One of the key issues in marketing operations is the management of information within the organization. Information is the driving force behind the decision-making of the internal client, your employees, and the external client, your customers.
When the flow of information is coherent and adequately presented from within the organization to the outside, service improves exponentially. This is the importance of implementing efficient business and marketing operations.
It is very common to treat marketing operations as the implementation and management of marketing technology. But for me, since 2016, when I've worked directly with business owners, I considered beyond the industry description.
My background is in business administration. I can't separate the business side from the marketing side. Business owners, C-level professionals, and management can't see them separately either. Both need to be integrated to create efficient workflows that improve performance, accountability, and internal connection of information and communications. This avoids internal silos and helps create processes that will also impact positively the marketing efforts and strategies of the brand.
The efficient flow of internal communications and information helps also monitor service through all information channels. This constant improvement allows us to make immediate adjustments to each channel of the information flow process.
The flow of information must have three (3) essential parts: coherence, uniformity, and adequate presentation.
This coherence, uniformity, and adequate presentation of the information should not be focused only on the external client. That is, you should not focus your efforts only on how you present your product or service to potential customers or existing customers. It is also very important to focus those efforts on the internal client, those who work within the organization and are in charge of making your operations work.
Why is this important? If our internal client is well informed, knows the processes, and executes them correctly, errors of mishandling the information to the external client are avoided.
To ensure consistency, uniformity, and proper presentation, the following is important:
Develop and implement processes. We mustn't assume that our internal client knows the information and knows how it should be transmitted to the external client.
You should establish and document processes that facilitate the transmission of the information. If you receive customer information requests via email, telephone, social media, or another channel, your internal customer needs to be informed on how they will handle that request once they receive it, how they should respond, or if they must share that information, to whom they should share it with, and so on.
No matter which channel is used to receive the information, any person who manages these channels must be oriented on how to effectively transmit the organization’s information.
Share these processes in writing as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), memos, and of course, training.
Training. The best way to implement processes for managing the information flow is to train your internal client. The training serves as a platform for all your internal clients to be informed uniformly, thus avoiding misunderstandings. In the same way, it helps to maintain coherence and uniformity in the information transmitted to the customers.
Develop the training with visuals, be clear in your message, specify exactly the information you want to reach the external client with and perform role plays during training, where they can take real situations and solve them live.
Role plays are of great benefit to all, and they promote that internal clients share new situations, and ventilate how they feel and what their needs are.
Likewise, this training space serves to bring new ideas on how to manage the flow of information or offer suggestions for more effective implementation of processes.
Quizzes or tests. Do quizzes with a score scale for them to pass and do updates to these quizzes as the processes evolve. Make these mandatory.
When we make our internal clients part of the development of new processes and structures, the information flows effectively, because they, as internal clients, understand better than anyone else in the organization the day-to-day operation.
Once your staff is trained, do not leave the training there. The operation of any company is dynamic, it is transformed, and so are your clients. The flow of information management must constantly adjust to the new changes as they arise.
Business and marketing operations are the heart of customer service in an organization. When the information reaches the final customer seamlessly, it is a clear indication that the organization has well-trained internal clients and that your internal operations are properly connected and integrated.
Do you need to train your staff or develop information flow processes to improve service? Contact us.
Ivelisse Arroyo is a Marketing and Business Operations Consultant at Curao' Marketing & Business Consulting Firm. She has a Bachelor's in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting, and studies in Counseling Psychology, Literature, Science, and Foreign Languages.