I was at a birthday party last night with some friends and family. It's always fun to watch how people react to "birthday cake." Those two words will make all people, both young and old, smile from ear-to-ear. While standing around and enjoying our sugar fix, everyone kept asking my girlfriend where she got the cake? She told them it was from Publix in North Ocala. Everyone then began to rave about how amazing it tasted and talked about the icing and the how moist the cake was and... I'm making you hungry aren't I? It was fascinating to see how people wanted to know where they could get a cake just as tasty for their next celebration... the room was abuzz.
Later in the night on the long drive back to Tampa I called my dad, which is a rare event. I never expect anything other than small talk but tonight he surprised me. During our conversation we began to talk about his past experience as a grocery store manager. Without even mentioning any birthday cake or parties he randomly said the most important department in a grocery store is the bakery. He continued to say, "If a bakery screws up a birthday cake, then everyone at that party is going to know which grocery store did it and will probably never go there... every cake has to be perfect."
This led me to think about which part of my business is making the birthday cakes. What segment of my operations is going to be scrutinized by large groups of customers? Those same customers, or people in their network, will determine whether I am a delicious custom cake with icecream melting all over itself, or am I just another pathetic pastry that the baker scribbled a name on.
It is so important to realize the power of word of mouth (WOM) and how it can impact your business... positively and negatively. You cannot just sit back and hope people will talk about your business or idea. First you need to make sure your product and company is worth promoting... if it isn't then they'll probably bash it, and if it's just average then they won't talk about you at all! After you've come up with the perfect recipe you need to actively pursue the customers who will talk the most.
Here are some tips from Andy Sernovitz and his book Word of Mouth Marketing. Buy it on Amazon.
A good word of mouth program is built on finding and taking care of your talkers:
- Identify the right talkers.
- Create a communication channel to reach them regularly.
- Give them the topics to talk about.
- Keep them happy and motivated.
To do these things really well, always remember the three reasons people talk. They want to feel good, they want to help others, and they want to belong to a group. Work with these motivations to keep people talking."
I don't know about you but I want my customers to talk positively and passionately about me and my company, and I don't care if they are talking with their mouths full... actually I'd prefer it.
Let me ask you this... what area of your business is making the birthday cakes, and what can you do to make them better?
Call Swerve Communications Group, LLC in Tampa, FL, and let us help you construct an advertising and
creative communication campaigns to show how deliciously mouth watering your business and products are.