I clearly remember the moment I discovered my life's work.
I was in my early 20's, working for a bank, assisting in a major marketing effort to grow deposits: Open a new account - get a toaster. Throughout the marketing development process I kept asking, "When are we letting the tellers and customer service reps - who will open and give out the toasters - know about the program?" I kept being told, "Don't worry. We'll get to it."
I didn't understand how the people most important to the promotion could be an afterthought. I pictured a customer walking into a branch, asking about the promotion, and being told: "We don't know. No one told us much about it." I pictured that customer leaving the bank with a negative impression. And I imagined the frustration and embarrassment of the tellers who were put in that position.
What a waste of customer and employee goodwill due to a lack of consideration and respect for the front line! How could we expect branch staff to effectively serve customers when we weren't doing the same for them?
That's when I became a strong advocate of internal marketing - take care of employees so they can take care of customers.
QSM Quick Facts
Founded in 1988 by Sybil F. Stershic.
Clients are for-profit and nonprofit service-based organizations.
Specialties include:
- Internal marketing & communication workshops/seminars/retreats
- Marketing fundamentals training
- Customer-focused and mission-focused planning facilitation.
Professional Summary
Sybil F. Stershic, President of Quality Service Marketing, is a marketing & organizational advisor with more than 30 years experience helping service providers strengthen relationships with customers and employees. A leading authority on engaging employees through internal marketing, she is the author of Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits (2012), Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care (2007), and the Quality Service Marketing blog.
Sybil graduated with highest honors from Lehigh University and began her career in bank marketing. (The banks she worked for merged into oblivion.) She founded Quality Service Marketing in 1988 to help service-based organizations bridge Human Resources and Marketing for bottom-line success. She is a frequent conference and business speaker on how managers can maintain a 'high touch' approach in today's 'high tech' workplace.
Active in leadership and professional development, Sybil is a former board chair of the American Marketing Association (AMA). In addition to her continued work with AMA, she serves on the Advisory Council of Global Facilitators Serving Communities and is a member of BoardSource and the International Association of Facilitators.
