5 Word of Mouth Principles

Time and time again, when we speak of working in the customer service field, we talk about the customer experience and the importance of treating the customer in a way that makes them feel comfortable and confident in you and your company's ability to resolve their issue. When a customer feels they have received excellent customer service, they tend to spread the news to others - this is of course what is referred to as "word of mouth" promotion. As it spreads, your business tends to grow.

It works both ways though, and bad word of mouth can damage your business just as easily. WOMMA - the Word of Mouth Marketing Association - offers tips and ideas to help boost and foster "the growth of credible and ethical word of mouth."

They say that there are five basic principles to effective word of mouth marketing:

1. Credible: The marketing should be honest and authentic. How many times have you seen a commercial or heard something that was just too good to be true, and sure enough, found out it was. Stretching the truth about a product may lead to an initial increase of sales, but as word of mouth gets around of the shortcomings, you begin to lose credibility and sales.

2. Respectful: Keep the marketing transparent and trustworthy. If a company is simply knocking another company or product in an effort to make their product stand out, that is not a respectful way to promote an item. Your item should stand on its own merit and word of mouth will assist in the growth of its popularity.

3. Social: It is important to allow and encourage feedback, and in receiving feedback, to respond if necessary. With social media being such a big tool these days, it is very simple to open up and receive feedback. Equally as important though, is to respond to and show appreciation for feedback. Engaging the customer will create a better bond and promote further word of mouth promotion.

4. Measurable: Being able to define, monitor and evaluate the success of word of mouth marketing is an aspect that many companies need to work on. This is where social media and feedback option can assist, but companies like WOMMA can help to further see results in this area.

5. Repeatable: With the other points in place, companies should be able to continue to see the business grow as word of mouth spreads again and again.

Word of mouth is very important in the business world, and offering excellent customer service is an important step in making that happen.