Does your B2B company have a service team or service offering? If so, you should consider giving that team or offering a brand name of its very own, i.e., branding that remains a part of your company brand but gives the team its own identity.
You might be asking, “Is it really necessary for my company to brand our service team?” Well, if you are looking to win more customers and drive more revenue, the answer is a resounding “yes!”.
Let’s first define a service team. If your B2B company offers customer service, order management, technical help, and advice, or any other type of service and support, you’ve got a service team. This could include services of a technical or non-technical nature, such as on-site, email, telephone, online chat, video conferencing support, and DIY services via tutorials and/or videos.
If your service and support are an important element of your business model, and it’s included in some form or another in your Inbound or Outbound Marketing activities, you have the opportunity to make your service team more distinct and more memorable. How? By branding and leveraging the value of that team in your content messaging and corresponding tactics (e.g., website, social media, blogs, videos, webinars, etc.).
Instead of giving your service team a typical or generic name like “Customer Service Department,” “Service Desk,” Technical Support,” or similar, give your service team an identity that calls out a type of differentiation that separates you from the competitor’s service offering. This is where branding comes in.
The Genius Bar at Apple Stores
Let’s look at the Apple stores. When Steve Jobs introduced the Genius Bar in 2001, he wanted to provide customers with an experience that went well beyond the typical service counter. Rather, his goal was to deliver service with distinction that addressed customer issues of all shapes and sizes – much like a concierge provides at a high-end hotel.
If you’ve ever used the Genius Bar at an Apple Store, you’ve probably noticed how they’ve taken tech support and customer service to a level of personal interaction unmatched in their industry. The Genius Bar, minus the name, could have been a typical and/or mundane service offering from Apple. But instead, it has become a powerful brand asset that turned the retail industry on its ear.
To the credit of Best Buy, a key competitor of Apple in the consumer electronics space, they took note of the fact that branding a service offering is good for the customer and good for business. So, a few years after Apple’s launch of the Genius Bar, Best Buy introduced its own brand asset for tech support by acquiring the Geek Squad. Even if you haven’t been inside a Best Buy store to visit the Geek Squad service desk, you probably have seen their service vans out and about with the Geek Squad logo prominently displayed on the vehicle.
In 2004, Geek Squad service was rolled out at Best Buy stores across the United States and Canada. Today, the Geek Squad has an outstanding reputation for both on-site and off-site services and is known as a trusted service brand in their industry.
You may have noticed I used the term “brand asset.” For those of you not familiar with this terminology, a brand asset acts as a verbal and/or visual cue for prospects in your target audience who are interested in or who have purchased any of your brands. These assets create an association and connection with your brand and provide a memory anchor as well as top-of-mind stickiness with your prospects.
There are countless examples of how brand assets are leveraged successfully and how they are a tremendous difference-maker in building brand awareness and, in particular, addressing the importance of brand recognition and recall.
Below is an example of a service offering that we branded during my tenure as Vice President of Global Marketing at Ambrell Corporation. (You can learn more about me and my back story here.)
The example that follows is predicated on an Inbound Marketing infrastructure that Ambrell has had in place since 2015, and it remains intact today (as you can easily see on their current website). Please note: This example frequently references the ever-increasing popularity of Inbound Marketing, and in particular, “the buyer’s journey.” You can, however, also use the concept of branding a service team for your Outbound Marketing activities.
Example of Branding a B2B Service Team
With any type of industrial equipment, there’s a service component required. Ambrell is recognized globally for manufacturing a high-quality product that’s durable and reliable. But no matter how great or durable a product is, it’s inevitable that, at some point, that equipment will need servicing.
So, what did we do at Ambrell with the service team to give it differentiation in the buyer’s journey? Branded it and then leveraged it. I named this brand asset SmartCARE Service. If you look at the Ambrell website or the SmartCARE brochure and other collateral, you’ll see that “Smart” in the brand name is an acronym, with each letter representing a specific service attribute:
• S - Specialization: Ambrell is a specialist in the field of induction heating
• M - Master Level: Field technicians have a master level certification
• A - Attentiveness: Ambrell is renowned for its exceptional level of attentiveness
• R - Responsiveness: Quick response times are legendary with Ambrell customers
• T - Training: Customer training is available from beginner-to-advanced programs
This is an example of how you can take a service and support offering and create a distinct brand asset with true differentiation. In this example, we started by creating a name for Ambrell’s service team, i.e., SmartCARE Service. We then designed a logo and followed that up by putting together service-related content relevant to the wants and needs of existing and prospective customers.
Next, we added an all-new section to the Ambrell website dedicated to the SmartCARE Service offering. In addition to the new website content, we released and distributed a new SmartCARE brochure.
We now had the content needed for our Inbound messaging related to SmartCARE, which we leveraged as a verbal cue. Combined with the SmartCARE logo, which was created as a visual cue, we had ourselves a powerful brand asset that gave Ambrell a memory anchor that we could use to achieve a top-of-mind position related to service and support.
For a look at SmartCARE Service, check out the link here.
With more and more of your competitors entering the game of Inbound Marketing, you can no longer rely on great content and robust Inbound tactics to be top-of-mind in the buyer’s journey. The competition isn’t just playing the Inbound game half-heartedly, they’re out there playing to win. This means if you want your company to emerge from the buyer’s journey as the victor, you’ve got to strengthen and augment your Inbound strategy, which is precisely why you need to create and leverage brand assets at key customer touchpoints. It’s what I call Inbound Branding (learn more here).
So, challenge yourself and your team to identify and articulate a service attribute or a set of attributes that are or can be true differentiators from other competitive service offerings. Once you’ve completed this important step, next develop a brand name for your service differentiation and, create a logo to give the service offering its very own visual identity, and then leverage the brand asset in alignment with your content messaging and Inbound tactics.
As I mentioned, SmartCARE Service was launched with its own section on the Ambrell website and with a new dedicated brochure. But we didn’t stop there! We also leveraged SmartCARE as a key brand asset at the back of product and application brochures, as a video on Ambrell’s YouTube channel, on social media sites, and other communication platforms. The objective of my team, of course, was to strengthen our top-of-mind position in the buyer’s journey.
In addition, SmartCARE Service was and continues to be promoted at industry trade shows and conferences, in sales presentations, and on factory tours (which is a great way to show off the gigantic hanging SmartCARE banner at Ambrell’s manufacturing facility (check out the link here) and a myriad of other ways. And, of course, with SmartCARE having its own brand identity, promotional giveaway items emblazoned with its logo are a small but additional means of leveraging the brand asset as a memory anchor.
More About Top-of-Mind Branding Techniques
To learn more about branding your service team or other top-of-mind brand awareness techniques for your company, use the link below to schedule a complimentary consultation.
(N.B. This blog posting has not been approved, sponsored, or licensed by Ambrell Corporation. References made in this posting regarding Ambrell Corporation are public information and are not confidential and can be accessed via their website, social media, blog postings, collateral materials, trade shows, special events, webinars, videos, industry publications, technical documents, and other information and communication platforms.)