Research Your Feedback and Use It
In today’s lesson, we’ll go over the best way to learn about and use the feedback your product gets. Most people are bombarded with a large amount of information all day long. Often, the only things that people will remember are those that are memorable for one reason or another. They remember strange items, topics that are surprising, unusual events, and extraordinary occurrences. That means it’s vital to get it so that your marketing efforts and ideas spark these types of reactions. Don’t panic if you have a regular service or product. It’s good to have a typical product or service as something that’s familiar to not drive customers away. It’s important to get it in your mind that when what you’re offering is great quality and markets well to separate yourself from the crowd by making it extraordinary.
Researching Word of Mouth
There are some questions that you need to be asking yourself when you research word of mouth. These include:
- What information does someone who is a customer of yours tell others who aren’t a customer yet?
- How do they describe your service or product?
- What questions are those who aren’t customers yet asking about your company?
- What information do these individuals need to know to make a decision about your service or product, but aren’t willing to ask those who use it?
- What happens when these issues are brought into the light?
- What information does a non-customer need to have to go through with a purchase?
- How do current customers answer the questions, concerns, objections, and worries of those they tell about your product or service?
- How do they go about convincing their friends and family to use your product?
- What initially brought them into the fold of trying out your product or service?
- What tips, tricks, warnings, suggestions, or safeguards do your current customers tell others thinking about using your product or service?
- Does the marketing messages you send through your hard work with positioning and sales messages surviving inside of the word of mouth that’s being given?
- How you can your marketing message to be in word of mouth in your favor and how should you go about delivering this marketing message?
Why is Word of Mouth Research Important?
You may think that just getting word of mouth is enough to help support your sales goals, but it can be helpful to research this word of mouth for two reasons.
- You want to get feedback and a real vision of what customers really think.
- You want to put a definition on your word of mouth and the concept that it’s giving your company.
The 2-2-2 Model
The 2-2-2 Model is a great formula that can help you to easily conduct your word of mouth research. It gets its name from having 2 groups of customers, 2 groups of prospects, and 2 mixed groups. This means you want to groups of your current customers. You want two groups of people that are interested in your company that you can use in a focus group. You also want two mixed groups that have both skeptics and enthusiasts about your company.
In each of these groups you’ll want to ask these questions:
- What information would you tell someone about this product or service?
- How would you go about convincing a skeptic to make a purchase?
- What do you think a skeptic would ask about before making a purchase?
- How would you answer these questions?
A teleconference is a perfect way to conduct these focus groups for your research. This option helps you to find a nice variety of people that fit your demographics of customers, both loyal and potential. Not only that, but it can be very beneficial to have this teleconference conducted by someone outside of your company. An independent party is best for this purpose as they take away the pressure. This methodology lets them feel safe in being able to be truthful about what they really think rather than saying what they think you want to hear.
Creating a Word of Mouth Campaign
Once you get all that insight into the feedback your company is receiving, it’s time to use it to your advantage. You want to create a word of mouth campaign. There are a few ingredients that are essential for your campaign, and that includes:
- Having a superior product
- Having a way to get in touch with key influencers in your industry
- Having experts that are willing to take up your torch
- Having customers that are enthusiastic about your company
- Having a line to reach more qualified prospects
- Having a compelling story that illustrates what’s impressive about your product
- Having proof that helps to back up all of your claims about the product and service outside in the real world
- Having a trial, demo, samples, or other easy ways that people can try your company out
- Having a great guarantee that reduces the risk of trying out your company
There are quite a few situations where strong word of mouth can help to benefit your company. These situations include:
- Times when your company is facing doubt from credibility issues
- Times when a new breakthrough is happening
- Times when small improvements are made
- Times when your product requires time or a large number of uses to see the benefit
- Times when there is a great deal of risk in trying your product or service
- Times when your established product is being ignored even when there are new improvements
- Times when there are unfair competitive practices in your field, such as rumors or lies being spread by other brands
- Times when there are restrictions from the government or other governing bodies that restrict what you can claim about your product directly
There are also a few situations where this tactic to get more word of mouth wouldn’t be beneficial for your company. These include:
- Times when a seminar wouldn’t add value to prospective customers
- Times when a trial won’t work and experts don’t agree on your product
- Times when your product isn’t as superior as other brands
- Times when your product is very emotional or personal and the decision won’t benefit from these tactics
- Times when it would cost more for word of mouth than you’d bring in as products
That’s the end of today’s lesson on feedback and using it to help benefit your business. If you’re struggling with utilizing these lessons to help your business or want to learn how to maximize your business, contact us today. Let us help you get your business back on track through our service.