How to avoid being on the wrong end of a barge pole

A Nielsen Global Survey conducted late last year established that 83% of Kiwi consumers (compared to 78% globally) trust recommendations from fellow consumers more than any other form of advertising.
Global managing director for Nielsen’s Customised Research Services, David McCallum, said that despite increasingly diverse media platforms, “the recommendation of someone else remains the most trusted source of information when consumers decide which products and services to buy”.
The challenge lies in the fact that word of mouth can be good, and it can be bad.
Never mind all the research, we know instinctively that the number and quality of referrals you receive is directly proportional to the strength of your relationships with your clients and the experiences the customer has with your business.
A survey by New Zealand’s most established customer service training provider, the Kiwihost/JRA Perceptions of Customer Service in NZ survey, found that customers primarily want:
1. Businesses to show a willingness to help;
2. To listen, and understand their needs; and
3. To take responsibility to ensure those needs are met.
Ask yourself these three questions…
1. How ready are you to help in your network, chapter, association? Do you put your hand up to assist others, or are you the last in to the meeting and the first out the door at the end?
2. Do you listen and seek to understand the needs of your fellows, or are you in it for what you can get?
3. Do you take responsibility to make sure those needs are met? Do you follow up referrals promptly? Do you personally thank people for their referrals? Do you report back on progress?
In other words, cultivating word of mouth is still all about a willing, can do ‘attitude’.