CUSTOMER SERVICE - Word of Mouth

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Word of Mouth


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC

“Word of Mouth” is the most powerful form of advertising known to man. That said with the internet, e-mail, blogs, twitters and the like – the world has become a very small place and the hint of something wrong using one of these mediums could break a company before it has even started to think about growing.

Think about it – Facebook and MySpace have a readership of millions of people throughout the whole world. Irrespective of what the problem is, mention of it on either of these mediums, will ensure that at the very least an investigation takes place.

This means that the average consumer has more power than ever before and it would be foolish indeed for a Company not to take it’s customer complaints very seriously. Poor service is no longer something that should be tolerated and every complaint should be investigated and resolved as a matter of urgency.

Good ‘Word of Mouth’ is just as important as the bad kind, again because of the power of the internet. Talk about a great product or service can spread just as fast – although I am told that statistics indicated, not as often as bad service. Humans tend to lean to the ‘dark’ side I’m afraid and that means that bad service or a bad product is spoken about much more often than good service or a good product.

So in the interests of your own company, your service and your product – make sure that all complaints are dealt with as soon as they come to your attention. Make sure that the customer knows this and is given reasonable feedback regarding the kind of experience they can expect the next time they come to your company to purchase a product or a service.

Remember though, if you lift their perception, you will have to deliver that much more.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za