When you project the fact that you are satisfied with the work you do for people and the output of what your company does for an entire industry, this creates the energy that can drive morale in a company through the roof. Pride in service is a similar concept related to the theme being written about today.
Do you believe in what you are offering to others professionally? Do you believe in the products and services being sold to others, whether B2C or B2B? As an owner or senior manager, do you believe in the efforts and output of your employees, contractors, client, vendors, etc.? If you don’t, then it’s far more difficult to project that universal confidence in written and spoken form which drives industry buzz and growth potential for people and companies.
What’s the point of all this and how does it relate to the usual theme for my blog postings? Simple. Word of mouth marketing, also known as viral marketing is a concept that is not new or original. The application and management of word of mouth marketing is an area that people are speaking more about these days. I am a very big advocate of the concept that the most valuable promotion you or your company can ever benefit by and quantify is positive word of mouth.
We always read about the potential and actual negative impact of viral marketing. It is true that if you have upset people or not fulfilled their needs as clients if you are a company, then you will definitely suffer from negative visibility from clients or peers with an active voice. For the moment, set that aside. Focus on the equally awesome potential for ROI-laden promotion for you or your company when you do right by people and they are happy enough and passionate enough about the experience to tell people on your behalf publicly.
This category of business or entity promotion can be tracked for ROI as well. While the notion of tracking cost and returns in this area may seem abstract, consider this: if you are a company that needs to spend money on staff and technology to maintain technical support, customer service or sales teams, you can spend company time, resources and money on lower cost or higher cost options. If for one category of need, you opt to invest in hiring and training talented people and matching them with higher end tech systems versus going the ‘budget” route, see how much positive buzz you get from satisfied customers or vendors.
The difference in cost between spending company resources more or less aggressively is measurable. Equally measurable are the following: how much repeat/expanded business you see from existing clients/vendors, how many new clients/vendors are sent via referral from existing satisfied folks, etc. At the end of six months or a year of testing this, you will have enough data to evaluate the ROI from this process. At the end of the day, it is almost always possible to track and evaluate ROI from any investment of time, money or other resources by companies and people.
