It is a popular adage in the marketing circles that your customers are your biggest marketing expenditure. That's true to a great extent. When you do a great job in servicing your client and they are indeed happy with the work, they do not hesitate from referring your business to their other partners and allies. A common example for this is in the service industry - how many times have you heard from your friends and colleagues about this "awesome new place to eat" in the neighborhood. And how many times have you actually visited a restaurant because your friend recommended it?
The answer most probably is "many times". Because that is indeed the truth. Most of us do not hesitate to refer brands and services we love to our friends and families. It is basic human tendency. And this is exactly what we need to keep in mind while providing service to our customers.
In the modern day and age, word-of-mouth referrals can also come online on social media like Facebook and Twitter. A 'like' on the company's Facebook page is an endorsement of quality service. That is exactly why a lot of companies invest so much money and resources on getting likes to their Facebook pages. But that is not the end of it. It is equally important that you actually provide quality service to earn that respect. Or else, this investment is going to backfire because a wrong review always gains extra mileage compared to a good review.
So let us get back to the question of how to get your customers to advertise your company - one of the most common ways to do this is through public endorsements. Businesses today have a public face on the internet. Hotels, restaurants and other B2C service businesses have profiles on sites like Yelp.com where happy customers leave good reviews - when someone searches for the particular service in the area, Yelp throws up the best and popularly reviewed businesses in the region to the user. A higher rating and happy reviews is definitely an advertisement to the potential customer who is influenced by these ratings when they decide on a business.
Yelp is just one example of a service providing 'free advertisements' to businesses. There are several other websites like Freelancer.com, TripAdvisor.com, Alibaba.com, etc. that provide free advertisement in the form of reviews to businesses listed in them.
So how do services like Yelp get publicity? Through badges and ratings. Andy is an entrepreneur who offers an Yelp like service targeted at spa treatment places in South Africa. He tells us that one of the ways services like Yelp and TripAdvisor get advertisements for themselves is through offering 'badges' to their listed businesses. For example, Yelp could award "John's Furniture" with the title "Best Furniture shop in New Jersey, as rated by customers". This is a huge endorsement for John's Furniture who are encouraged by Yelp to showcase this information on their own website. Johns' customers who may not have heard about Yelp previously may now be intrigued by this award and they may choose to check the site out - thus converting to the free advertisement placed by Yelp on Johns' website.
The answer most probably is "many times". Because that is indeed the truth. Most of us do not hesitate to refer brands and services we love to our friends and families. It is basic human tendency. And this is exactly what we need to keep in mind while providing service to our customers.
In the modern day and age, word-of-mouth referrals can also come online on social media like Facebook and Twitter. A 'like' on the company's Facebook page is an endorsement of quality service. That is exactly why a lot of companies invest so much money and resources on getting likes to their Facebook pages. But that is not the end of it. It is equally important that you actually provide quality service to earn that respect. Or else, this investment is going to backfire because a wrong review always gains extra mileage compared to a good review.
So let us get back to the question of how to get your customers to advertise your company - one of the most common ways to do this is through public endorsements. Businesses today have a public face on the internet. Hotels, restaurants and other B2C service businesses have profiles on sites like Yelp.com where happy customers leave good reviews - when someone searches for the particular service in the area, Yelp throws up the best and popularly reviewed businesses in the region to the user. A higher rating and happy reviews is definitely an advertisement to the potential customer who is influenced by these ratings when they decide on a business.
Yelp is just one example of a service providing 'free advertisements' to businesses. There are several other websites like Freelancer.com, TripAdvisor.com, Alibaba.com, etc. that provide free advertisement in the form of reviews to businesses listed in them.
So how do services like Yelp get publicity? Through badges and ratings. Andy is an entrepreneur who offers an Yelp like service targeted at spa treatment places in South Africa. He tells us that one of the ways services like Yelp and TripAdvisor get advertisements for themselves is through offering 'badges' to their listed businesses. For example, Yelp could award "John's Furniture" with the title "Best Furniture shop in New Jersey, as rated by customers". This is a huge endorsement for John's Furniture who are encouraged by Yelp to showcase this information on their own website. Johns' customers who may not have heard about Yelp previously may now be intrigued by this award and they may choose to check the site out - thus converting to the free advertisement placed by Yelp on Johns' website.