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By: Anne M. Obarski I am always amazed by business owners who say that they can't spend any money on advertising. Many of them validate that idea by saying, "Besides, most of my business is by referral." Building a business based on repeat and referral business is admirable. It simply means that clients are so pleased with the value of the product or service they receive on a consistent basis, that they become "cheerleaders" for that company. Consistency is the key word.
If a company combines a strong, branded advertising campaign to an already strong marketing and service program, that becomes the foundation for a successful business.
I use the example of a three-legged stool. One leg is your product or service, the second leg is your marketing and advertising and the third is the customer service you or your employees offer, all on a consistent basis. If any one of the legs has a "weakness", the stool is going to wobble.
Have you ever had a wobbly table or stool in your home? You probably tried to fix it by putting something under it to stabilize it. It was just a "band-aid" and not a true correction. It fixes the problem for a while, but sooner or later it will start to wobble again and at that point, you probably say it is time to replace it.
Customers will be happy to be a cheerleader for you if you are consistent in how you run your business. After all, their reputation of referring a good company is on the line.
Each of us has the ability to recommend or discredit a company based on past experiences. What is more important is that we have a circle of contacts that could either become a referral stream or a business choker.
Companies would be smart to study the three following statements and focus on how that could affect your "word of mouth advertising".
1. You don't know who I know!
I am in the midst of selling a home. I think I would rather have brain surgery than go through this again. I have bought and sold 5 houses in my life and this has been the worst. I firmly believe that the job of a real estate person is to make the job of "selling" the house as easy as possible. That is, if they are willing to do the work to make things happen seamlessly.
I chose my real estate person because her name was everywhere in my town; mistake number one. Mistake number two was that I didn't interview at least three potential agents to find out what their plans would be to sell my home in the shortest amount of time. Her focus is on how many houses she can list and not the service she could offer in order to make me a happy customer. I have told everyone I know that I would never use her if I had to do it all over again.
Unhappy customers like to tell other people and that is a fact. 95 % of unhappy customers leave a business because of uncaring employees. Unfortunately, I have a binding contract and I am stuck. I have a reputation of being the person to call when you need just about anything because everyone knows what I do for a living. You can imagine how many people I can influence with just one sentence. Now the question is, what will that sentence sound like?
Do your employees realize the importance of treating each and ever customer like they have a golden tongue? They can build your reputation or ruin it with the words, "I wouldn't use anyone else but..." The question is, "Is your name the one that follows the word "but"?
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