Because “we provide excellent customer service” has never caused anyone to phone a friend.
Businesses spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to get people talking about them.
We advertise. Post on LinkedIn. Send emails. Produce videos. Attend events. Occasionally invent a new acronym and hope everyone looks impressed.
But perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.
Instead of “How do we get people talking about us?”, try:
“What are we doing that’s actually worth talking about?”
It’s a considerably more uncomfortable question.
Nobody Talks About Perfectly Adequate
Think about the last time you received completely acceptable service.
The delivery arrived when expected. The person answered your question. The invoice contained numbers in roughly the correct places.
Did you immediately contact your friends?
Probably not.
Nobody bursts into the pub shouting:
“You won’t believe this. I ordered something, AND IT ARRIVED.”
That’s not remarkable.
That’s Tuesday.
People talk about experiences that are unusually good, surprisingly thoughtful, wonderfully easy, or catastrophically awful.
Everything in the middle quietly disappears.
Remarkable Doesn’t Have to Mean Expensive
This is where businesses sometimes reach for the budget.
Perhaps we need gifts! An app! A loyalty programme! A Customer Delight Transformation
Initiative!
Steady on.
Often, the things customers remember are tiny.
A phone call returned quickly, someone remembering their name. An engineer taking five minutes to explain something properly. A genuine apology when things go wrong. Someone solving a problem without transferring them through six departments and eventually to Keith, who apparently only works alternate Wednesdays.
Small moments become stories.
And stories travel.
Your Customers Are Already Marketing You
This is one of the themes I explore in Episode 14 of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing.
Customers now share experiences through reviews, recommendations, social media and everyday conversations. That means customer experience has become one of the most persuasive forms of advertising a business has because it’s other people doing the advertising for you.
The most powerful message about your business may not be the one your marketing team carefully writes.
It’s someone saying: “Use these people. They’re brilliant.”
That’s difficult to beat.
Be Worth Talking About
So perhaps the next marketing meeting doesn’t need another discussion about reach, impressions and engagement.
Ask something simpler: What happened in our business this week that a customer might genuinely tell someone else about?
If the answer is nothing, you may have discovered a bigger marketing opportunity than another campaign.
And if you’d like to explore the idea further, tune in to Episode 14: Customer Experience Is the
New Advertising: Why Your Customers Have Become Your Marketing Department.
Because good marketing gets people to notice you.
A remarkable experience gives them something to talk about.
