Customer evangelism is one of the most affordable marketing channels. Companies don’t pay their most loyal customers to share positive feedback about their brand; nor do they pay for the promotion itself. Instead, businesses invest in the products and services their customer base is currently using in order to ensure a positive experience and encourage favorable word-of-mouth (WOM).
Fortunately, businesses don’t have to make ethically unsound decisions to leverage the power of customer evangelism. Below, we offer several suggestions about ways to amplify the happy voices of your customers without crossing ethical boundaries:
- Encourage Referrals
Create forms and pages that encourage customers to refer your product / services to others. Reduce the recommendation process to a simple “submit” button.
- Discourage Anonymity
Reveal your real identity on different digital platforms—your website, blog and social media profiles. If a contact person is nowhere to be found on your online real estate, then you are unlikely to get folks evangelizing.
- Monitor Conversations
Monitor conversations, reply quickly to customer requests and solve problems on social media. Take Starbucks for example: it has been one of the most successful brands using Twitter to engage its audience in constructive and positive conversations.
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