Would your customers recommend your products or services to their friends and colleagues?
There are probably relatively few products or services that you would whole-heartedly recommend to a friend. If you did, there would most likely be certain conditions attached, but let’s face it: whether you are recommending a restaurant, a TV show, a person or a product, you are staking your personal reputation. You are putting at risk the trust of a valued friend or colleague – and that’s one good reason, you don’t do it very often.
Why word-of-mouth recommendations are key to your success
When it comes to your personal buying patterns, do you sometimes wonder if the CEOs of the companies and service providers where you buy regularly are even customers of their own company? Are they simply profit-oriented, you ask? Could they afford to have an efficient and friendly help desk? Could they afford to increase your customer service levels, provide
user-friendly instruction manuals or implement a friendly returns policy?
‘Can they afford not to?’ is the question now being frequently raised. The simple fact is that people who are ready to recommend your products and services buy more, negotiate less, are more loyal and require less time to service. Put simply, doing business with them is more profitable.
