Once while interviewing for a MBA marketing internship, I was asked to explain why I had chosen a dual concentration in brand management and service operations.

At first, I thought the question was meant to see how well I could express my thoughts. As the conversation moved deeper into the subject, it became apparent that the interviewer actually didn’t understand the connection.

According to the interviewer, operations and and marketing “couldn’t have less to do with each other.” I can’t be sure but it was probably on or around that moment that I realized I really didn’t want to work for that particular company.

Think about it. If you make promise through your marketing, customers expect your company to keep it regardless of who they are dealing with. In fact, as I have moved throughout various operations courses, the most prevalent reason companies loose relationships with their customers is when people inside the company fail to share accountability for customer touch points.

Anyone who has ever answered the phone and dealt with a dissatisfied customer knows that, though marketers can’t be all-controlling when it comes to the customer experience, it helps to know what your operations team is capable of to ensure that the promises you make with a customer are able to be kept.

That’s why there are a multitude of companies including Dell, Comcast and JetBlue that have made it a priority to ensure their marketing teams are all over the impact operations have on their customers. In best practice, marketing teams are used to continuously funnel feedback about operations to the people that can do something about it.

Why should you care about your company’s operations? Because branding is not just a job for the marketing elites; branding should be a goal for every customer interaction and touch-point. If you haven’t gotten a chance to meet your colleagues and co-workers on that of the building, now might be a great time to go and say “hi.”

In fact, bring some of the marketing literature with you and set up some time to compare notes about your joint efforts to reach and serve the customer. After all, service and speed can be easily duplicated by your competitors – a personal interaction cannot.