Measure Customer Satisfaction and Win Word-Of Mouth Recommendations

When you measure customer satisfaction and find it high, capitalize on that fact to promote word-of-mouth advertising. Your satisfied customers are your most valuable assets.

A great example that shows how valuable it is to measure customer satisfaction comes from one of my appearances. I conducted a program for a large audience in the Philippines. Sponsors included Citibank, Qualcomm and Micro-Warehouse, a distributor of 3Com's Palm Pilot.

We were having a great time raffling away three Palm Pilots, so I asked the audience, "How many of you actually use a Palm Pilot, and have it with you here today?" Fourteen people responded, and I invited them up on stage to help measure customer satisfaction.

As they lined up with Palm Pilots in hand, I handed the microphone to the first person and said, "Please tell us how you feel about your Palm Pilot." This was totally spontaneous. The first fellow took the microphone and said, "This is my life!" The second person blurted out, "I couldn't live without it. All my activities and information are right here!"

The third person, an attractive woman, said, "This holds all my secrets." The crowd roared. She added, "Fortunately, it's password protected." The crowd roared again.
This continued down the line until all fourteen owners had given their short but potent testimonials.
My eye caught the sponsor's face in the back of the room. He was glowing with delight. And for good reason: positive word-of-mouth is trusted, remembered and acted upon more than any other form of advertising.

Key Learning Points

Asking for testimonials from your customers makes good sense; sharing these words with others makes good business. When you measure customer satisfaction and find it high, use it to boost your products or services.

Action Steps

Ask your loyal customers for testimonials for your products and service. Post these affirmative comments where others can read them, enjoy them, and be positively influenced by them. Measure customer satisfaction and see if you can use this lesson to help your business.

Ron Kaufman is the world's leading educator and motivator for upgrading customer service and uplifting service culture. He is author of the bestselling UP Your Service! books and founder of UP Your Service! College. Visit the UpYourService library for more articles and tips about how to improve and measure customer satisfaction.