We all know that word of mouth is critically important. Word-of-mouth can come from several sources including friends, acquaintances, or even a random comment on a social media post or review site.
But one type of word of mouth is more powerful than the others.
At Service Integrity, we do a lot of studies looking at the power of a staff member recommendation.
Imagine you have to buy some garden mulch at the hardware store. Some are dearer than others, but overall they look about the same.
All the manufacturers are competing for shelf space and flashy packaging, but you still don’t know what to buy.
Then a staff member comes along and you ask,
“Which would you recommend for….?”
This response has a huge impact on buying behaviour.
If you look at the example of our real world client, we found that:
- the dearer product (competitor) was 1st recommended 64% of the time and has a 56% market share. We now know that recommendation drives market share.
- the cheaper product (theirs) was only 1st recommended 31% of the time and has a 32% market share.
These recommendations are more important than others because they are at the point of sale and provided by someone seen as a product expert.It’s at this point that a lot of brands fall over with their network management.
Keep in mind, whatever your business, your recommendation has a lot of weight.
I recently recommended a service to a friend who had lots of choices, and she took the one I recommended, not the one she researched.
Don’t underestimate the power of your words, nor the words of the people selling your brand.
