Behavioral segmentation:

Behavioral segmentation is possibly the most useful of all for e-commerce businesses. As with
psychographic segmentation, it requires a little data to be truly effective – but much of this can
be gathered via your website itself. Here we group customers with regards to their:

 Spending habits
 Purchasing habits
 Browsing habits
 Interactions with the brand
 Loyalty to brand
 Previous product ratings

TOPIC 5
Customer services
Definition
Customer service – the support you offer your customers
Importance of customer services

1. It creates your brand image

-A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn
reputation by trying to do hard things well.

2. It improves marketing opportunities

70% of customers appreciate a brand more if it takes the initiative and contacts
them first. This is what proactive customer service is all about. Showing your
dedication and the willingness to lend a helping hand any time can be a win-win
solution. This way, they will know you’re working hard to remove any possible
handicaps from their user experience.

3. It is the source for the valuable feedback

Though feedback can make or break your business, it’s still what you may need
to hold up well. In fact, 47% of customers will speak up on social media and tell
everyone about their complaints. But here’s something even trickier. Only one
out of 26 clients will bring up their complaints. The other will switch to another
brand.

Team leaders, developers, and everyone who is working on a product have a

certain opinion about it. But customers take a new look at it. That’s a good
thing. By using that fresh look, they can shed light on some parts of your
business that require further improvement.

You don’t have to share every feedback customers give you. Conversations you
have day by day are perfect for gathering client reviews. And you have plenty of
ways to do it:

 Customer feedback surveys

 Social media
 On-site activity
 Email and contact forms
 Usability tests

What perks can you get through asking for feedback? Happy customers who can
become your brand advocates, improved customer retention and customer
service, to name just a few.

4. It helps receive less negative word of mouth

If you provide good customer service, you’re about to hear about it. The same
goes for customer service which leaves much to be desired. People know
they’re allowed to be spoiled these days and have inflated expectations.

Nielsen reports that 92% of people believe suggestions from friends and family
more than advertising. This is when customer service is OK. But what if it’s
bad? An unhappy customer will tell 9 to 15 people about their experience.

Even a bit of negativity can spoil what you’re so passionate about. What can
you do about it? Consider measuring customer satisfaction constantly: losing a
single unhappy client is one thing, but watching 30 people go because of that
negative word of mouth is a different story.

5. It increases revenue

Would you pay more to a company offering better customer service? So would
I. In fact, 52% of clients claim they will make an additional purchase from a
brand after a positive experience.

6. It boosts customer lifetime value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is one of the core metrics to measure. It demonstrates

the total revenue you can get from one client. If it grows, it means that a
customer shops more frequently and spends more money on your business.

Improving customer service opens the potential for fine-tuning CLV. If a

support team makes a client happy during their interaction, they’re more likely
to come back for more. Besides, they can share their stories on social media,
which builds rapport with your customer base.

7. It builds trust and loyalty

Customers need to feel confident they buy from the right place and a
trained support team can help you reach that. Skilled customer service reps can
put people at ease when they have second thoughts about a product. Besides,
excellent support agents’ knowledge can make clients stick to your company: it
indicates that the business is run by those who know what they’re talking about.

Being honest and transparent is also related to the importance of customer

service. This should start with the very first interaction. Omit some pushy sales
copies and fancy marketing campaigns just to grab the client’s attention (do that
wisely though).

Purpose of customer services

- to identify queries of customers

- interact with customers

-answer the queries of customers

- resolve service issues

-enhance customer experience and foster relationships

 -improve credibility and create customer loyalty.

-To raise expectations of the clients

-To gain a competitive advantage in the industry

Principles of customer services

1. Understand their role is in customer service. Every employee needs to understand they have customers —
whether the customer is external or internal. Some employees deal only with other employees inside the
company, but serving them well is just as important as serving outside customers.
2. Treat every customer with respect. It’s not necessary to call people “Sir” or “Ma’am,” but it is essential
that everyone realize that without customers the employee wouldn’t have a job.
3. Smile. A smile can work wonders to alleviate tension and create a positive customer experience. You have
the opportunity to influence the tone of every interaction — so use your smile to make it positive.
4. Respond promptly. Acknowledge a customer’s presence, even if engaged in serving another customer on
the phone or in person. It helps a customer feel valued and appreciated.
5. Listen. Most customers recognize that not all situations can be addressed immediately, or by the customer
service employee. But active listening works wonders to build trust and confidence that something will get
done in a timely manner.
6. Offer an empathetic ear. The complaint itself is seldom as important in the customer’s mind as how the
complaint is handled.
7. Customers may not always be right, but they should never be made to feel they are wrong. Regardless
of the situation, customers should always be treated with dignity and employees must never see an
interaction as an opportunity to prove our superior knowledge.
8. Take ownership for the situation. If a customer complaint is outside an employee’s realm of authority,
seek assistance. This demonstrates that the employee understands the customer’s need and is willing to do
everything within their power to meet that need.
9. Go the extra mile. Many companies require employees to guide a customer to a product they are looking
for rather than simply point them in the right direction. Think what a positive customer experience it creates
when we apply this principle to all our activities!
10. Empower employees to deal with customers’ outcomes. Employees that focus on the customer as a
person with a real need enables them to continually seek new ways to improve that customer’s experience.
When every employee lives that philosophy, a company quickly becomes known for its superior customer
service and creates an atmosphere rich with customer-focus.
11. Bonus: Ask if there is anything else the customer needs. Sometimes a customer has several requests that
each require a solution. Every customer service employee should work to ensure a customer leaves fully and
completely satisfied with his customer service experience.
Types of customer services
The following are the five most effective and efficient types of customer service. They
are:

 Phone Customer Service

 Email Customer Service
 On-Site Customer Service
 Live Chat Customer Service
 Social Media Customer Service

1. Phone Customer Service

This is probably the most basic and oldest form of customer service which probably
makes it the most popular choice among all of the different customer service types
being used in the market today.

The reason why this is the most popular choice is that there is a sense of intimacy
when you have a direct conversation with the customer via your voice. It makes a
bond deeper and more meaningful then you make using a text chain or an email chain.
Also, we can see that people usually tend to talk faster with words rather than typing
different pieces of text on a screen. This ability to make the transmission of
communication faster is what makes this type of customer service very efficient and
reliable.

Another thing that you might’ve noticed is that whenever people are distressed or
worried about something, they want to talk to someone quickly via the phone so they
can tell the other person about the problem and get a quick response. This is why this
CS is a great channel for urgency.

Plus, who doesn’t know how to use the telephone? From little kids to the elderly,
pretty much everyone can use the phone if they are not even remotely tech-savvy.
That makes it a useful medium to cater to everyone.

If we look at the public sector, then phone customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Government
 Healthcare
 Legal
 Education

If we look at the private sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Banking
 Accommodation
 Courier and Delivery
 Legal
 Retail
 Healthcare
 Ecommerce
2. Email Customer Service
If we look at the numbers, then email is the king when it comes to channel popularity.
How? Well, for one thing, there are about 270 billion emails sent around the world,
every single day.

And we also see companies having an affection with email when we scroll down to
the last section of every website where they have an online contact form just ready to
be filled, almost every time.

One of the best things about using an email customer service is that you can send
your queries at any point of the day or night. It doesn’t matter if you want help at 2 am
or at 9 pm, email customer service is there for you, depending on how responsive the
CSR is.

With emails, you can properly customize all of the different elements of the query that
you can’t do in a phone call per se. Like customizing your query and go into detail
instead of just blurting stuff out on a call.

You can also professionally sign your email so that you can get a properly
professional response.

Also, if the company is not responding to your queries or is stalling your request for
any reason, you can always use a chatbot that will automate your email sending
process. This will help you send out emails to the company every day without you
ever touching the keyboard even once.

If we look at the public sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 None
If we look at the private sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Retail
 Accommodation
 Ecommerce

3. On-Site Customer Service

This is another type of customer service that is provided to people’s workplaces or in
their homes. Through on-site customer service you can have professionals:

 Repair your electrical and mechanical appliances

 Provide you with therapeutic services to maintain your physical and mental health
 Teach you different courses
 Consult you on different things regarding your personal or professional life

One of the best things about on-site customer service is that the customer doesn’t even
have to leave their workplace or their home, and the customer service representative
will come to them, which makes it a very convenient service.

When the CSR comes to the customer, they can properly communicate and the
customer can properly describe the issue or the problem that they have been having.
All of this results in a proper understanding of the problem and a rapid solution for it
by the customer service representative.

Also, when a representative visits the customer and upon knowing the actual problem
that the customer has been having, produces a rapid solution, it strengthens the brand
quality of the company which makes the business stronger and more reliable.

If we look at the public sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:
 Government
 Healthcare
 Legal
 Education

If we look at the private sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Consulting
 Beauty
 Telecom
 Marketing
 Education
 Healthcare
 Legal
 IT

4. Live Chat Customer Service

Live chat is an incredible asset that your online business can use. It is a feature that
allows you to be in constant communication with all of your customers at the same
time using chatbots that frees up your CSR’s to only respond to the most important
queries while the others are taken care of by bots.

The live chat customer service mostly resembles the email service as it shares some
very unique weaknesses and strengths of it. But since it has some huge leverage over
email and phone channels, the customer satisfaction rate of this service is over 92%.

One of the best things about live chat customer service is the support agents of your
company can take care of a lot of customers at the same time without any interruption.
This enables you to have a much-increased customer satisfaction rate and no angry
customers.
We all know how certain conversations can become repetitive for you if you have
them with multiple people every single day. This can be very frustrating for anyone.

That’s why, to make life easier for the CSR, these live chats are automated with
chatbots, so that they can have those repetitive conversations instead of the CSR.

One other thing that is useful about live chat customer service is that both of the
parties involved in the conversation have a record of the whole encounter and if any
party denies doing something wrong or if there is any complication whatsoever, the
culprit can be unmasked very quickly.

If we look at the public sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Healthcare
 Legal
 Education

If we look at the private sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 SaaS/ IT
 Accommodation
 Retail
 Beauty
 Ecommerce
 Food
 Gaming
 Airlines
 Banking
 Legal
 Education
 Healthcare

5. Social Media Customer Service

Probably one of the most popular types of customer service on this list is social media
customer service. This service is provided by social media channels on the internet
like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, etc.

Well, how do you respond to the queries of the customers on social media platforms?
Well, you can have a conversation with the customers on social media using many
different ways. You can:

 Have a private conversation with them via “Direct Message”

 You can post comments on social media posts
 You can have group conversations with them if you think that many of the customers
have the same problem

One of the best things about social media customer service is that the CSRs have a lot
of different ways to connect with the customer and answer their queries.

But if the customer requires privacy and doesn’t want the world to know their
problems, the representative can always shift the conversation to a private channel or
a live chat with the client. This will help the customer relax and properly describe
their issue.

We see every day that many of the people have the same problem regarding a specific
product, service, or anything of that sort, and they all need the same solution but the
CSRs don’t have the time to specifically message every person.
Instead what they can do is that they can post public replies to all of the posts that
have been posted by the customers. This will drastically decrease the number
of recurring queries.

When we use social media customer service, one other thing happens and it’s quite
useful to the business who has thousands of queries in their mailbox every day.

When you are using social media customer service, people will post their problems,
and instead of CSRs answering them, one of the other members of that platform can
answer them properly.

You just need to check whether that answer is correct and if it is then you have a
perfect system in place where your CSRs don’t have to answer everything and they
can just focus on the most important queries.

If we look at the public sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 Education
 Government

If we look at the private sector, then this type of customer service can be used in the
following industries:

 SaaS/ IT
 Retail
 Accommodation
 Beauty
 Food
 Gaming
 Education
 Entertainment

Techniques used in customer services

1. Be a copy cat
It’s great to mirror a customer’s language or phrasing to show them that you understand and
acknowledge their issue. This helps create a mutual understanding and establishes a better
relationship, making it easier for both the customer and the agent to receive the information they
need. It’s also important to use a considerate tone, no matter the channel. Tone can be hard to
decipher over live chat, text, or social media, especially since responses can be short, quick, and
incomplete, so choosing your words carefully is an essential customer service skill. A good
technique? Use a gentle, informative tone—patience is an important practice when faced with a
frustrated customer and can greatly improve the customer experience.

2. Listen, summarize, and repeat

Listening closely to a customer’s problem is an important customer service skill because it
enables agents to summarize and repeat the customer’s problem. Doing so ensures that the
customer feels their issue is understood. On top of summarizing and repeating the customer’s
issue, it’s also important to summarize the help you’re providing. The ability to adequately
communicate all that you’re doing to help is a top job skill for customer service employees
because then customers are informed and clear on the next steps that will help solve their issue.

3. Use templates, not boilerplates

Customers don’t want to feel like their conversing with a robot. Don’t be afraid to add some
personality. While it’s important to use templates that include some pre-written text for efficient
customer service, it’s also important to think of templates as guidelines. They can provide a
helpful structure for common responses (like a list for step-by-step responses), but they shouldn't
be overly rigid and unwavering. Customer service employees should personalize their own
answers before replying to customers. This leads to a more personal, improved interaction—and
a more fulfilling customer service job.

4. Know your product inside out

Knowledge means power. The better your support team understands your product, the better they
are at helping others use it. Product training should be a key part of onboarding processes, along
with regular refreshers—because updates and new releases happen.

5. Learn the customer service skills specific to each support

channel
Good customer experiences involve much more than simply answering questions. With 67% of
customers using channels like live chat, social media, and texting for support, good customer
service now means being able to respond to queries through email, live chat, and social media.

While soft skills like empathy, the ability to read a customer’s emotional state, social graces,
communication, and friendliness remain important, additional skills need to be developed and
improved upon. Each customer service channel benefits from a unique approach to these skills.
The following channel-specific customer service techniques should help support agents move
easily between channels.

Tools and facilities used in customer services

1. Online communities

Statistics show that 25% of people choose to engage with brands because they “want to join the
community of brand fans.”

Online communities allow customers to engage with other customers, give direct feedback on
products, and share their passion for your product or brand. Maintaining online communities is
the company’s opportunity to monitor customer feedback and improve brand experience. Online
communities can be accessed via social media and there are also several marketing applications
that can help you build your own online community (ahem, like our Community Cloud).

2. Discussion Forums

A forum is a specific type of online community that creates an opportunity for crowdsourcing.
Here, you can collect and respond to customer feedback. Popular forums will quickly grow in
popularity and become a place where product experts who many not even work for your
company can combine forces with your own customer service agents, creating a community that
can chime in about a products or help to resolve issues in a much more timely matter. You get
the benefit of seeing a lot of customer feedback, and you can see how customers react to the
solutions that are provided in the community.

3. Social Media

Social media is an essential tool for businesses of any size. Maintaining a static social page is not
enough. Nowadays an inactive social media profile is the online version of having an empty
store. Create a social media presence and use it to engage with customers, connectig with them
and responding to their problems or issues on a timely basis.

We know that customers who engage with companies via social media channels spend
somewhere between 20% to 40% more with that company, so harness that opportunity to
increase sales by maintaining good social practices.

4. Automatic callback

I personally love it when a company offers up this service. We’ve all had the unpleasant
experience of being put on hold for an annoyingly long period of time. By the time an operator is
able to assist you, you’re already irritated at having had to wait for X amount of time.

If your service system allows a user to enter their phone number for an agent to call them back
without losing their place in the service queue, even better. Some phone systems provide an
automatic callback option (i.e., dialing the number “six” and then hanging up to have the system
call you back when an operator is available), you can more efficiently manage call queues and
provide a positive brand experience.

Many popular business telephone systems have automatic callback embedded in their services
and you should, too. With automatic callback, the customer still waits without having to wait on
the line listening to their own music instead of muzak.

5. Live chat

As more people shopping online, there are people are looking for online support. Offering a live
chat option (like the one included in the Salesforce Service Cloud) is another way to foster a
good online experience for your customers. Live chat options can be used for more than just
customer service questions—it’s also a good way to provide information that might encourage a
purchase decision. For example, clothing retailers often offer live chat with a “style consultant”,
and department stores sometimes offer a live chat for help with gift registries.

6. SMS text support

As an organization, you want to be where the customer is. According to comScore, SMS is used
regularly by 75% of all Americans. Considering this, you may want to add a new
communications channel into your customer support mix by offering SMS text support as an
option. Whereas customer service cases are sometimes opened, handled, and closed via email,
SMS texts can reach the consumer immediately via their phone. However, be sure that the
customer has opted in before using this tool.

7. Self-service sites

Another option is to let your customer have full control over their customer support experience.
Several retailers, such as Desk.com, offer branded support sites that help customers solve their
own problems. Customers can log in to check case status, and find answers easily from their
desktop or mobile phones. This saves time for both you and your customer, and empowers your
customer to find their own solutions.

8. Mobile apps

Consider offering a free mobile application for your connected customers. Mobile apps can reach
consumers in real-time and increase interaction with your brand, an important step when you
consider that 4 in every 5 consumers use smartphones to shop and 50% of mobile users prefer to
use a customer service app to resolve their issue before jumping on the phone.

Serving the customer through a mobile app, which is already optimized for mobile use, provides
a quick and easy purchase and resolution experience. Another perk: Mobile apps keep your
company or brand top-of-mind for your customer.

9. Help ticket system

Help ticket or help desk systems, such as those offered through Salesforce’s Service Cloud, help
your customer get a quick, accurate answer to their issue. Help tickets can track an issue from
beginning to end and your customers can receive notifications as to the progress of their issues,
so they know your organization is being proactive. The new trend in this type of customer
support is “predictive support”, which means a company can anticipate problems via software,
and proactively work on fixing them.

10. Customer satisfaction surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys are important at various touch points, such as after a sale or after
an issue is resolved. Allowing your customers to give feedback provides you with valuable
information on how to build a better customer journey, and it can help instill trust in your brand.
This trust is important to build, because it can cost five to 15 times more to acquire a new
customer than gain repeat business from an existing one.

11. Customer portal

A customer portal is a dedicated internal system, usually within your website, that allows your
customers access to personal data. Customers can view their purchase history, track orders, save
favorite items, or get personalized assistance through their customer portal. Portals allow
customers to personalize their shopping experience, which encourages consistent interaction with
your brand and repeat business. Customers that take the time to nurture their space on your
online portal are making a valuable investment in your company by sharing and storing personal
information.

12. Connected devices

Another way to enhance the customer journey is to offer connected devices (such as wearables)
that can “talk” to one another. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), more and more
consumers are gravitating toward devices that can send data to other devices. More companies
will continue to harness this trend to connect more intimately with consumers. Investigate this
option when loking at ways to improve the experience for your customer.

Whether it’s as simple as providing online reviews or as complex as building an online

community, you have the power to provide your customers with tools to empower them during
their customer journey. The more tools you provide, the greater the chance that you’ll be
building brand advocates along the way.

TOPIC 6
MARKETING MIX IN INFORMATION MARKETING
Denition
-refers to the set of actions,or tactics ,that a company uses to promote .its
brand or product in the market.

Elements of marketing mix(assighnment)

Importance of marketing mix to information marketing

-helps understand what your product or service can offer to your
customers
-helps plan a successful product offering
-helps with planning ,developing and executing effective marketing
strategies
-helps businesses make use of their strengths and avoid unnecessary
costs
-helps be proactive in the face of risks
-helps determine whether your product or service is suitable for your
customers
-helps identify and understand the requirements of customers
-helps learn when and how to promote your product or services to your
customers.