Getting Bad Mileage Through Word of Mouth?

No one will argue that referrals and "word of mouth" are the best way to get business. But maybe they should.

Here is a scenario for you to chew on:

Friday night has arrived, and you and your comrades are itching to try something new, rather than the same old pizza place or restaurant you are all accustomed to. Your brainstorming quickly leads to everyone pulling out their iPhones / Droids ( it's "digitally PC" to include both) to search Yelp, Foursquare, UrbanSpoon or maybe just good "old fashioned" Google. Finding a new Caribbean restaurant with 5 stars on Yelp seals the deal, taking less than 2 minutes.(3 cheers for the internet!)

What would this scenario have looked like 50 years ago?:

No one could search the web for new businesses, instead your friends would discuss restaurants that they came upon through Word Of Mouth (WOM). Why? Because other than the yellow pages and news papers, no other factors influenced major buying behavior.

Traditional WOM Advantages.

Not too long ago traditional WOM marketing was the gold standard. Here are two reasons:

1. It is a personal recommendation from a trusted source.
2. People naturally desire the greatest result from the smallest time investment.

Although option 1 still plays a role today, option 2 is less of a factor. WOM was the easy road, and offered the least amount of time on your end. Today however, industries are saturated and the consumer can do their own research.

No longer are your prospects dependent on traditional WOM. Even if your business is lucky enough to be passed along this way, there is still a chance you won't get the biz. Why?

Traditional WOM ≠ Biz.

Close your eyes for a moment and think back to your latest incoming referral up to point of purchase. When you got this referral, did you write down a phone number or even a website? Of course not! You simply remembered the name with the company with the intent of looking them up later.

Upon your search, finding nothing will you call the original referrer? Will you even remember who the referrer was? Will you search for more than 5 minutes? Unless the original WOM source was zealous in their approach, you will most likely abandon your search, in favor of "easier" or better marketed options. Although, WOM is still trustworthy, it may not be the most convenient.

WOM 2.0

Word of Mouth 2.0 is the process of better equipping your customers to be your advocate. To fully equip them, you need to give them channels to pass referrals through. How do you that? Unless you have a sales force that follow up on every customer, design (among other avenues) is a great option. Design is a great option primarily because people can retain images and concepts better than data or descriptions. Maybe it takes the form of customer advocate "pocket cards". Perhaps a clever splash page will help. Perhaps a well thought out logo is the answer. Maybe, just maybe, a unique business card is the answer.

Wouldn't it be ridiculous if you lost customers simply because they couldn't recall your name, or got distracted? Wouldn't it be nice to empower your current customers with the tools to spread your name like the plague? It's time to increase your mileage and make the upgrade to WOM 2.0.