I was reminded today just how powerful the “word of mom” can be. This can be great for your business if the word of mom is favorable but boy oh boy can it be your worst nightmare if you have wronged a mom.
A friend of mine was a huge advocate of a particular brand of wallets and bags. So much so that she raved about them to all of her friends and had influenced at least 8 other people in buying those wallets/bags. That amazes me that one person can convince 8 other people to buy something but it is true that we listen to other moms for recommendations and are much more inclined to buy something if we know someone else that has done so and liked what they bought.
She recently contacted company X and was less than pleased with their reply. As such even though she still likes the product, the manner in which she was treated turned her off so much she will absolutely not be recommending them to her friends any more and even worse for company X, she is telling people about how poorly they handled her inquiry which gives company X an instantly bad reputation. Bad reputations do not usually translate into sales :-(
I too recently had an issue with the e-newsletter provider that we use at Raspberry Kids. I upgraded my account to the next level of number of subscribers about a week ago and just 2 days later, this company announced a promotion for 15% off if you upgraded your account. I emailed them and was told that it was not possible for the customer service rep to extend the discount to me but if I wanted to lock in to an annual account and prepay 12 months of service she would give me a 15% discount.
I said “Pardon?!”
Let’s see, I am not satisfied by your answer so what makes you think I will sign up for a year of your service. Up until this incident, I was promoting this service because to date there had not been any issues. Not only will I no longer do this, I am now on the search for a new e-newsletter provider and guess what, I found one that will give me a free 60 day trial so switching would not be too difficult. So not only will they possibly lose me as a customer, I will certainly not recommend them and now I am blogging to tell people about my negative experience.
Doesn’t everyone know the cost to retain a customer is much less than the cost to acquire a new one? That is basic business 101 so why do companies so often neglect their existing customers and why on earth would you alienate your raving fans? With the speed and power of information sharing via the likes of Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc., if you upset just one person, if they decide to share this with their network, you could have your companies reputation ruined for hundreds if not thousands of people in their list of friends/followers within seconds.
Not surprisingly, neither of these companies are on Twitter, otherwise we could have DM’d them with our concerns in the hopes they may work with us to reinstore our faith in their brands. In the meantime, they will continue to feel the wrath of mom.
We would love to hear your stories on your word (or wrath) of mom!
Sue
Sue Sinclair
Chief Executive Mom, Raspberry Kids
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