In the course of a year, the average business will spend thousands of dollars on advertisement. Rightly so, if we don’t advertise our businesses, how will the public know that we exist? From print marketing, to websites, to social media, there is a cost for all of these. Even social media, which is for the most part free, but if you want to up the ante for your advertisement, then you pay to run your ad through their click marketing tools. Let me go on the record by saying, “That Word of Mouth is not only the best advertisement, it is also the cheapest advertisement.”
Word of Mouth Travels Fast
Have you ever heard the old saying, “Word of Mouth travels fast?” Well it’s the truth. Suppose you were a restaurant, and you sold a bad stock of meat that caused food poisoning to about 100 different people. There’s not enough money in the world to keep this bad publicity from reaching the public. On the opposite side, suppose your restaurant had the cleanest facility, the best food, and outstanding prices, this would not be enough to drive the public to your business. Understand that you have to convince your customers that you have the cleanest restaurant, the best tasting food, and unbeatable prices. Once the customer is convinced, then you have just gained yourself some free advertisement.
The Ratio of Verbal References
If a customer is convinced that your business and service is incredible, then they are going to verbally refer you to everyone they know. The average satisfied customer will tell a total of 10 people about their pleasant experience. Once these 10 people taste and see that your business is good, then each one of those 10 people will tell 10 other people and so forth. Now because of 1 satisfied customer, there is now a chain reaction of 100 customers, and those 100 customers, eventually can turn into a thousand and so on.
Not Every Customer is a Repeat Customer
The bad news is, that not every customer is a repeat customer, but because of the word of mouth referrals, you now have a legitimate clientele that justifies you being in business. Business isn’t always about seeing how many customers you can get, even though the more the merrier. If you can focus on pleasing the customers that you already have, then you never know, one of your customers might just recommend you to the customer that turns into your number one supplying client.
God Bless!