Archive for the 'word of mouth' Category

…perhaps they may have responded to this tweet in a different way.

You can imagine the scenario.   You’ve gone away on holiday or on business and you’ve either forgotten or didn’t know that you get charged for downloading data when you are abroad.  Even more likely nowadays with the ubiquitous nature of “all you can eat data” as part of the standard contract.  When you get your next bill…well, you know the rest.

Maybe our brewing friends with the great strapline will have seen this as an opportunity to show what thoroughly decent people they are by refunding the roaming charges. At the same time using Twitter to reach people like me who aren’t T-Mobile customers now, but might be next time we’re looking for a new contract.  OK, so maybe it costs £100 or £200 (but probably much less) and you can’t do that every time. But how much new business might that bring for a simple and cheap piece of marketing?  How much goodwill through Twitter “word of mouth” might that bring?

An opportunity missed.

customer experience, dumb things, social media, word of mouth | No Comments

The 2011 Netpromoter benchmarks report does say lots of obvious things. But that can be useful when said with numbers. Take this parargraph:

“Businesses are expected to spend $214.3 billion on advertising in 2011, according to SNL Kagan. But only 4 percent of Americans trust advertising the most as an information source when choosing products or services. Instead, the Satmetrix study finds that consumers most trust recommendations from independent sources (83 percent), especially those with whom they have personal relationships. Half of consumers (50 percent) cited personal recommendations from friends, family or colleagues as the most trustworthy source of information. And, approximately four times as many people trusted product test reviews (18 percent) or consumer opinions posted online (15 percent) as compared to advertising.”

So here’s one to  discuss with your board colleagues…… the exam question is “What would the business look like if we spent 83/4 times, let’s say 20 times, as much on improving the colleague and customer experience as we do on marketing our brand or product?”

Anyone who  has played with business simulators will know that more advertising of a poor performing service or product just leads to a worsening economic cycle – higher acquisition costs, higher cost to serve, low retention. Word of mouth reality outstrips advertising glitz.

And the opposite is true. Businesses like Amazon, Google ,eBay and Skype took off and stay up there without much, if any, advertising support. You can read more about Amazon and Google in our “100 things you can learn from …” series at our website.

100 things, 21st century marketing, Amazon, Google, customer experience, ebay, netpromoter, word of mouth | 1 Comment

first direct’s withdrawal of mortgages to new customers took the news by storm yesterday. It wasn’t a surprise. As we reported on the 11th of Feb blog entry, it was evident the product was selling “too well”.

 So how come it took til now to do something? Why did it have to reach crisis point? I wonder who’s getting what blame?

But they did get brave and do the right thing. Look after the existing customers and the ones who already applied and stop taking more business that couldn’t be handled properly.

Bravo!

Listening to customers it must have been evident it had to happen. I wonder why they didnt just up the rates a bit in February and take more business at a higher margin, avoiding the negative publicity and “first rock” factor?

It’s interesting that there’s now a BBC Today programme on Saturdays that’s designed to do exactly this. Pick up the stories from the customers before the journalists can.

What our customers are saying is in the public domain. Shouldn’t you be picking it up in your business first?

Talk to us about the “what our customers are saying” process

Uncategorized, WOCAS, first direct, listening, word of mouth | No Comments

Now out in New Jersey, east of New York by 40 odd miles or an hour and a half by train. What was once rolling countryside of woods and farms is now rolling countryside of woods and commuter mansions. A “lot” is at least 10 acres here by law, so you can imagine what the “estates” look like.

Somerset County is home of the Essex Fox Hunt and horses abound including the US Equestrian Team’s HQ over the road. The changing use of land is therefore traceable as open country changes to private plots.

Looking at a book written or rather produced by one of the Johnsons ( Johnson and Johnson darling ….its that kind of area) about hunting over the past century the passage of time is traceable by the age of houses, their density and the use of land. The dress code and the principles don’t seem to have moved on much though.

A good horse is still a good horse, but cars are something else. What’s evident is the move from the top cars being Mercedes to being Lexus ( is the plural Lexi?)

“Mom always had Mercedes ‘cos Dad had a dealership but they got rid of the good guys once he sold it. The best guy now has a Lexus dealership and so Mom bought one from him. Its great for her, she never has to go to the dealership – which is a boon cos she cant find anything. Mercedes service has gone down the pan anyway, but these guys are great”

You only have to look at the number of Lexussss on the road to see that good ol’ fashioned wordamouth works still despite changing scenery.

Lexus, Mercedes, word of mouth | No Comments