Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

Hurry,

you will avoid being trite when you tie your tagline in with your service.

Being clear about what you do is your strongest asset, and not all companies are clear about the what and how of their business. Note that you need to use your client's language to communicate this, and do it from their angle not yours.

Most scan-stopping taglines only lead the customer to become more frustrated because the tagline tells them nothing about the company.

If you want to convey the best service - anybody can say this. Even charlatans - so if you want people to know that you are honest, then prove it. Put a bad review up on your website, and respond to it in as genuine a manner as you dealt with that client afterwards. No Charlatan EVER tells you something bad about themselves, so tell people something bad about yourself. It is a mark of integrity. Sure, you might lose the odd customer, your best ones won't mind you being human. In fact they will appreciate your honesty.

To your success,
Moriarty xx

best customer service
we go the extra mile
above and beyond expectations

Really excellent advice, Moriarty! I’ve done just that. Not posted a negative, but responded in the most helpful and gracious way to a real negative post. It is miracle working! It can turn a negative into a super positive . . . but, I’m still looking for a non-trite, non-common way to say “We Have The Best Customer Service.”

Art – Pretty good! I like the “Above And Beyond Expectations”

Well done for using a double-negative ;-) They do work like magic!! Responding to a negative post with something positive - or better still clarifying your position on this issue can set you apart from the crowd!

To be honest, we need a look at your website and style to start getting anywhere. Without that your tagline will be limp and bland. Either that or something concrete to start running our ideas on.

M

Can you share a story (or two) showcasing how your customer service is amazing? Are you experts in fixing problems, proactively finding/fixing issues, or great at consulting to avoid future problems at the time of the sale? What industry? What target audience?

M
I’m doing the copy for the template now so there isn’t anything to show yet.

Jay
This is a new company marketing water heaters to home & business owners. Sorry, no stories yet.

If you are a new company, how do you know your customer service is any better than your competitors'? If customers are not going to notice your superior customer service, then you might not want to mention it. You'll risk disappointing folks if you set their expectations too high. (That's a problem with over-promise in general.) Claiming "best customer service" without support for the claim is probably more of a problem than you realize.

Mgoodman

Thanks so much for your comment!

But . . . Customer service is made best by design – not by reaction or happenstance. It is better than my competitors because I designed it to be better.

While you may have the intention to create great customer service by design, what matters is your customer's experience. And if you want to claim it's amazing, then gather the data to prove it - ideally hiring an independent organization to do the audit (in California for example, there's https://www.diamondcertified.org/). Also - customer service is probably best measured not simply at time of sale, but ultimately throughout the life of the water heater. If there's a problem in 5 years, how will your service be amazingly better than your competition?

I've been involved in advertising claim support for many, many moons. What counts is not how you designed your customer service program but how your customers perceive it. If they say it's the same as everyone else's, it doesn't matter that you designed it to be better. Technically, you can't claim it if THEY don't think it's true ... not that I'd expect anyone to take you to court over this.

My suggestion is that you start with a "great customer service" claim. Later, after you HAVE a reputation for SUPERIOR customer service consider your "best" claim. BTW, "best" is not a superiority claim because several companies can be tied for "best." A superiority claim would be "better than any other ..."

Jay
“what matters is your customer's experience”

Mgoodman
“ . . . but how your customers perceive it”

Absolutely right guys, I concur, but . . . as fun as this is, and you’re both accomplished, this doesn’t get my line written. Let’s pretend, for the moment, that we can live up to the claim we make. So . . . will you share some fresh ideas on copy?

Best Buyer Service

Better User Service

Unconditionally guaranteed

We deliver the service you deserve

Committed to great service

Look deep into my eyes ... you are beginning to feel VERY sleepy ... soon, you fall into a deep, relaxing slumber from which you will awake with a whole new world view.

Forget about saying you have the best customer service.

Forget. Forget.

The best customer service has never existed and you have no knowledge or recollection of it.

Forget. Forget.

In its marketing vacuum you have placed your ability to DELIVER the best in customer EXPERIENCE ... This is all you live for: to DELIVER the best in customer EXPERIENCE ...

Sleep. Sleep.

In a moment I will count to three backwards, when you hear the last number, you will wake
up and you will put into practice your new found state of mind.

Three ...
Two ...
One ...!

Gary,
firstly that is a brilliant post, thanks!

Our remit was to come up with a tagline for the customer service.

Most companies have **atrocious** customer service - and to be quite honest I assume that if I have problems with a product, I will have more than just problems with the product. I will have trouble even getting through to customer services, let alone getting any satisfaction.

A friend of mine who set up customer helplines in Asia agreed to do so as long as the development teams were also involved, so that there would be as few complaints possible. It reduced demand by 75% according to him.

So for me, customer service is a buying point. M xx

@GaryBloomer ... LOL!

Quote "But . . . Customer service is made best by design – not by reaction or happenstance. It is better than my competitors because I designed it to be better."

I am a graphic designer and my tag line is "better by design" --- reading your comment above --- perhaps it would work for you?

Instead of saying it, DO it! Create it. Offer it. Provide it ... and then invite your customers to tell people about it

I don't think there's anything you can say about yourself which will be as powerful as what your customers say about you. I say, focus on delivering great customer support. Contract with a third party to interview your customers after each engagement. Find out what the market really thinks about you, about the true niche or difference, about the reason that they selected your company. The results may surprise you. Use quotations and testimonials from happy customers (with their prior written approval of course) in your marketing materials.

Whatever you say about your customer service people will discount immediately. You are better served to take whatever space/attention you would devote to the "best customer service" message and expand or punctuate your core positioning benefit.

Everybody and anybody can say they deliver "best customer service." In fact, nobody is going to say "average customer service." In most industries customer service is a secondary consideration anyway. It's not usually a fundamental positioning benefit.

And for us to come up with a "pretend" set of words for this is truly a fool's errand. You need to step back and consider what you're trying to communicate ... not the laundry list of features, but the core positioning benefit that you want your target audience to remember. (If you give them too much to remember, they won't remember anything.)

Thank you all for your great advice, it is appreciated . . . and special thanks to you who offered some actual copy! You have been helpful!