[GUEST POST] How To Put Your Money Where Their Mouth Is To Influence WOM
An interesting phenomenon has occurred in the digital age – consumers are now listening to the opinions of strangers to influence their purchasing decisions. With sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Goodsnitch, consumers are now able to rate their experience and provide detail on what they liked and did not like with this information being available for public consumption. To quote Marty Neumeier – author of The Brand Gap – “Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” They being customers and this being a direct reference to the power of customer testimonials.
The other power behind customer testimonials is economic and is referred to as Word of Mouth (WOM) economics. Most commonly used in association with a customers’ likelihood to recommend a company, there is a direct correlation in customers speaking favorably about a company and customer growth. I can’t think of another way to confirm your value to prospective customers than to share with them what your existing customers have said about you in their own words, about their own experience.
Several years ago, Dell performed research on the impact of WOM economics – both positive and negative testimonials.
As a customer experience consultant, I recommend that my clients begin capturing customer testimonials not only because of the reasons I have already mentioned, but because it’s a best practice – think Amazon Reviews or Ebay Seller ratings. Any size business, with any size budget, can develop a way to capture and utilize customer testimonials.
Here are tips for gathering and utilizing testimonials at your company:
• Make it easy for a customer to provide a testimonial.
Provide customers with a form to fill out after the interaction, or send an email to them post sale that asks them to tell you how the experience was.
• Be specific in the ask to your customers.
Encourage customers to provide specifics about their experience with your company, providing feedback in 2 – 3 solid sentences.
• Decide if you want to identify customers by name or not.
If you don’t think your customers want to be mentioned by name, it is still a valid testimonial if you include first name and last initial, or initials only. Be sure to get your customers’ permission if you are using any identifiers.
• Post customer testimonials on your social networks, website, and sales/marketing collateral.
There is no better way to get new customers, than to hear positive remarks from existing customers.
• Leverage technology.
If you don’t have the staff to coordinate a formal testimonial process, select a few customers, use your smart phone for video or audio capture and post that.
** BONUS: Share testimonials with employees.
The impact of positive testimonials on employee morale is huge. Employees want to work for a company they are proud of, and sharing what customers have to say reinforces that.
For a minimal investment of time and money, your business can begin to capture and leverage the voice of your customers to get new ones. You can improve employee morale by sharing with them the positive comments from your customers. And you can brag on yourself – you know you do a good job. Now, leverage customer testimonials to put your money where their mouth is.
Donna Drehmann:
I am part customer advocate and part detective, using customer data to take the mystery out of providing a great experience. I am passionate about helping clients capture the voice of their customers, utilize the feedback to drive business decisions, and create loyal customers with every interaction. I am the owner of Listen, Learn, Live LLC a Nashville-based consulting company helping small to medium sized businesses and non-profits leverage the voice of their customer. I am a regular contributor to 12th & Broad, where you can find out more about my views on customer experience. Or visit my website: www.listenlearnlive.org or follow me on Twitter:  @askyourcustomer
