With Facebook marching toward 500,000,000 users, it looks like social influence is gaining power. What business people are looking for are ways to tap into that power and generate positive word of mouth conversations around their brands and products. The good news is, it’s fairly simple to create buzz.
Last week I was in London once again. This time, I stayed in a hotel way off the tourist trail and 1.5 miles or more away from the closest tube station. Most of the restaurants and shoppes nearby closed up by the time I made it back to the hotel each night (and it wasn’t THAT late!).
One night I returned to my hotel room, opened the cupboard where the in-room coffee supplies were stored, and searched for a packet of decaf coffee. There was none. So, I walked down three flights of stairs and to the front desk. “Do you have any decaf coffee?” I asked. “Let me check,” the attendant replied. “No, it looks like we’re out of decaf, but please wait for just a moment,” he continued.
He walked around the desk and out the front door. A few minutes later he returned carrying a jar of Nescafe decaf coffee. When he handed it to me, I said, “Did you just go to the store and buy this for me?” He said, “Yes. We’re out of decaf.”
Want positive word of mouth? Do the unexpected; expect nothing in return
You may be thinking, “That’s no big deal.” Well, the week before I stayed in the gorgeous, brand new, contemporary Radisson BLU in Bristol. The floors are marble, the main dinning room first rate, and the late night bar well-appointed. They even had free Wi-Fi and wired high-speed Internet! But, they had no decaf in the room either.
When I went to the front desk at the Radisson BLU and asked, “Do y’all have any decaf coffee,” the well-trained and smartly dressed attendent said, “Let me check” and then returned empty-handed and said, “I’m sorry. We’re out of decaf coffee.”
The Radisson BLU employee, no doubt, was perfectly within the bounds of “the procedures,” followed protocol, and was really out of decaf coffee. He was professional, courteous, and made an effort to take care of me. He wasn’t remarkable. He did nothing that would have made him the subject of a blog post (not that that is a goal, by the way), except as a contrast to someone who was remarkable.
The remarkable attendent was at the Pasha Hotel at 158 Camberswell Road in London, England. His name is Levent Aksoy.
What did Levent do at the Pasha Hotel that created the opportunity for positive word of mouth conversation?
- He did the unexpected.
- He expected nothing.
He didn’t reference a policy or procedure book before acting. Instead of worshiping policy, his heart was tuned into purpose. His INSTINCT was to solve his customer’s problem and he acted immediately on it.
So, if you really want to stimulate positive word of mouth conversations about you,
- Do the unexpected.
- Expect nothing in return.
You probably won’t find this in your employee handbook.
{ 11 comments }
Napoleon Melton Jr. wrote on Facebook:
Great post! But what if you do the unexpected but yet you're still unable to help a customer get what they need? Why do most employees feel like they have to be programmed like robots? I absolutely hate the robot feel because a) we go through the motions and b) it prevents us from doing what we think is right because if we don't follow protocol, we could get reprimanded and possibly fired. Just thinking out loud in my head.
Yep, corporations set up policies, procedures, and policing to ensure no one is remarkable. The goal of systems is to minimize variance of outcomes (we'll settle for morbid mediocrity, as long as it's predictable and within a certain tolerance).
That's one of the reasons why this is the age of opportunity for small businesses. Sure, Wal-Mart is crushing mom-n-pops, but crushing them on price alone (okay, they DO have selection and those greeters at the front, too). Wal-Mart MUST have standard operating procedures.
Small-marts can blow Wal-Mart away by doing what Wal-Mart is structurally prevented from doing: be remarkable.
Nicely put. As a small business owner myself, I rely heavily upon word of mouth referrals.
I always strive to be the absolute best there is at what I do.
I should probably be more proactive requesting referrals, but somehow I feel that if I did a good enough job to warrant a referral, I will receive the referral.
Thanks James.
You're doing a good job building your business. You seem to be very focused and consistent in being active online and off.
On our radio program last week, we interviewed Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals. As soon as our MP3 file is ready, I'll post it so you can hear what he had to say about making referrals happen.
Earlier this year I spoke with Bob for another radio program. Here's my radio interview with Bob Burg talking about his newest book, Go Givers Sell More.
Just doing that little bit extra resonates so strongly with the customer.
Just doing that little bit extra resonates so strongly with the customer.
Just doing that little bit extra resonates so strongly with the customer.
Just doing that little bit extra resonates so strongly with the customer.
Thanks, Trey – this is a great story to repeat to my marketing students!
great story
Fab post Trey, its the simplest things that have the biggest impact. Manners cost nothing (apart from a jar of coffee) and thats all Levent did. No it won't be in the staff manual but it was important enough to him because he knows that customers are not easily replaceable. He had enough compassion to look for a way to make it happen rather than take the easier, yet more inapt option The Radisson took!