Kevin Kelly’s Blog

“According to a 2005 study by the London School of Economics of the effects of positive and negative work of mouth based in a measurement called the net promoter score, every seven point increase in the surveys word of mouth advocacy score correlated with a 1% sales increase. The survey showed that companies with high positive word of mouth and low negative word of mouth grew four times as fast as companies where the reverse was true. ( reported on the Sunday Times Nov 11.)

 So how does a company improve their word of mouth?

- Exceed customers expectations at all contact points with the organisation.

- Think laterally about customer interactions. For example instead of wondering how much you can sell to your customer in the short term, did you ever wonder how you can secure business for them? Improving your clients bottom line will improve yours in the long term.

Experiental marketing - people choose experience.

Add experience to your product offering. Remember in this attention deficit society people will remember experiences but have major difficulties retaining facts.

Authentic selling - Get real or get out! 

Work on yourself. Authentic selling is the new and only way to deal with people. Authentic sales people automatically show they care about their client, listen to their needs, deliver more than what was asked for, convert their customers into friends effortlessly and so on. The new marketing environment dictates that you either get real ….or get out.

ASK!

Don’t just wait for complaints, solicit them now. People with a satisfactorily resolved complaint are more loyal and are likely to spread positive word of mouth.

Enjoy the trip.