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Taylor Kew's expertise includes over a decade of innovation in customer, end-user and market research. Prior to co-founding Glance Networks, Kew created and implemented PictureTel Corporation's Living Lab, a world-class tool for developing customer relationships and exploring new technologies and product concepts.

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Attaining Advertising Zen: How Word-of-Mouth Success is Savored through Good Karma

Written on
Nov 14, 2006 
Author
Taylor Kew  |
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Attaining Advertising Zen: How Word-of-Mouth Success is Savored through Good Karma

2. Do the Right Thing, Every Time.
Companies spend lots of money to get new customers, but rarely spend any to keep them. A simple thing like treating your customers with respect goes a long way to earning repeat business.

It’s often said that people tell three others about a good experience, but tell ten about a bad one, so make sure every interaction ends well. A bad experience can be turned into a good one with proper resolution. Do everything possible to make the customer whole.

We live by the following three tenets:

- Never tell a customer, “I can’t help.”

- Never blame someone else for not being able to help. Turn a bad incident into a warm memory by becoming your customer’s advocate.

- Empower your employees to just “do the right thing.” Correct problems immediately; clean up the mess later. When there’s a problem, take care of it while the customer is still on the phone.

3. Do Something Unexpected.
A simple thank you kit for new customers builds a lot of good will, which translates into powerful word-of-mouth. Google did this when they launched and it created a lot of repeat business. Some of you may still be sipping from your free Amazon.com mug from their first year in business. We send our customers a notepad with a brief message offering key information, such as how to reach Customer Care, a coupon for new users, tips and other guidelines.

So many companies treat their customers poorly that the opportunity to exceed expectations is vast. For example, if a Glance customer calls to cancel his service due to low usage, we usually ask if we can refund back the money he paid us for the unused months. Why? We often find that the same person will be back on the phone a few months later to re-subscribe, either because he now has a different job (bringing us access to a new company) or his needs have changed. Even if he never calls us again, we know we left him with a good story to tell other prospects.

The cost of a refund to a departing customer is often far less than the cost of acquiring a brand new customer with traditional marketing.

4. Keep the Ball Rolling.
Once you start a WOM program, keep the conversation going through regular communication, like an online newsletter. A good newsletter — one that your contacts will take the time to read — has to be useful, not self-promotional. Keep your company news to a snippet or two.

The content can be about nearly anything, provided it has value to the recipient. Make it personal, authentic and heartfelt. Pick topics you can speak to with authority, but which are not about your actual product or service. For example, our last few newsletters chronicled a couple of experiences about delivering good customer service, offered technology tips for small business owners and explored the virtues of open office cultures. Each topic is an important element of our business and hopefully could be interesting and helpful to others as well.

For some great tips on how to design a newsletter that people want to read, check out newsletter guru Michael Katz’s website and sign up for his “newsletter on newsletters.”

5. Let it Grow Organically.
By its nature, WOM is organic. You can’t force it. Be patient and put the right pieces in place for viral growth and watch it blossom over time.

Does any of this work? We think so. Thanks to some consistently good karma, the third quarter this year we signed up over 300 new customers, securing nearly all of them virally, through word-of-mouth.





Reader Comments.

Amen and amen (if that’s the most appropriate way to phrase). Thank you for these excellent tips on how to connect/delight your customers and how that philosophy will naturally/organically grow your business and viral message. Wonderful and must-heed advice.

John C. Havens
About.com Guide to Podcasting (http://podcasting.about.com)
Podcast Vision and Voice (www.pvandv.com)

Posted by John C. Havens | 12:33 pm on November 14, 2006.

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