Prospective Customers Trust Customer Reviews

A new Social Media Revolution video is on YouTube and it makes some great points about word of mouth:

1. Twenty-five percent of search results for the World's top twenty brands are links to user-generated content.  You don't own your reputation anymore -- your customers have tremendous influence on your reputation and word of mouth through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
2. Thirty-four percent of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.  Google "Jeff Jarvis Dell" to read about the impact of one blogger on Dell's customer service policies and processes.
3. Seventy-eight percent of consumers trust peer recommendations.
4. Only 18% of television campaigns have a positive return on investment.
5. Only 14% of consumers trust advertisements!
6. Social media isn't a fad -- it's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

Is your business ready?  Let Rust Reviews help!

Encouraging Linchpins

I’ve just finished reading Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin: are you indispensable?, and his discussion about the importance of linchpins made me think of a conversation I had with a potential client recently.

We were talking about how to handle Web customer reviews -- both negative and positive.  This business has a positive review in Google Maps that identifies an employee by name for providing remarkable service.  The business owner also has an MBA from one of the top business schools in the Country, and when I suggested that she make it a practice to recognize such outstanding work, she immediately started to process my suggestion in the context of written policies and procedures and employment manuals.  I had to gently redirect her thinking to something impromptu and joyful like gathering the staff together and giving her employee a bouquet of flowers as a token of appreciation.

Linchpin discusses the importance of giving gifts and the concept of emotional labor.  It also talks about the need for leadership, in addition to management, in the workplace.  My friend’s management training was causing her to think in terms of enforceable, uniform policies, but linchpin leadership thinking would have her searching for creative ways to reward and reinforce linchpin behavior in her staff.  Seth Godin might say it’s the choice between creating an organization that’s scalable and one that’s remarkable.  I think I’d choose to create a remarkable organization over a scalable one, because in the age of Web Word of Mouth, the remarkable business will be the one customers will talk about.

For help in developing your remarkable organization, please contact Rust Reviews.