Word-of-mouth marketing works well because people stake their own reputations when they give out a recommendation. People have nothing to gain when giving a recommendation except the appreciation of the person who is listening.

You need to give people the confidence to recommend your business all the time, without fail. Without the doubts of whether they are making a good recommendation. So how do you do that?

Here are some ways you can foster word-of-mouth marketing:

Create out-of-this-world experiences for customers that they did not expect. If you just slightly exceed customer expectations, nothing will happen. You need to do something that a customer really appreciates or find a way to do something so different that the customer remembers it and goes home and tells her friends and family.

Do not depend on your sales staff to deliver great customer service every time. All of your staff members will have good days and bad days. Some days they will not be in the mood to help out the grouchy old customer who is never happy. But if you have processes in place that every employee must follow when working with a customer, the mood of your staff will not matter. If your staff is trained to always give thorough product info that compares your product with a competitor, it will look like the customer service staffer is really trying to make a sale by providing valuable info, when really, the person is just doing her job. Build in that great customer service experience.

Nonverbal statements garner the most word-of-mouth marketing. Nonverbal statements can be kinetic, generous or architectural. Here are some examples of each:

• Kinetic – Kinetic refers to an energizing or lively motion. An example of a kinetic statement is the throwing of fish at the Pike Place Market in Seattle. (The Pike Place Market is so energizing and inspirational that a whole book series was spawned based on principles learned from workers there, called “Fish!”.) Any kind of overall experience that excites customers will earn word-of-mouth marketing.

• Generous – If you are willing to become known as the store that gives out a free cookie with every purchase, you are well on your way to becoming a word-of-mouth regular. You can recoup the costs of the free cookies by slightly raising your prices on all of your products or services. But being known for your generosity will do wonders for your word-of-mouth marketing and will bring in more than enough business to recover costs from your generous notion.

• Architectural – Add something special to your building or facility that gets people talking. A guitar store that has a front door in the shape of a guitar’s sound hole which people have to enter through gets people talking. A floor-to-ceiling aquarium at a restaurant, or any other kind of architectural delight, works wonders for word-of-mouth marketing.

The biggest mistake you can make when using word-of-mouth marketing is to promise it in your ads. Do not use brochure printing pieces to tout your architecture. Do not use billboards to talk about how generous you are. Whatever you want your customers to say about you, you cannot say about yourself. Otherwise, your customers’ words will be worthless. And making people feel worthless is definitely not the way to get people talking about you.


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