Word of Mouth.

"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. 

Word of mouth is very powerful."- Jeff Bezos

The power of word-of-mouth is exemplified in something that my father once told me. "Do something great for your customers, and they'll tell one person. Do something wrong for your customers, and they'll tell ten." I'm unsure of the accuracy of those statistics. Regardless, the point is communicated- Word of mouth can work positively, or negatively for your company. If you screw up, it's huge. If you do good, it potentially goes unheard. 


Here are some interesting stats:

• 16,000- The number of words spoken a day by an average person. (University of Arizona)
• 200 Million- the number of word of mouth recommendations made everyday in Canada. (Agent Wildfire)
• 93%- Percentage of consumer purchase decisions primarily influenced by word of mouth. (NOP World)
• The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers. (Keller Fay, WOMMA, 2010)
• 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)
• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases, according to ZenithOptimedia. (AdAge, April, 2008)
• 4%- Estimated recall of TV advertisements from the last show we watched, down from 34% in 1965.(Newspaper Bureau Association)

Word of mouth is more powerful than ever, and it's imperative that companies use this to their advantage. Create something worth talking about- deliver exceptionally in one area, be it customer service, quality, product customization, and leverage that to your best ability. Get people talking.