Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing ideas to help you grow your business

Word of Mouth: Why your business needs a story

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marketing tips, content marketing

Word of mouth is all about storytelling.  If people are not talking about you in the marketplace, it’s because you have not given them a story, which is worth sharing.  Today, I am going to recommend you change that!

With hundreds of millions of people connected on social networking sites, it has never been easier for your clients or customers to share how great you are with their friends.

All YOU need to do is give them a story worth sharing and make it easy to share.

Winning stories

When someone has spent a week or 2 being wowed at a Disney resort, they have a story to share, which they tell to anyone who will listen.  When someone has bought a coffee from Starbucks, the people serving them are tasked with the job of ensuring the experience is worth talking about.

The companies with the best stories get the most word of mouth publicity, because people love to share their experiences.

Losing stories

So, the stories that spread are the ones worth repeating.  This is true of negative stories too.  If a service provider in your town has a habit of under delivering on their promises, the story spreads.  Disgruntled former clients or customers will often feel the need to share their disappointment with their friends.  This is especially the case, if their experience of a provider is so poor, that they believe it will stop others from using that provider and suffering the same experience.

Fake stories

A Chinese restaurant close to where I live was the victim of a fake story and now faces going out of business.  Someone decided to start a rumour, which spread on Facebook and resulted in the restaurant losing a lot of money.  The story was short and had a twist at the end, which caused it to spread into the national press in the UK.

The fact it was fake didn’t stop it spreading, because people tend not to fact check, before sharing stories.  Even one as unlikely as a lady going to the restaurant, who gets taken to hospital because of pain in her throat, which was caused by a microchip lodged in her throat that had been in the Chinese food she had eaten.  The twist in the story, is that the microchip gets scanned and turns out to belong to… a missing greyhound dog!  According to this report in the national press, the restaurant is now facing bankruptcy.

Your stories

So, what stories do you have, which your clients or customers can share?  What have you done for your clients, which is so jaw-dropping awesome that they feel compelled to tell everyone they know?

You see, it’s not enough to “just” provide a great service.  People expect great service.  Offering a great service may be enough to retain their custom, but it takes something extra, to get them talking about you.

What everyone needs to know about getting noticed

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Your clients, customers and contacts have something in common.  They notice things.

They notice:

  • When you treat them like stars in order to encourage them to become a client, but then treat them like numbers once you have won their custom.
  • When you say their urgent order will be shipped on schedule, but you are a day late.
  • When you are more focused on what’s in it for you, than what’s in it for them.

They also notice:

  • When you treat them like stars in order to encourage them to become a client, but then treat them like superstars once you have won their custom.
  • When you say their urgent order will be shipped on schedule, yet you manage to get it ready a day early.
  • When you are more focused on what’s in it for them, than what’s in it for you.

Not every client complains to you when they are getting poor service.  However, they are far more likely to move their business to a competitor.

Not every client drops you a note of thanks when you are rendering exceptional service to them.  However, they are far more likely to remain a client of yours and to recommend your services to their friends.

Word of mouth: 10 reasons why people will talk about your business!

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Word of mouth

People love to talk, you just need to give them a reason and make it easy for them to spread the word.

Word of mouth

If you want to develop word of mouth publicity or referrals, it helps if you understand a little about what motivates people to share information about you and your business.  Here are 10 reasons I have been thinking about today.  You can add yours to this list using the comments section below.

People spread the word about you because:

  1. Something you did or said was remarkable.
  2. By sharing a nugget of information from you, they get to look well-informed.
  3. They are bored and you have made it easy to spread the word; relieving their boredom for a few moments.
  4. It’s a good way to gain your attention, particularly if they do it online and mention you by name.
  5. They trust and value what you have to say and feel compelled to share the wisdom.
  6. By spreading the word about you, it may motivate you to spread the word about them.  This is known as reciprocity.
  7. They want their name to be associated publicly with you or your brand.
  8. You made a controversial point, which they were not brave enough to make.  By spreading what you said, they get to make the point, without attracting the flack.
  9. You have been spreading the word about them for some time and they now feel obligated to reciprocate. (See number 6.)
  10. Something you just wrote or said will be of genuine value to someone they care about, who needs that help right now.  (This post is a great example.)

How to get massively more word of mouth referrals

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Word of mouth

Would you like to attract more word of mouth referrals?  If you would, here are a few simple questions to help you uncover the way word of mouth referrals work, based on your own experiences.

The idea of this post is to show you the process behind a word of mouth referral, so you can reproduce it with your own products or services (herein called products).  So, let’s get started!

  1. What was the last product you paid for, which you went on to recommend to people?
  2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how good did you believe the product was when you recommended it?  Think of 5 as being a very average product, 7 as being a good product and 10 as being “best in class.”
  3. What motivated you, to want to share your feedback?  For example, did the provider make it super-easy for you to share your feedback?  Did you feel so positive about the product or service, that you wanted YOUR name to be associated with it?  Were you offered a commission or reward for the recommendation?  Did the product provider ask you to recommend them or their product?  Whatever your answer, write it down in as much detail as possible.
  4. How many people did you tell?  Did you just mention it to a friend or share it with your social network / business contacts?  Why did you tell so many or so few people?  Again, get this written down in as much detail as possible.
  5. Finally, go through the same exercise for 3 or 4 other products, which you recommended to people.

Word of mouth: Deconstructed

For you to benefit from that simple exercise, you need to consider how you can apply the same process that inspired you to recommend those products, to your own products.  Do you need to work harder on developing a better (more remarkable) product, or maybe become more proactive at asking for referrals?  Do you need to make it easier for people to tell their friends how great you already are?  Your answers will start to show you the areas where you need to focus your efforts, in order to get more referrals.

Word of mouth and being remarkable

Here is a prediction regarding your answers.  I would be very surprised if any of the products you recommended were just average.  In most cases, I would expect to see scores of 8 and above.  The key motivator that inspires word of mouth referrals, is when something is remarkable.  In short, if we want to be spoken about positively (or remarked upon) we need to be remarkable.  No one feels inspired to recommend something, if it’s unremarkable, average or dull.  I wrote a post about it, which you may like to read.

The Bottom line: No matter how much word of mouth business you already attract, you should always be seeking to improve upon it.

Buyer’s remorse: What is it & why does it matter?

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Have you ever heard of the term; buyer’s remorse?

This post will explain a little about what it is and how to stop it from hurting your business!

Buyer’s remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the name given to that feeling we get, when we buy a product or service and then discover something that makes us wish we hadn’t.  With product sales, we generally feel buyer’s remorse when we find a lower price for the same product, somewhere else.  With services, buyers remorse often happens when we learn that the great service we received during the sales process, is not how that company looks after us once they have our money.

It’s that feeling in the pit of our stomach that tells us we have been fooled or suckered and it’s extremely powerful.

Powerful?

Oh yes!  If enough people feel buyer’s remorse about a particular service provider, it can put that provider out of business!

Buyer’s remorse and customer service

Many companies allocate more time and effort to marketing, than they do to customer service.  They wrongly see marketing and customer service as two largely unrelated things.  The truth is that they are both essential parts of a business’ development.

Why?

  • A business that increases sales by 20% in a year BUT loses 20% of their customer base annually because of average quality service, is going nowhere.
  • A business that increases sales by 20% in a year BUT loses 21% of their customer base annually because of poor quality service, is going broke.

As I have said here before, companies that look after their customers and genuinely go the extra mile, not only retain more of their existing customers, they also enjoy a windfall reward:  They attract word of mouth referrals from their happy customers!

Conversely, when companies under-deliver to their customers, they find that their reputation within the marketplace can be severely damaged.  Today, if Bob upsets a customer, they won’t just call his company and complain – they will tell their buddies on Twitter, Facebook etc.

So, how long does it take to tell your whole social network about your bad experience?  Seconds!  This is one of the reasons why today, it makes more sense than ever to connect your customer service operation and your marketing operation.

Buyer’s remorse: Why is it so common?

One of the reasons there is so much buyer’s remorse out there, is that many businesses are very poor at listening to their customers and clients.

Providers make the mistake of assuming that silence is golden – That if they are not getting calls and emails of complaint, that everyone’s happy. Of course, the reality is that in the massive majority of instances, this is just not the case.

Many people choose to avoid confrontation with a supplier and simply leave the service, as soon as they are able to.  In fact, as I said earlier, people today are a lot more inclined to share their frustration with their friends on a social network, than to confront the provider.

The bottom line here, is that business owners simply cannot allow this to happen.  It’s important to proactively ask for feedback, especially from those customers you have not heard from in a while.

The best businesses listen to their customers and seek to constantly improve the quality of their offering.  They see buyer’s remorse as a complete failure and work hard to combat it.  They want every customer experience with them to be not only positive, but of such great value that their customers want to sing their names from the roof tops!

If a business  wants to attract word of mouth referrals, it need to offer a level of service that’s REALLY worth talking about.

To be remarked upon, we must first become remarkable!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Set your own gold standard!

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Have you ever wondered how things would change, if every company you dealt with, treated you as if you were the husband or wife, parent or child, of it’s owner?

Most companies genuinely try hard to make the customer experience as good as possible, but many set their gold standard for service, too low.  This is because they allow the typical customer experience within their industry or profession to determine what counts as either good or average.

However, by treating all customers and prospective customers as if they were the bosses nearest and dearest, a company will find itself cranking the customer service up to a new level!

Word of mouth

As I have said many, many times before, if you want to get people talking about you and spreading all that valuable word of mouth publicity about you, you need to be remarkable (or remark-able).  One of the finest ways to get people talking about you, is via industry leading attention to customer service excellence.

I was prompted to write this post, after speaking with the chairman of one of the UK’s biggest retail companies yesterday afternoon.  He told me about the way his wife had been treated, when she and a friend were visiting one of his high street stores.  Apparently, they had to wait an age to get served and when they were served, the service was pretty average.

When they were paying for their purchase, the store manager recognised the chairman’s wife and went over to introduce himself to her.  He asked what she thought of the service, so she explained it had been worse than she expected.  At this point, the store manager said;
“I’m sorry.  The shop assistant clearly had no idea who you were!”

The chairman’s wife (a former marketing director of the company) replied;
“surely the default position should be that EVERYONE who enters the store, is given the best quality of service possible?”

The marketing power of great customer service

I believe there’s an opportunity right now, to blaze a trail in your niche, by working hard to massively exceed the expectations of your marketplace.  I believe that by reviewing every step of your business, which is visible in any way to your clients or prospective clients, and looking for ways to dramatically improve the service you render in that area, that you can massively increase the amount of referred business you attract.

You can also improve your attrition rate (how long someone remains a client or customer), improve morale within your company and gain a bulletproof reputation for excellence.

What do you think?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

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