What makes for a great customer service experience? Is it the personal touch? Taking time to listen to your consumer and understand their problem? Or is it simply about making someone feel special?

Brands around the world spend vast fortunes on customer service. By some estimates, the industry is worth $350 billion. And it is little wonder, when 94% of consumers are loyal to brands that deliver a consistently good customer experience and others admit to not checking the pricing of a company’s competitors when they are confident of a favorable experience with their existing provider.

“The customer service experience directly reflects how people feel about a brand –content creation can be exactly the same,” said Cinebody COO Gavin Anstey.

Few, though, appear to have realized that the tactics used by the world’s leading customer service practitioners can be directly applied to marketing – especially content creation.

Where customer service operators take time to support consumers, marketers should be taking a similar approach when they collaborate with content creators, whether they’re fans, employees or community members.

By directly engaging on a personal level and using Cinebody to gather unique, authentic and highly shareable video material, smart brands can empower their fans and build enduring relationships. Proven methods for this include:

• Reaching out to potential collaborators and encouraging them to film

• Giving creators praise when they film well and follow direction

• Asking creators questions to help them film more insightful material

“With content creation, often people have a set-it-and-forget-it mindset. But if you offer support, guidance and encouragement through things like pushes and social comments, you’re creating insane value from direct engagement,” Anstey said. “That’s why Cinebody is perfect for user-directed content: it’s designed to help you speak directly to your creators during the creation process, ensuring you develop a deeper connection and get the content you need.”

This approach can help transform your creators into micro-influencers or micro-ambassadors for your brand. By building such strong connections with your creators, they feel special and in turn are more inclined to help and collaborate on future content projects.

Imagine, too, if content creation was one of the first ways a brand interacted with a consumer – instead of customer service.

According to Forbes, “people have lost their faith in gimmicky and overstated mass marketing campaigns and place more stock today in what they experience directly with your company. ” With Cinebody, those direct experiences are more accessible than ever.