John Dodd of Make Marketing History posted today what has to be one of the best lists of New Marketing does and don’ts that I’ve seen.  A quick sample of his top ten:

7) Technical Support is marketing.
In the absence of all of the above, your users inevitably need help. A technical support department speaking in non-technical, hand-holding language transforms their purchase from waste of money to life-enhancing boon and is the greatest marketing tool you have.

In traditional tech marketing, we spend a lot of money telling customers about our products, our company, etc.  The dirty little truth is that the best marketing is the stuff we don’t control, what our customers say about us, and that’s generally a function of support.  Did it take us too long to answer their call?  Did we satisfactorily answer their question/problem?  Studies in the past have shown that while customers *might* talk about a good experience to friends, they almost *always* will talk about a bad one.

That little credo goes doubly when we migrate to blogistan – let’s face it, snarky comments about bad service make for excellent blog posts, and excellent blog posts are the ones that tend to take off like wildfire around the net. 

Good customer support is not just good marketing, it’s good business.