Taking Advantage of Word of Mouth – Part 3
In our previous lessons, we’ve been going over the importance of word of mouth and how you can design a system that will increase your profits by shortening the amount of time it takes your customers to make a buying decision.
In today’s lesson, we’re going to go over the nine different levels that exist with word of mouth. Each of these levels is a measuring tool to help you with identifying how well your business, services, and products are doing for your customers. Using these levels can assist you in identifying areas where your word of mouth may not be up to snuff and allow you to turn it around.
These levels are on a sliding scale starting in the negative and working towards the positives. You, of course, know that you want your company to be hitting it out of the park with all positives.
Negative Four
Can you say scandalous? At negative four, your company is a problem and is the worst of the worst. For instance, do you remember when Tylenol and other over-the-counter pain relievers were thought to be unsafe? This type of word of mouth should be avoided at all costs.
Negative Three
At negative three, you’re being boycotted for one reason or another. Unhappy customers are actively trying to tell others to stop using your service or products.
Negative Two
Negative two isn’t as bad as three where an active boycott is occurring, but customers asked about your company give a critical response that’s negative in nature.
Negative One
Moving up the scale, at negative one, your customers are a bit unhappy with something about your brand. They may not speak about it unless asked, but they are feeling miffed. At this level, they may still utilize your company but could reduce their usage. It can be a bit confusing for business owners.
Neutral Zero
At neutral zero, you’re at a point where people are using your services or products, but don’t really talk about them. No one is asking, and they aren’t sharing their opinion. At this point, you’re at the tip of the slippery slope because a neutral experience is on the tipping point to be a potentially negative experience. Just because you’re not in the negatives doesn’t mean you can take your foot off the pedal to improve your word of mouth.
Positive One
At positive one, you’re finally getting to the point where your customers are giving out positive word of mouth about your service, product, and company. People are happy with what you offer, but they don’t go out of their way to tell others about it.
Positive Two
At this point, customers are happy with your product and will talk about their love for your products if it comes up.
Positive Three
Congratulations if you’ve made it to positive three. You’ve gotten to the point where your satisfied customers are singing your praises and will go out of their way to talk about their experience. Think of it like how moviegoers that enjoy a movie give a glowing movie review and tell everyone about how they love the movie.
Positive Four
Pop the champagne if you’ve made it to positive four on the scale as you’re being toasted by your customers. Your company has buzz, and everyone wants to be involved. Word of mouth is all about your company, the service, their experience, and their perception of the future with your company.
This top step on the scale is where many of the big brands that come to mind are located. Some examples of these companies include:
- Apple
- Celestial Teas
- Disney
- Harley Davidson
- Toyota
- Coca-Cola
That’s some excellent company to be in if you’ve reached the pinnacle of word of mouth.
That wraps it up for today’s lesson. Are you still struggling with your word of mouth? Contact us today to discuss how we can help.
In our next lesson, we’re going to go over the 30 different ways you can capture word of mouth power for your business.