The "Customer Love" Issue

image 3.jpg

One of the most underrated word of mouth tools is customer love. You work so hard to earn it, but what you do with customer appreciation once you get it matters, too.

Here are three ways to get the most out of positive feedback from your fans:

  1. Make it easy
  2. Do something about it
  3. Show it off
  4. Check it out: S#!T Rough Drafts

1. Make it easy

One of the best ways to get your customers to talk about you is to simply ask them. The catch: You have to make it incredibly easy. Ritz-Carlton Hotels did it by asking customers to share six-word stories of their experiences. That's just six words, no feedback forms, no comment boxes -- it's even shorter than a tweet. And they got some great stuff out of it: "Honeymoon. Lost camera. Dreams reimagined."

The lesson: Of course six words don't tell the whole story, but they get people interested and encourage others to share their own experience. That's a great way to help make longer, harder to tell "wow moments" into something sharable.

Learn more: NY Times

2. Do something about it

When Tim Horton's commissioned a 30-second song for a commercial about hockey bringing Canadians together, they weren't expecting people to love it so much. But they did. In fact, people were asking where they could download the full version of the song from the commercial. The problem was it didn't exist -- it was only written for the 30-second spot. But instead of ignoring it, Tim Horton's hired the songwriter to finish it and made it available for fans to download from SoundCloud.

The lesson: Listen for those opportunities to stoke the fire when your fans get excited about your stuff. Tim Horton's not only responded to their fans' excitement, but also turned it into something they could share with their friends.  

Learn more: Canadian Business

3. Show it off

When one happy customer couldn't buy a jeweler a drink to show his appreciation, he shipped him the ingredients instead: a box full of everything you need to make a Long Island iced tea. (We're talking a big box of top-shelf liquor.) That's a pretty remarkable story of customer love that says a lot about the jeweler's customer service. But instead of keeping it to themselves, Titanium Jewelry shared the story in a blog post. Almost every company has stories like these, but if you don't share them, no one will know about it.

The lesson: Sharing your customer's positive feedback with everyone else doesn't have to be complicated. This short blog post turned a great internal story into something everyone can see.

Learn more: Titanium Jewelry's blog

4. Check it out: S#!T Rough Drafts

"The first draft of anything is s#!t." This quote from Ernest Hemingway inspired this series of hilarious takes on famous rough drafts. For example, what if The Grapes of Wrath started out as Grapes with Issues, Grapes with Gripes, or Raging Raisins?

Check it out: S#!T Rough Drafts

reality engine

Creative solutions for small business in Perth

Join our mailing list.


We respect your privacy.