A very common misconception among young businessmen who are jumping into their chosen fields is that word of mouth advertising is something that happens by chance.

This is obviously not the case! You must give people something to talk about, through competitive prices, great customer service and excellent products!

Word of mouth actually works in both ways, it actually only takes one dissatisfied customer to equal one hundred satisfied ones. After all angry people talk a lot louder than those who had a pleasant experience. If you want that word of mouth advertising that will bring in the business, you have to generate it yourself.

What we will do here is look at some of the ways to get people talking (in a good way) about your company, product or service.

As we said earlier, it’s harder to get people who are satisfied and pleased with your business to go out and tell one friend than it is to get one angry customer to tell the world. This is human nature and a big roadblock nearly every company most overcome. People love to deliver bad news. They feel they are doing people a great service by telling them to avoid a certain business. Let us not forget, this gives the customer an illusion of power. If they have enough friends and enough scope of influence, it’s more than an illusion; it is a fact. One angry patron can create enough bad publicity to diminish the goodwill garnered by a thousand satisfied customers. What is therefore needed to neutralize this? You have to go above and beyond to make sure the people who had a good experience with your company go and tell their friends about it. Under promise and over deliver.

An easy way to produce positive word of mouth advertising is enlisting the help of those close to you. Get them to tell their friends and coworkers about your business. They can do so with full disclosure, or they can act as though they were just customers. Either way can create goodwill throughout the community. If they opt for the full disclosure method (which may be necessary with their closest friends), the people they tell will naturally want to use your business as they will be helping out people they know. If they don’t tell people they know you, then they come across simply as happy customers compelled to get the word out.

Ever since the conception of business, when word of mouth was the only form of advertising available. There is nothing that has been more powerful than the words of the people using the products. People will believe the word of another over any paid advertising campaign. This is even if it has to be generated by you yourself! This can turn friends, neighbors and coworkers and their network of acquaintances into customers. You and your small business can just let it all take over after that. The most important thing is you don’t disappoint your customers. Remember, it is just takes one angry customer….that can make all the difference.