Complainer Trainer

Gepp, A. (2019, March 22). Two Women Looking On Smartphone [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-women-looking-on-smartphone-2040745/

What is Word of Mouth (WOM)?

Word-of-mouth, in the world of marketing and consumer analysys, is the name given to the phenomena of consumers talking about a certain company, business, product or service in their day-to-day life. (Hayes, 2021)

This phenomena is always triggered by the consumer's experience! Be it positive, negative, direct (i.e the consumer directly experienced what they are talking about) or indirect (i.e the consumer delegates other people's experiences which they've heard about). (Hayes, 2021)

You can think of Word-of-mouth as if it were a chain. A person experiences something, and then tells other people about their experience. In turn those people may then tell others about what they have been told, generating a possibly endless marketing-chain. You can directly incentivize this type of marketing through publicity stunts and activities.

Word of mouth has a host of benefits over other marketing styles. For one its "free marketing" since you're relying on people to spread the word about your product, rather than you directly advertising it yourself. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it comes from reliable sources - what are you more likely to trust, an ad you saw on TV, or a personal recommendation you got from a friend? (AP Portugal Tech Language Solutions, 2019)

Beware, however, because word of mouth goes both ways: Positive Word of Mouth (PWOM) can make your business, but Negative Word of Mouth (NWOM) can break it!

Positive Word Of Mouth (PWOM)

Positive WOM is to provide information for consumers which highlights the strengths of a product or service and encourages consumers to adopt a product or service.

(Wang, 2014)

Positive Word of Mouth (PWOM) is the type of Word of Mouth that is generated when customers have positive experiences with the product/service. Products with more PWOM will inevitibly sell more and be more attractive to customers.

Generating Positive Word of Mouth is something all business should seek to accomplish. Studies have shown that a majority of consumers (over 70%) make their purchasing decisions due to positive word of mouth. Furthermore, most consumers (~90%) tend to believe and prefer word of mouth recommendations over other forms of marketing. (Weber, 2022)

Positive Word of Mouth can range from full-on recommendations given to friends, family, or to followers on social media, to small comments unpromtedly brought upon during day-to-day conversations. While, in nature, PWOM is generated from the customer's positive experiences with the product, rather than your own advertising campaign, there are ways you can foment PWOM.

First and foremost, if you want PWOM, you'll have to offer a product/service that costumers actually like - selling quality products, offering great customer support and keeping your customers happy will keep them talking about your product for longer, and will undoubtedly make them wanna share your product with the world. Offering free samples and allowing people to easily try out your product can also help in this aspect. You also need to be mindful of treating dissatisfied customers. Listen to their complaints and show them that you've improved on the areas they've criticized in order to turn your critiques into your supporters! (Weber, 2022)

All in all, the baseline idea for PWOM is: Keep your customers happy, and they'll repay you the favor by becoming your frontline brigade of publicity. In the end, the product/service/brand with the most PWOM wins!

Negative Word Of Mouth (NWOM)

Negative Word of Mouth (NWOM) is the polar opposite of Positive Word of Mouth. Whilst PWOM stems from a customers positive experiences, NWOM is a consumer's direct response to negative experiences.

Whenver a client personally experiences dissatisfaction, they're natural reaction is to complain about it. Be it to vent their frustrations, or to warn their friends to stay away from whatever product caused their disdain. This is NWOM.

It should also be noted that, since NWOM comes from personal experiences, whether the consumer's complaint is valid or not doesn't matter. As long as the costumer believes their concern to be true, they'll badmouth the product. Furthermore we can subdivide NWOM into Random and Systematic NWOM. (Richins, 1984)

Random NWOM typically occurs when a momentary lapse of quality causes a particular client to have a poor experience. Due to a lack of pattern and the sporradic nature of this type of NWOM, it tends to be easily offset by PWOM (although you should obviously avoid it nontheless). (Richins, 1984)

Systematic NWOM is more concerning. This happens when a large number of consumers voice similar complaints. This type of NWOM tends to easily gain a lot of traction and, unless addressed, might snowball until the public's perception of the company, service or product, is entirely negative, completely eclipsing all possible PWOM. (Richins, 1984)

To summarize, you should avoid NWOM at all times, by making sure client's complaints are addressed and that public's perception is more positive than negative at all times.

All done? Let's do some exercises!

References

AP Portugal Tech Language Solutions. (2019). “Word of Mouth”? Sim, o marketing de referência conquista clientes. APPortugal. https://blog.apportugal.com/pt/word-of-mouth-saiba-como-o-marketing-de-referencia-conquista-clientes

Gepp, A. (2019, March 22). Two Women Looking On Smartphone [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-women-looking-on-smartphone-2040745/

Hayes, A. (2021, March 29). What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing? Investopedia. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/word-of-mouth-marketing.asp

Nielsen Holdings. (2012, November 4). Nielsen in Global Trust and Advertising Survey Q3 2011 [Graph]. Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows. https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/trust-in-advertising.png?resize=570%2C486

Richins, M. L. (1984). >Word of Mouth Communication As Negative Information | ACR. ACRwebsite. https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/6334/volumes/v11/NA-11

Wang, J. (2014). Encyclopedia of Business Analytics and Optimization. IGI Global.

Weber, I. (2022, March 17). 9 Ways to Create Positive Word of Mouth Advertising. Mention. https://mention.com/en/blog/9-ways-to-create-positive-word-of-mouth-advertising/

Supplementary Materials

Exercises