The Facts on Word of Mouth
Word of Mouth is important to business—right?
But just how important?
McKinsey & Company says it drives two-third of industries.
The London School of Economics says strong customer advocacy on behalf of a company is one of the best predictor of top-line growth.
Recent research by the Keller Fay Group is producing some very interesting results about the dynamics of word of mouth. They use a single-day diary system called TrackTalk to collect data on word of mouth activities from consumers in the USA.
Here are three finding that will surprise some:
- 70% of word of mouth occurs "face-to-face" and only 8% occurs online.
- Overwhelmingly, consumers have positive things to say about brands by a margin of more than 6 to 1.
- 78% of consumers rank word of mouth as credible at a level of 7 or higher on a 10 point scale.
Here's my spin on these findings.
Word of mouth is emotionally triggered and emotionally driven. Both the triggering and the emotional expression are harder to achieve online.
We like to help friends and associates have better experiences and therefore are more likely to passionately talk to them about it. Sure we like to vent about bad experiences but from a social interaction perspective, the negative is less appealing to the recipient.
We trust word of mouth because the person telling us puts the experience in a context that is meaningful to us. Since the peer-to-peer relationship is based on trust, the message is credible.
Word of mouth is a powerful source of influence. While businesses may not be able to manage it, they can stimulate, harness and amplify it.
0 comments »
Post new comment
MarketPlace
Drive customer loyalty, empower support teams, and reduce costs. Get social.
[Feb 22] Guest speakers from Forrester Research, Allscripts, and CustomerThink will discuss market trends and research on social customer service strategies, as well as proven tactics from the trenches. Join the live webcast on Feb 22 at 10am Pacific (1pm EST).
Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program
[March 13-14, Paris] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 33 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.
10 Steps to a Single Customer View
Linking customer data across department databases and business units improves business intelligence, customer profiling, and customer management. This paper outlines 10 steps to improve the quality of customer contact data, including physical mail, email, and telephone information.
Featured Links
|
The leader in customer relationship management and cloud computing. |
Strategic Roadmap for Digital Marketing Free e-book (no reg required). 15 articles by digital marketing thought leaders. |
CEM Training and Certification Patent-pending methodologies combine the art and science of Customer Experience Management. |
Get your event or resource listed in the MarketPlace, reaching 200,000 business leaders monthly.
For more information, contact
CustomerThink advertising sales.

0 comments | 4979 reads 






