Consistency across departments: how marketing, sales and customer service say the same things about the company
The customer does not see the company's departments. They see the website, a proposal from a salesperson and a reply from customer service, and they expect them to match. Consistency across departments means everyone uses the same, up-to-date content rather than their own versions from a few years ago.
Where does inconsistency between departments come from?
Every department has good intentions and its own folder of materials. The problem starts when those folders stop matching.
Marketing updates the website, sales works from a two-year-old presentation, and customer service answers from its own list of questions. Each department is right from its own perspective, but the customer receives contradictory information about prices, timing or scope. Consistency does not require everyone to use the same sentences. It requires them to talk about the same facts, from the same source.
How do we bring order to communication between departments?
- We collect materials from all departments. Not the official ones, but the ones people actually use: presentations from local drives, email templates, answers to customer questions.
- We point out the discrepancies. We compare what the website, the proposal and customer service say about the same thing, and write down the differences that could confuse the customer.
- We establish a single source. For each type of content we designate the place where the current version lives and the person responsible for it.
- We rebuild the departments' materials. Presentations, templates and answers get a shared base of facts and message, and differ only in what each department needs.
What do you get?
- a review of materials with contradictions between departments marked,
- a shared base of facts about the company and its offer, used by all departments,
- updated departmental materials built on the same base,
- an update rule: who refreshes content, and when, after a change in the offer.
When is it worth bringing order to communication between departments?
- when the customer gets different information depending on who they talk to,
- when, after a change in the offer, some materials still show the old version,
- when sales does not use marketing's materials because "they don't fit the conversations",
- when the company merges teams after an acquisition or opens a new branch.
Frequently asked questions
Does this require a new tool?
Usually not. Most often it is enough to organise what the company already has and agree on one place for current versions. We choose a tool only when the current one genuinely falls short.
How do you maintain consistency after the project ends?
Through a simple rule: every change in the offer has an owner who is responsible for updating the materials within an agreed time. We can also look after this as part of an ongoing engagement.
Do departments have to say exactly the same thing?
No. A salesperson in a conversation and the website speak a different language, but about the same facts and with the same message. Consistency is about content, not form.