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PLUMBING CONNECTION
SPRING 2016
BUSINESS PROMOTION
CECELIA HADDAD
MINING GOLD - THE VALUE OF WORD
OF MOUTH
SOWHAT IS WOMMARKETING?
WOM marketing occurs when a consumer’s interest
in a product or service is communicated in their daily
conversations. This can be a conversation offline (face
to face or over the phone) or online (email or social media
networks).
According to Neilsen
[1]
research, 84% of consumers say
they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations
from family, colleagues and friends about products and
services – making these recommendations the highest
ranked source for trustworthiness.
One happy customer has the potential to tell one person
or one million people about an exceptional service they
have experienced or a great product they just purchased.
The value in WOM over advertising for example is that
this customer is telling your story for free, not a fee. Your
customers don’t have to talk about how great you are but
they choose to because they have had their own positive
personal experience. This is the gold that must be mined by
companies who truly want to make an impact with marketing.
So how can you, as a tradesperson, harness the power of
WOM?
Firstly ask yourself what you are doing to make your
customers feel positive enough to recommend you. A
good experience isn’t enough, in fact it is expected, but an
exceptional experience will get people talking.
What your customers will talk about is not what you would
write in your advertisements. It’s the experience they have
with you and it needs to be memorable. It doesn’t have to be
an overly expensive exercise. It could be a follow up phone
call a week after you have handed them the keys to their new
home to see if there is anything they need or a voucher to
the local pizza shop to save them cooking on the day they
move in. These gestures are unexpected but turn a good
experience into a memorable one.
Think about how you could create and deliver that
experience in your business.
Have you noticed how we now live in a consumer driven
world? Where companies and brands once had all the voice
and power, technological advances has thrown the balance
of power back to the consumer. So here are some ways
you can cultivate that voice to engage and enable WOM
marketing:
1.Engage personally with your customer:
While 1000
likes on Facebook might “look good on paper”, personal
recommendations are more likely to influence purchasing
behaviour. Find a way to connect with your customer
after you have provided your service. They will be chuffed
to think you haven’t just moved onto your next project
and forgotten about them but that you also care about
how they are going in their new home. A branded card or
postcard you have created with a photo of their house and
a welcome message is something they might possibly put
on their fridge especially if you take a photo of them when
handing the keys over and turn that into a card. Three
months later send another postcard gently encouraging
them to refer you to friends and family. For the plumbers
out there, how about leaving a branded scented candle for
the bathroom?
HAVE YOU EVER READ A REVIEW ONLINE THAT HAS MADE YOU WANT TO PURCHASE A PRODUCT OR SERVICE? HAS
A FRIEND, WORK COLLEAGUE, FAMILY MEMBER OR NEIGHBOUR TOLD YOU ABOUT A PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT
YOU THEN DECIDED TO BUY? IF SO, YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THE POWER OF WORD OF MOUTH (WOM) MARKETING.
CECELIA HADDAD
EXPLAINS HOW YOU TOO CAN HARNESS THE POWER OF WOM FOR YOUR BUSINESS.