Word-of-Mouth has been called the “search killer” because there is little if any need to do a search when someone you trust recommends a solution to your problem. Think about this for a moment with how you function and operate in your daily life. Now think about it with regard to your website/blog and how you want people to find you.
Do you really care about SEO (Search Engine Optimization)…being found via the search engines and being at the top of the Google or Bing search list? Would you really care IF EVERYONE WENT DIRECTLY TO YOUR WEBSITE? Nope…because your visitors bypassed the entire search process and went directly to your website. And they went there because someone they trusted told them to go there and see what it is you were talking about or to buy something. This is how WORD-OF-MOUTH WORKS.
But this isn’t about SEARCH or SEO…this is about TIME. According to Forrester Research, they found that 77% of the people surveyed said TIME was the most important thing to them today. It was, without a doubt, the most valuable commodity they have and they want two things…
- More of it
- Not to waste it
Here’s my question…“ARE YOU “INVESTING” IN SAVING YOUR CUSTOMERS TIME OR ARE YOU COSTING THEM TIME? Think about that question for a minute…the answer can give you, a leader, great insight into how your company operates with regard to your customers.
The most critical component is what you are doing to/for your customers in the area of saving them time or making their time more efficient. If what you do COSTS THEM TIME, they will eventually find other places to do business with who are not wasting their most valuable asset…TIME. The one phrase I hear over and over that demonstrates there is an incredible opportunity for companies to take advantage of today is, “I can’t believe how much time I waste or how much time it costs me when I work with ABC Company.”
Here’s the opportunity…FIND WAYS TO SAVE YOUR CUSTOMERS TIME…GIVE TIME BACK TO THEM WITH WHATEVER YOU ARE OFFERING. If you do this, they will love you. And when they love you they TELL THEIR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES…because you have saved them time and made the most out of the time they spent with you. .
If your customers never had to do a search to find you this would save them time. And the number one place your potential customers go first today to get high quality and trusted information is their network of friends, colleagues, and social media connections. They ask these groups the question BEFORE they INVEST TIME in doing the research and searching the millions of entries in the search engines. The FIRST PLACE THEY GO is their own network because they TRUST it…considerably more than doing a random search!!
Here’s a great example to demonstrate how this really works on a very simple restaurant. A few months ago I was visiting my good friend and colleague, Joe Castleberry, the President of Northwest University. As we were talking about a variety of ideas around customer obsession, marketing, and social media, I asked him to test this out while we were meeting. He was heading to Tacoma for a meeting later that week and so I asked him to go onto his facebook account and simply ask them to give him recommendations of great Mexican restaurants they loved.
We went back to our discussion and within minutes, his phone started to buzz…comments were already coming in from his trusted facebook network and giving him specific restaurants his friends have tried and love. He now had a “qualified and trusted” list to choose from. WHY would Joe ever need to go to a search engine, type in “Mexican restaurant in Tacoma” and scour through the tons of entries in Google? He doesn’t…he also doesn’t have the time…his trusted network just saved him a ton of time and gave him a list of some of the best Mexican restaurants in the area.
Google isn’t afraid of other search engines…they are afraid of Joe’s friends. Joe’s friends can give him better (trusted) information than he could ever get from a search engine.
If your business rocks and delivers and incredibly awesome customer experience, your network has no problem…zero…telling others to go buy from you because you are remarkable. Who wouldn’t want to go directly to a trusted source and skip all the time researching your options?
This is why WORD-OF-MOUTH SAVES YOU TIME. If someone has an awesome experience and they tell others, they just saved you time. You now can go to a business that is “trusted in your network” of friends and colleagues. You don’t have to waste time doing more research, you have the answer. And when you have a trusted answer, you listen to it and act upon it. This is a HUGE TIME SAVINGS when you add this up throughout the year.
The OPPORTUNITY for any business is to create such an incredibly remarkable experience that people love it and want to tell others about it. And when they tell others…people who trust you…they listen and act upon it. It saves them time and it gives them a higher quality, more trusted answer than they could get from any search activity. Build this as a business strategy and you can take all the money you are investing into “getting found” on the search engines and put it into your customers. To me, this is a much better investment because you can get a phenomenally better return on your investment.
Build a business strategy that OBSESSES OVER YOUR CUSTOMER and they will see how you can SAVE THEM TIME. When they see this happening, they will not only love you as a business but they will spread the word and tell their friends. This is a strategy that pays off over and over again and well into the future.
