The WOMOW Blog

WOMOW Re-Launching as Word Of Mouth Online - WOMO!

2011-10-18T16:14:00.021+11:00

We have an announcement to make...WOMOW is about to become WOMO - Word Of Mouth Online! We'll soon be rolling out some changes that give us a new name and a brand new look.

Why? We've learned that two W's in a word is one too many and we're sick to death of people getting the name wrong! So we've shortened our name to Word Of Mouth Online Pty Ltd or WOMO - which is exactly what we're all about. We're now leaner, cleaner and with a lot more spunk.

Check out our new logo below...
We hope you'll agree that our new look is much more current and professional. We're sticking with the distinctive orange (that most of you love and a few of you hate), and in the process, we're introducing some new features to improve the experience for both members and businesses.

Check out our new home page below:

In this process, we've taken on board the feedback that we've received from many businesses and made quite a lot of improvements. For instance, businesses using WOMO's Happy Customers Program will be able to;

Control first impressions by choosing your favourite review to appear first
Include incentives on Review-Us Flyers to encourage more reviews (a sure fire way to drive more reviews)
Feature your Deals or Special Offers throughout the WOMO website where people are looking for businseses like yours. These will appear on your Cross Advertising which will be more prominent.
Access re-styled, re-vamped flyers, stickers and certificates to promote your business.
Have a much cleaner, more professional looking profile with more images and less WOMO branding. It's a real "Brag Page" you can use to let the world know how great your business really is! See an example of a new profile below:

Don't worry - all of your existing links will still work. We'll also send you more details in the next few days.

If you've ever thought of joining the Happy Customers Program, it's now better than ever!

This new site is something we've been working on for a while so we're very excited to release it to you. And if you notice anything that seems strange or in error, please let us know. (We're all about customer feedback - literally!)

Word-of-Mouth Online has Doubled our Revenue!

2011-10-13T12:43:00.022+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Can Businesses Review Themselves?

2011-10-04T12:53:00.008+11:00

Err - no!
However, there is a way that businesses owners can upload reviews on behalf of their customers.

If you receive feedback in another format - eg a letter, email or verbal feedback - you can enter this as a review.

To do this, just log in to the Business Owners section on WOMOW. (If you don't have a login, go to your listing page and claim your listing by clicking on the "Is this your business?" link.) Then go to the "Your Reviews" option in the menu. At the top of that page you'll see a button that says "Submit a Review".

It's important to note that you must enter the customer's name and email address and the review only gets published once the customer approves it (we're not silly!). Your customer will be sent a email asking them to click on a link to check and approve their review - but essentially, it's a one-click process.

Submitting your own reviews is a simple way to build up more reviews for your business without requesting that your customers do anything different.

The more reviews your business has, the more often you'll be found (on WOMOW and in Google), and the more you'll convince potential customers to try your business.

Our data shows that businesses with 5 or more reviews get about 10 times as much traffic as those with only one review! And once businesses have 10 or more reviews, we provide a Money-Back Guarantee on our Happy Customers Program - because it's guaranteed to be bringing in new clients (we've only had to pay this out once in 5 years!).

Find out more about using Word-of-Mouth Marketing to promote your business.

Why Advocates Recommend Brands: What's in it for the reviewer?

2011-10-02T21:50:00.009+11:00

Let's face it, the holy grail of marketing is positive word-of-mouth. Particularly when it's online.

Why? Because when word-of-mouth is online it has a FAR greater reach as the internet serves as an amplifier to reach significantly larger audiences. Did you realise that over 80% of all purchases start with a search on the internet, AND 78% of consumers trust online recommendations above ALL other marketing and advertising? (Nielsen research)

All good and well, but how do you get some customer love? Why would anyone bother recommending your business? Thankfully the researchers at Comscore, Yahoo! have recently given some attention to this question. Because the facts are that plenty of people ARE talking about businesses and brands they love - all the time. So what's motivating them to do it?

Looking down this list, there is a fair amount of altruistic behaviour - people actually want to help good businesses and inform others of the information they know.

There's also some ego-drivers here - evidence that people like to be seen as the influencers and sources of information and advice for others. Nothing wrong with that! In fact, that's what defines the "advocates" or "key influencers" for your business.

So business owners...what can you actually do with this information? Appeal to these natural drivers, that's what!

Let customers know how much reviews help other people (how happy they are when they find a great business, and by helping them avoid bad experiences)
Let customers know how much reviews help your business, and how much you appreciate anyone that reviews you (you won't sound desperate, you'll sound honest)
Let customers know that literally thousands and thousands of people are using reviews everyday to help them make decisions (Australian's refer to WOMOW for advice about 25,000 times a day!)

Plus, check out our 12 Tips for Getting More Customer Reviews here...

Source: Yahoo / ComScore Networks study

Domino's Pizza Shows Reviews at Times Square, New York

2011-09-19T23:24:00.016+10:00

Taking transparency to new heights, Domino's Pizza chain recently ran an enormous advertisement out of its customer reviews.

Customers loved seeing their reviews displayed and more importantly, Domino's showed the world that they are serious about listening to customers and providing a great experience.

The campaign was part of a turnaround following poor feedback about their pizzas and effectively communicated the subsequent improvements they made. The reviews were filtered for language, but not for sentiment. Domino’s spokesman Chris Brandon says about 80% of the feedback on the billboard was positive.

While this campaigning is somewhat extreme, it does show just how influencial top marketers believe reviews to be. For most businesses a live billboard is out of the question, but are you showing your reviews on your website*? On Facebook or other social media (why not post updates/tweet about each new review)? In your quotes / proposals? As part of your email signature?

Consider how you can get more leverage from your positive reviews...

*In case you missed it, WOMOW has a widget to display a live feed of your reviews on your website. See an example here and email us for your unique code (it's just a single line of code you add to your website).

A Strong Online Presence is Fuelling our Growth

2011-09-19T14:12:00.013+10:00

A year ago accounting firm, Pronto Tax Returns & Business Services had 3 staff. Today it has 5 (soon to be 6). Sales for the last 2 months were up 64% on last year and they just had their busiest month ever!

Great results at any time, but even better in 2011 when everyone else is whining about the economy being bad. So what are they doing differently?
Owner Warrick Nancarrow attributes their growth to two factors;

A Strong Online Presence
Happy Customers that are primed for referrals

When asked to explain more, Warrick says;

"We do most of our marketing online - and WOMOW is a big part of that. We try to give potential customers the best chance of finding us, and convince them that we'll do a great job."

"When we first started online marketing, it was to attract any new business, but what we didn't realise was that we're able to attract a better type of client than other mediums. Clients that come to us from WOMOW and other online sources tend to be quite astute and driven more by the quality of service, not the cost."

Online marketing also tends to be relatively inexpensive. In the last 12 months Warrick says that Pronto has had "at least twenty-five new clients from WOMOW" and any one of those could cover the cost of the program, so it's great value for money.

The other part of the equation is "the way we do business". Warrick says their process is more all-encompassing than most, and clients come away feeling like they're getting real value-for-money (maximum deductions, etc). "Our approach encourages them to talk about us - both in the real world and online. All of which helps fuel our growth."

So is this the normal state-of-play for the accounting industry? Warrick says no.

"It seems that consumers have embraced online media, but most businesses are still a few steps away. The idea that customer reviews can increase your exposure and generate new business is not on the radar of most businesses...yet!"

Why Word-of-Mouth Online Works

2011-09-13T19:17:00.015+10:00

Many small businesses we speak to are somewhat daunted by terms like 'word-of-mouth online' and 'online reputation'. Or they think it's not relevant for them. Or they know that word-of-mouth is powerful, but don't know how this relates to their own marketing activities.

Before you flick the page thinking this is not for you, word-of-mouth marketing does NOT need to be a kooky stunt / viral video / give away product / or even an amazing campaign. Instead, it can simply be a consistent effort to get people talking about your business - and in the case of online word-of-mouth - doing that talking online.

In my mind, word-of-mouth marketing is undoubtedly the most powerful way for small and medium businesses to build a great reputation (by the way, this is what big business calls 'their brand'). It's a substitute for spending large amounts of money on mainstream media to generate awareness and preference for your business.

If you think about it, online word-of-mouth is perfect for most businesses. Let's break it down;

Question 1: Where is your market looking?
Answer: The Internet.

In fact, Neilsen Netratings research found that more than 80% of all purchases for goods and services start with a search on the internet, for both home and business! Did you realise that people are using the internet to find hairdressers, plumbers, mechanics, restaurants, online shops, accountants, travel destinations, dry cleaners, wedding services, doctors, gardeners, childcare - YES EVERYTHING! Even if you don't turn to the internet for everything, there's a good chance many of your target market does.

Adam Adler from ADM Motors quipped: "I never thought that so many people would be looking online for a mechanic or that customer reviews could make such a difference – boy was I wrong! We provide a good service and it means that the extra care we take is paying off."

Obviously the internet is not the only place people look, but most business owners vastly underestimate the number of people searching online for their type of business.

Question 2: Who do they trust?
Answer: Other consumers.

This is why it is soooo important to build up a glowing reputation online.

The researchers at Nielsen also found that: 78% of people trust consumer recommendations above ALL other types of advertising and marketing. And eMarketer found that: Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted -- nearly 12 times more -- than descriptions that come from businesses.

That's right. Reviews are more believable than advertising. Or, as one business put it: "When you tell people how good you are, it's bragging; when other people say it, it's proof." Plus, the more reviews there are, the more trust consumers place in them. At WOMOW, we see a 'tipping-point' at around 10 reviews.

Dee Davies from The Clear Skin Clinic explains that for their business; "Once [people] read what our customers say about our services, they feel like they’ve found the right place and make an appointment straight away."

And Chris Dimos from Mr Verandah concurs; "The people that come to Mr Verandah from WOMOW just want to go ahead straight away. They don't need to go through the whole trust-building stage as they already see us as experts in our field. Word-of-mouth is a really good way of marketing our business - it fits really well with our business philosophy of letting our work speak for itself."

Businesses that view online word-of-mouth as too hard or not relevant, are really missing out. When people's recommendations are online, they reach millions of people, and most importantly, they reach them at exactly the right time - when the prospective customer decides they need your type of business and starts their research online.

Even boring businesses can create great word-of-mouth!
If you're interested in generating online word-of-mouth for your business, check out our Happy Customers Program here.

Can Consumer Reviews be Trusted?

2011-09-02T11:42:00.015+10:00

Why I'm not worried about Fake Reviews

A question we sometimes get from businesses and consumers alike is "how do we know the reviews are real?". It's also a question I was recently asked about in an interview.

It seems that most people are confident in reviews - in fact a recent Nielsen survey found that 78% of people trust consumer recommendations above ALL other types of advertising and marketing.

This makes sense - after all, we've been relying on reviews by "professionals" for eons (think movies reviewers, restaurant critics, etc). These are just one datasource, whereas reviews by real people like us give us many different points of view. But given how powerful reviews can be, maintaining their integrity is certainly something we treat very seriously. We've spent plenty of time developing and refining our systems to ensure everyone can rely on our reviews. In fact, we go to extreme lengths to fish out the small minority of people that try to abuse the system. Because of this, I know that reviews can be trusted. Here's an explanation of the three approaches we take to quality control...

Smart Technology
We use a number of automated checks to hunt down fake reviews. We obviously can't explain the exact filters, but we can say that if someone tries to submit an untruthful review, it's likely to trigger our "suspect review process". This code looks at a number or different factors and combines them determine the likelihood of each review being fraudulent.
Reviewers' TrustFactors
In real life, we trust different people differently. Someone we know a lot about, that has given us reliable recommendations before can be trusted much more than someone we've just met that has never given us a recommendation. On WOMOW, we replicate this with the member TrustFactor. Reviews from members with a low TrustFactor do not have as much weighting as reviews from members with a high TrustFactors. To build up a high TrustFactor, users have to provide verifiable contact details and gain a reputation on WOMOW.
Community Sensibility Checks
When users or businesses or our team see something that doesn't seem right, these are flagged for us to review. Anyone can do this by ticking the "Inappropriate or Suspect" box which appears after each review. Based on the feedback, we then assess the review and either contact the reviewer to verify details, or remove the review entirely if it breaches our Fair Play Policy. Most fake reviews give themselves away by being too over-the-top and totally unbalanced. In a sense, the whole community helps clean up any misleading reviews.

But what if...
Even if false reviews get through these hurdles, they are usually corrected later. Consider the two possible types of deceptive reviews;

A fake negative review by someone that's out to get a business (a competitor or disgruntled employee).
A fake positive review entered by the business themselves (or by friends/family they enlist)

In the first case, these are found and queried by the business owners pretty quickly as most businesses have automated alerts and/or regularly Google themselves - all businesses should do this as a matter of course. (Businesses that claim their listing on WOMOW get emailed whenever they're reviewed.)

In the second case, if a business somehow gets some fake positive reviews published, they'll pretty quickly start getting customers coming to them from WOMOW. If their service doesn't live up to those reviews, they'll soon start getting some negative reviews. So in a sense, the system is self-correcting.

Consumer reviews aren't perfect and there's going to be the odd instance of false reviews sneaking in, but these are by far the minority, and reviews are still the best way that I know to find and choose great businesses. Personally, I've discovered heaps of great businesses based on other people's reviews (and I know others are enjoying using lots of businesses I've recommended).

Creating a Reviews Tab on your Facebook Page

2011-08-26T12:35:00.012+10:00

Following our recent description of how Genius Printing had created a Reviews Tab on their Facebook page, we had several enquiries asking for detailed instructions on how to do this. So, if you want to create a page like this one, here's how...

Firstly you need to add a static HTML application to your business' Facebook page. There are lots that will do the job, but we used this one: http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=190322544333196&pages
Click to Add this to your Facebook page.
Next you need to change the name of this tab (the default name for this one is "Welcome"). To do this, go to the "Apps" menu option for your Facebook page, and find this app (called "Static HTML: iframe tabs"). Under this, click on "Edit Settings" and then change the Custom Tab Name to "Reviews" and click save.
Then click "View Page" to see your Facebook page. On the left, you'll now see your new "Reviews" tab as a menu item. Click the "EDIT" link just under this.
Next you need to add the content for this page. You can have different content for people that "like" your page, or the same content for everyone. (We just did the same content for everyone.) In the top box, enter the HTML, Javascript or other code for the content you wish to appear (could be an image as well).
To add the WOMOW Widget that scrolls through your reviews, you'll need to get your unique code for this from us. You can customise this as you please but the exact code that we entered is shown below:

Please note that the text in red here should specifically relate to your business listing on WOMOW. We also changed the width and height of the widget to be 500 x 300 (shown in the first red section).
Once you've done that, just click "Save and View Tab" at the top of the page. (While we were editing, we found it easier to open up the Facebook page in another browser and refresh this until we were happy with it.)
Good luck!

Marketing by the Numbers: A Case Study

2011-07-28T21:36:00.017+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Promoting your Reviews on Facebook

2011-07-26T07:32:00.012+10:00

Does your business have a Facebook page? You could be using your WOMOW reviews to show your Facebook fans how important customer service is to your business. It's a great way to give people more confidence in your service and convert browsers into buyers.

That's exactly what Genius Printing has recently done. They've cleverly created a new "Reviews on WOMOW" page and loaded up their WOMOW Widget which automatically shows their recent reviews*.

They've also included the WOMOW Widget and "Review Us" button on the bottom of their webpages. Click here to see this.

“Imagine if on the door of every store, there was an LCD display showing the feedback from the last 5 customers. You would instantly be able to see what kind of service you're going to get,
before you even walk in the door,” Rob from Genius Printing says.

“Our business is built on customer service and we’ve always placed a high emphasis on collecting and displaying customer feedback. With WOMOW, we’re taking this a step further by having feedback at an independent site that's trusted by consumers.”

To encourage customers to leave reviews, Genius Printing are now offering a 10% discount voucher to customers that post their feedback on WOMOW. And to increase their exposure on WOMOW and give people an extra reason to choose them, on their WOMOW listing, Genius Printing have included a special offer for all new customers.

This is a fantastic example of customer feedback becoming a true integrated marketing program. (I guess they're not named "Genius" for nothing!)

Is your business integrating customer reviews into your marketing and promotions?

PS - Many businesses also use their new reviews as a chance to post something new up on their Facebook Wall. eg "Thanks so much for your feedback MarkS. So glad to hear you're enjoying your canvas prints. They certainly were stunning!" + link to the review.

* Genius Printing have created this page in Facebook using a static HTML app for facebook (of which there are lots). These apps allow you to create a custom tab, with standard HTML code. They've simply pasted in the WOMOW code for the Widget. You can also link to images on other sites and put standard text and other HTML in here.

The Top 5 Things Bugging Your Customers

2011-07-23T23:08:00.011+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

It's not about the Money, Honey

2011-07-19T11:25:00.004+10:00

If you think all your customers care about is price, chances are you're wrong. A recent study showed that even in a downturn, 86% of Australian consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience! (StollzNow Research).

In fact, they’re willing to pay an average of 8.5% more for a superior customer experience.

David Tudehope, the CEO of Macquarie Telecome said that “There is a view in business that, in a downturn, all customers care about is price, and that everything else goes out the window when the purchasing decision is made... However we have not found that service is less valued now than was the case a few years ago. In fact, our experience is the opposite: we have found that good customer service is valued equally as much, or even more, in a downturn.” (David Tudehope, CEO - Macquarie Telecom)

What does this mean for your business? Well, if you provide a high quality service, you should be able to charge a "Service Premium" to reward you for this service and cover the extra costs involved in providing this service.

Discounts can sometimes be a great idea to encourage people to try your business for the first time, or to reward loyalty from time-to-time, but once customers have experienced your service, this should be what brings them back for more. If you have to keep discounting, chances are your service is not that great (and should be addressed).

In the past it was usually quite difficult to justify charging a Service Premium unless you had a big, well-known brand. But these days positive customer reviews provide consumers with ample evidence of your service levels. In fact, many businesses deliberately direct all enquirers to check their reviews before booking. (This electrician explains how he uses this method to weed out the tyre-kickers and increase his profitability.)

If you're aiming for the discount end of the market, fine. But your aim is to be a niche or quality business, be confident in your pricing and differentiate yourself based on service!

It's easy to demonstrate great service with reviews on WOMOW.com.au. The Happy Customers Program helps businesses promote themselves with word-of-mouth and be recognised as a business that provides good service.

Creating a "We Love Customers" Attitude

2011-07-19T07:08:00.011+10:00

What's the customer service culture in your workplace like?

Do you and your staff genuinely want to help customers, or are customers seen as an obstacle for getting your work done?
Are customers' problems viewed as genuine challenges to overcome, or annoyances that require a quick-fix solution to stop the gripes?
Do customers' quirks become a source of humor for staff, or is each customer treated with respect?
Is discussing the weekend's social activities more important than serving a customer?

Here's a big tip: If customers aren't genuinely valued, they know it. This is something you can't fake. Most people have a very good sense of when someone is giving them lip service or would rather be doing something else.

In fact, when customers have a poor experience, they commonly refer to the attitude of person serving them (in their reviews on WOMOW). So if you and your staff don't truly relish in customers having a great experience with your business, it's not very likely that your customers will have a great experience with you.

Things you can do to improve your business' customer service culture;

Celebrate customer service successes! (Print out or email around reviews and other feedback)
Personally congratulate staff involved in providing good service - that way they know it's important to you - what you notice and focus on sets the tone for the business culture
Monitor customer service and/or customer satisfaction.
Make customer service part of every employee's KPI's (even if their customers are internal)
Talk about business problems from your customers' perspective
Encourage ideas that improve customer service or solve customer problems
Make customer service - including wins and issues - an agenda item at every meeting
Allow fun while working but address staff that show disrespect for customers (remind them it's them that pays their wages)
Escalate problems with customers and use them as an opportunity to demonstrate how these types of situations should be handled and avoided in the future
Give staff authority to make decisions which would increase customer satisfaction (eg to authorise returns, provide a small gift, or spend time solving a problem)
Make happy customers the end-goal for your staff and your business (not hours worked or time in the office)

Businesses that put customers on the top of their priorities today, are the ones that will be succeeding tomorrow. You don't (necessarily) need airs and graces, but you do need to be authentic and genuinely care about customers.

WOMOW's Happy Customers Program helps business collect customer feedback and showcases them as a business that cares about customers.

Renew your Customer Focus: New Financial Year Resolutions

2011-07-06T14:30:00.001+10:00

While other businesses are focussing on finalising accounts, setting targets, and reviewing expenses, we suggest that you turn your main attention to something that matters more than any of this - YOUR CUSTOMERS. Remember why you went into business in the first place? Most likely to serve customers and contribute something to society. And did you realise that the strongest predictor of a business' future success is their customer satisfaction levels? (Not how orderly their books are!)

Here are 7 things to start doing right now...

Understand the Lifetime Value of Each Customer
Don't worry about perfection but get a rough understanding of the;

Avg Order Value x
No. Times Per Year a Customer Orders x
No. Years a Customer Stays with You x
Average Gross Profit Margin x
No. New Customers Each Customer Refers

Knowing this number will probably make your realise how important the other things are, as well as how much you can spend on customer acquisition.

Provide Awesome Service
This goes without saying and is obviously easier said than done! But it's amazing how many months (or years) can go by without us stopping to think - "what could we change to improve the customer experience?" Block out an hour to think about how your processes, facilities, products, or anything else that could be improved.

Get Reviews and/or Collect Feedback
Remember the saying, "what gets measured, gets managed". Ensure you're either collecting feedback internally, or preferrably encouraging online reviews (you get all the benefits of internal collection plus the SEO and marketing benefits). This creates a feedback loop and keeps your focus on customer satisfaction.

Improve the Way you Handle Feedback
When someone takes the time to review your business, call with a complaint, or mentions you online, please show them some respect and respond! Even if their feedback is negative, you can often turn the situation around and a lost customer can become one of your biggest advocates. See our tips for responding to negative and positive reviews here.

Build a Customer Service Culture
Let everyone in your organisation know that each customers' experience matters. Keep the focus high by congratulating staff when they provide good service, celebrating good feedback (print out and pin up your reviews), and make customer service part of everyone's KPI's (even if their customers are internal).

Track Customer Sources
Being smart about customers requires knowing where they're coming from. This is usually as simple as asking each new customer how they heard about your business. Set up a field in your computer system, a column in your bookings sheet, or some other simple method. If it's too difficult to do in an ongoing manner, decide to spend a just one week focussing on this question to get a reasonable snapshot. (When Misty's 1950's Diner did this, she found that one-third of her revenue came from customers that had found her on WOMOW).

Keep Communicating with Customers
Once customers walk out the door, don't let them forget about you. Keep your business top of mind by communicating with them and showing them they matter. Send them a special offer, update on your products/services, information they might find useful, check on whether they were happy with your product/service, thank them for their patronage (maybe with a gift), or find some other excuse to keep in contact. If you don't already, collect their email address so that you can stay in touch easily. A fancy email newsletter is nice, but an informal message (that is quick to prepare) can be just as effective.

Customers are the whole reason for a business' existance - so keep your focus on things that actually have a positive impact on your customers.

12 Tips for getting more Customer Reviews

2011-07-06T11:28:00.020+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Doing Business in Tough Times: 7 tips to get you through

2011-06-21T21:31:00.011+10:00

Some industries are facing tough times right now, and others are facing very tough times. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a look at the implications of what it means for businesses when the economy is down. This doesn't apply to all industries right now, but if your segment is running flat, some important points to remember are;

Forget About Maximising Profits
Now is not the time to be worrying about growing your bottom line numbers - it's time for focussing on staying in the game!
It's a Great Time to Build Market Share
Even if the whole economy has moved down a notch, chances are that people are still buying what your business provides. People might buy less often, and might buy less from you, but make sure they're buying from you! Once the economy picks up, you'll be in a prime position to grow.
Adjust to the New Realities
Rather than whine about changes that are negatively affecting your industry, be a leader that takes the new technologies and makes them work to your advantage. Change your business model so that you're selling where customers are buying - and if that's online, you'd better get good at that! Ensure your business is optimised for 2011 (not 1999). Rethink your marketing, your staff, your operations and your administration. What needs to change?
Compete on Service NOT Price
When times are tough, the tendency is to discount, discount, discount. While there may be merit in reducing your prices somewhat, there'll only ever be one winner at that game and you probably don't want to win the prize for dropping your pants lowest! The alternative is to compete on customer service. Provide each and every one of your customers with exemplary service and showcase this to everyone else! Give customers the best experience possible and aim to be the best value, not the lowest price.
It's Not Personal
Remember, your reaction to any set of circumstances is up to you. Don't let it get you down! Smile. Keep healthy. Nurture your friends and family. Look after yourself. And if you're struggling to keep things in perspective, stop and do something about it (take a break, seek advice, get some fresh air, or whatever works for you).
Focus on Your Sphere of Influence
Stop thinking about and talking about how difficult everything is. (If you talk about problems, all you'll see is problems.) Start focussing on the customer in front of you and how you could make their experience a little bit better. Make them feel like dealing with you again... soon!
Good Businesses WILL Survive
Remember, this is temporary and you've probably experienced something like it before. Think of these times as a shake-out designed to test which businesses should be here. If you've got a great offering and determination, obviously that's you. Be smart and you'll get through!

Businesses Urged to update their Dinosaur Marketing Strategies

2011-06-21T20:45:00.012+10:00

We recently spoke to Bruno Cristovao from Copy Magic to see how WOMOW was working for them. Their business has embraced the transparency of consumer feedback and he urges other business owners to do the same...

"Some business owners are afraid to ask their customers for feedback, which worries me as they're missing out on a huge opportunity to promote themselves and they're doing their business a disservice. Online customer reviews are helping people find us on the web, and more importantly, to create trust and get a sense of who we are as a business."

"It took a few months for us to build our reviews, but the more reviews we get, the more enquiries we get from our online forms. We now staple a 'Review Us' flyer to every invoice we send out. Just one job that came from someone finding us on WOMOW paid for more than a year's worth of promotion, so it's great value for money. The customer was a multi-national business and we have done repeat business!"

"I know that some businesses are still wasting money on Yellow Pages and White Pages - they're the slow moving dinosaurs of the industry. Everyone's searching for businesses with a reviewed reputation online these days and WOMOW are the experts in this field . We are not the Mr Bigs of the print industry, but with customer reviews on WOMOW, we feel that it highlights that we can compete and facilate change in our business. Our focus on personalised customer service is paying off and we're growing at 30% per annum. The growth has allowed us to invest back into the community."

Bruno Cristovao, Copy Magic
http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Copy-Magic-Beaconsfield/

Testimonials are Good, Reviews are Better (what's the difference anyway?)

2011-06-06T14:59:00.009+10:00

There are lots of similarities between reviews and testimonials - but also a few fundamental differences that can be the cause of some confusion.

Both testimonials and reviews are extremely powerful, but as consumers become more savvy, and reviews become more prevalent (for your business and/or your competitors), positive reviews prove to be far more effective as a form of marketing. Here are the key differences between reviews and testimonials...

Control

Testimonials are fully within the control of the business. They might (or might not) be written by customers, but management gets to choose which ones to display.
Reviews are in domains outside the control of the business. The business might encourage their customers to review them, but they can't control the type of review that's written*.

Direction

Testimonials are always glowingly positive.
Reviews can be positive, negative or neutral. Contrary to most people's expectations, less than 7% of reviews on WOMOW are negative, however, these add credibility and depth to the feedback. Because of this, the odd negative review (or even the odd negative comment within a positive review) actually enhances a businesses' reputation.

Source

Testimonials are generally housed on the business' website and other marketing collateral. (More content on your website is good for SEO, but not as good as housing it on a separate, high-ranking website.)
Reviews are housed on an independent website. As well as allowing the other differences described here, this also means that there is rich content describing your business (and hopefully linking to your website), allowing people that use different search terms to find your business and adding link-juice to your website.

Credibility

Due to the first-person writing style used in testimonials, consumers want to believe and trust in testimonials. 40 years ago, when we knew the names of everyone quoted, it might have been reasonable to presume that everything written was true (although not that nothing important was neglected). However, these days, our rational mind tells us that while testimonials sound convincing, they're essentially advertising written in a different style.
Studies have shown that 78% of people trust consumer reviews above ALL other types of advertising and marketing (Nielsen). Next to direct word-of-mouth from someone they know, consumer reviews are the most powerful form of marketing.

It's tempting to think that these differences are inconsequential, but consumers instinctively know all this already! Although testimonials still have impact, consumers have become increasingly cynical towards testimonials and will look for independent sources of information about your business or your type of service.

*Note: WOMOW has a rigorous Fair Play Policy to protect unfair criticism of businesses and ensure reviews are fair to all parties. There are some sites that promote "reviews" but then allow businesses to exercise full control over what gets published. These are in fact, "testimonials". You know it and if they don't already, consumers will soon know it too!

How Transparency Benefits Your Industry (yes, even health and medical businesses)

2011-06-06T13:06:00.016+10:00

We've heard through the grapevine about some health profession bodies warning their members (ie practitioners) about the 'dangers' of customer reviews. It seems that their concerns mainly hinge on some confusion about the differences between 'reviews' and 'testimonials'. Because testimonials are known to be so powerful (although not as powerful as reviews), and testimonials are under the direct control of the practitioner, they have traditionally been prohibited to protect public interests. However, while these are the grounds that are stated, it appears that some industries are afraid of transparency in general.

Savvy Consumers are Becoming the Norm

Like it or not, transparency in our society is increasing (and will continue to increase). However, we should look at this as a positive phenomenum - not only for consumers, but for businesses as well. As Seth Godin argues, increased transparency leads to increases profitability. While the tendency is to think about the possibility of negative reviews and to come up with reasons why consumers are wrong and/or don't know enough to comment, the reality is that customer reviews put more focus on service and quality outcomes.

Transparency shifts the Focus to Quality

As Seth points out, when book reviews are available, book sales go up. (Coremetrics research has proven that when people read reviews, they are 30% more likely to purchase.)

When consumers get used to transparency, they get more interested in the quality of your service, and are more willing to pay extra (or wait longer, or drive further). This means that as good service providers start getting all the customers, other (lower quality) service providers either decide to lift their game, or are forced to exit the industry. So the standards and overall quality of the industry rise, while profits also increase.

Stop Hiding and Own Your Service!

Businesses that embrace transparency and encourage real feedback will find they're soon getting a huge amount of new customers. (In fact, many businesses tell us they're amazed to find how many consumers are searching online for reviews on all kinds of businesses.)

Real reviews generate trust and help people know whether you're the type of business that's right for their needs.

But equally importantly, you'll need to live up to your reviews. When customers choose your business based on reviews, they understand the influence that reviews have on others. Whether they leave disappointed or thrilled, they'll be likely to share their experience online. Which means that when there are significant numbers of reviews, it's safe to say that good businesses shine (without needing a perfect track record), and shabby businesses are outed.

Reviews on doctors won't mean that people stop seeing doctors - but it may mean that they'll be prepared to give up more to see a reputable one.

Announcing: The Best Health and Medical services in Australia

2011-06-06T12:20:00.011+10:00

Ever moved to a new area and wondered how to find a great doctor and dentist? What about a physiotherapist, chiropractor, naturopath or podiatrist? Your health is so important yet until now, it's been really difficult to find and choose health professionals you can trust. Even finding a great gym, personal trainer, yoga studio or masseuse is often pot-luck - there's a lot of great service providers out there, but also a lot to avoid!

As a first for Australia, we've tallied up the very BEST health and medical businesses - based solely on customer reviews.

Check out the Best Health and Medical services here...

Although some regulation bodies within the health industry HATE the fact that their profession is up for review, this is THE BEST WAY for customers to find and choose practitioners that they can trust. Customer reviews not only help individual consumers, they raise the demand for good practitioners and increased transparency will ultimately raise the standards within that industry.

We're very happy to congratulate all of these health and medical services for their outstanding service and contribution to society.

Get the rock star treatment: 10 tips for getting good service

2011-05-18T20:58:00.015+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

When you sell your business, how will you measure Goodwill?

2011-05-17T21:58:00.011+10:00

It's hard being a business owner. You work incredible hours, put your heart and soul into each customer, your business' reputation, your staff, everything - and you never switch off (not even sleeping).

But there's an end in sight - one day you hope to sell your business, reap the rewards, and lie on a deck chair somewhere drinking margaritas by the pool.

Hopefully your plan comes true but depending on what type of business you're in, it can be tricky to sell-out at a price that rewards you for all the work you've put in.

The biggest place where value is contested is the "Goodwill" line item. Technically, "goodwill" is the value of an entity over and above the value of its assets**. If you're lucky enough to have several buyers creating demand and bidding for your business, then this might not be an issue. But most of the time, the price paid for the business is highly influenced by the way the business is presented to potential buyers.

Of course, you know that your business has built a name for itself, that customers travel from all over town just to deal with you, that your staff are highly trained in customer service, and that you deliver a much better result than your competitors... but proving it can be another matter.

Would your business command a higher price with 5 glowing customer reviews?
What about 50 glowing customer reviews?
Would a shiny business award attract the attention of more buyers?
Would a celebrity customer or two tip a buyer over the line?
Or some encouraging press about your business or industry?

A resoundingly positive reputation is likely to pay huge dividends when the time comes to value the Goodwill in your business.

Just some food for thought if you're thinking of selling up in the next few years...

*This post was inspired by a business recently spotted using their customer reviews on WOMOW and their Best Business Award as a key part of the marketing for selling their business.

**We're not accountants or financial advisors so please get your own advice.

You're Dumped: Why Customers Leave

2011-05-17T20:40:00.013+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

The Word-Of-Mouth Revolution is hitting Australia

2011-05-02T22:56:00.015+10:00

The secret is out: customer reviews are revolutionising the way consumers make decisions.

Thousands of people are reporting that they've found amazing businesses - often right under their noses - using word-of-mouth on the web. In some senses, it's word-of-mouth as it's always been - but being online, it's more powerful than ever.

According to Rachael, a WOMOW member, customer reviews are giving "the power back to the people", putting more information in their hands and allowing them to make a more informed decision.

It's a revolution that's changing the way customers connect with businesses. In the words of some WOMOW members;

"I use WOMOW to find new businesses to use, as hearing first hand from somebody who has used the business helps me find a reliable, friendly service to use. I often use WOMOW at work, as I organise everything from printing to transport. I found a great printing supply company to get my ink for our office printer, and I am still using them to this day!" Cassie
"Before I go to any business, I usually take a look to see if anyone's given it a rating. This is often for restaurants, but I also use it for service industries too. Not only has it saved me the hassle of finding businesses around my area quickly, it also gives me obviously their reviews so I know whether they will do a good job or not. I'm not one that likes being disappointed, and by using WOMOW, I can easily avoid this." Edward
"Our family has learned to 'WOMOW' any prospective business prior to use, as this seemingly minor action has the potential to have major consequences. After all, avoiding an incompetent and uncaring business will save us all a considerable amount of time, effort and money in the long run. We learn from other people’s mistakes and avoid problematic businesses by 'WOMOWing' them prior to doing business with them." Jayne

While traditional directories are suffering a severe decline, Word Of Mouth On the Web is growing at an alarming rate. In the last 12 months, we've seen searches for reviews on businesses double and many businesses report that online reviews account for a significant proportion of their new customers. In fact, it's estimated that 1 in 4 Australian decision-makers have used reviews on WOMOW to help them find great businesses during the last 12 months.

Consumers are becoming more informed and don't put much trust in traditional advertising;

"While we, as a family seldom trust advertising gimmicks/sources these days, we do however place a great deal of importance on 'personal' reviews." Jayne
"Normal advertising is there to convince us to use their service or product, I love reviews from other people just like me who just want to get good service without having to deal with bad experiences along the way. Reviews are more honest!" Cassie
"Any business can espouse and exaggerate their own virtues, and we would be none the wiser until we actually try them out. Thankfully, through sites like WOMOW, we can get a real description of what the business is like to interact with. Nothing truer spreads like word of mouth." Krystle

Word-of-mouth is becoming a revolution that's changing the ways that customers find out information about businesses, and also changing the ways that businesses market themselves and manage their reputations. Customers are loving being able to establish more of a voice within the business world, and as Edward Wong, a WOMOW member states, "businesses should sit up and take note as it's now all about customer service and if we're not happy, we now have another means to voice our opinion".

It may not be too long before WOMOW is having a similar impact to Yelp.com which is now the 15th most popular site in the United States and has an enormous impact on both consumers and businesses.

Customer Satisfaction at a TWO YEAR High

2011-05-02T16:34:00.023+10:00

April 2011 has been a great month for consumers with customer satisfaction reaching a 2-year high. Reviews website WOMOW (Word Of Mouth On the Web), reports that customer satisfaction has been climbing for the last 4 months straight. The graph below shows the trend in customer ratings by month over the last 2 years (May 2009-April 2011). Since a low in December, businesses have picked up their game and are doing a great job. And customers are noticing!

This data shows that customers are least happy around the months of November/December, which could be attributed to pre-Christmas pressure and it's impact on both service levels and customer anxiety. However January sees a slight increase when Christmas stress is removed and demands on service providers are reduced.

The period from February-April is when customer satisfaction is highest, with an increase also occurring around September. This is possibly influenced by school holidays and the associated reduced pressure during these times.

But despite Australian consumers having high expectations of the businesses they use, reviews on WOMOW are overwhelmingly positive with over 93% of reviews scoring a rating of 3 or more out of 5. More than ever, businesses that provide good service are being rewarded with positive feedback and the enormous rewards of word-of-mouth.

This result is both a big tick for businesses, and also a great sign for future performance. With more and more people using reviews to choose their service providers, businesses with great feedback report that customers reviews are a significant source of new enquiries - so the more positive reviews businesses have, the more customers they're likely to attract.

WOMOW.com.au is the number one site in Australia for customer reviews on businesses, with approximately 167,000 reviews posted by its 70,000 members - everyday consumers.

Make Deposits with your Customers' Bank Accounts

2011-04-18T14:37:00.012+10:00

Your intention is to run a profitable business, so it makes sense that each transaction you have with customers should be profitable, right? Well maybe, but here's where many businesses go wrong. If you think about the profitability of each transaction, the tendency is to scrimp on value while extracting a maximum price from the customer. But does that make them want to return? Are they going to be blown away with the quality and/or customer service? Do they feel compelled to tell their friends how impressed they are with your business? And most importantly, does it maximise the lifetime value of this customer? No, no, no, and NO!

It's about the Lifetime Value of the Customer

In almost all businesses, customers should be seen as an investment. Yes, they're the source of your income, but if you view your potential income over the next year (or even 5 years), then you'll easily see why you should forget about maximising the return on each transaction.

These types of surprise gifts are often more powerful than incentives as they show genuine care, and encourage the customer to feel favourably towards you and your business. Remember, the lifetime value of your customers comes from;

the average size of their order
the number of times per year they purchase from you
the number (and quality) of the people they refer to you
the length of time they remain loyal to you

But how? (Go out of your way to be nice)

Instead, do something your competition is too scared to do. According to returncustomer.com, you should surprise your customers and make their day with something:

Free – it isn’t a surprise if you have to pay extra for it
Unexpected – surprises come out the blue without warning and without high expectations (they are not an incentive for doing something, they're a thank-you)
Exclusive – is your surprise a special gift for the customer that non-customers can’t get?
Relevant – your surprise should be a good match, companion, or accessory to the main purchase.

Go out of your way to find a reason to give your customer something extra. How about;

You are the nicest customer I've had today, please take this as a token of my appreciation.
I love helping parents/students/pensioners - here's a small gift.
Hey, you're the 50th customer of the week.
Thank you for being the first/last customer of the day.
Because it's your first time here, please take this to remind you to come back.
I know it's your birthday this week - please have this on us.
Thank you for trying us out, it means a lot to us.

But what can you give away? Something that means something to your customer - enough to make them remember you - without sending you broke. Some examples of surprise rewards could be;

Free shipping, delivery, gift wrapping etc
Vouchers for return visits to reward loyalty - e.g. 20% off on your next visit
Vouchers to give to a friend - invite a friend for free
Secret sales - for members/email subscribers only
Privileged information - for customers only (eg industry insights, fashion tips, secret recipes)
Thank you notes/calls/emails - done soon after the purchase, perhaps checking up to make sure everything is O.K
Christmas & birthday cards/small gifts (eg flowers, chocolates, movie tickets, book vouchers, bottle of wine, nice pen, dinner voucher, etc)
Surprise gifts tailored to individual customers. Watch this for an extreme example, but if you've got high-value customers, you probably should tailor some gifts specifically for them. It's not that hard to pick up on their hobbies and passions and find a gift that is relevant and hand-picked for them.

Harness the Power of Reciprocity

Social psychology tells us that it's human nature to respond to a positive action with another positive action. So make sure you leave your customers thinking that they owe you something - because you've gone out of your way or given then something extra. If you consistently give more than is expected, you'll be amazed at how customers will respond.

Go on, make an unconditional deposit with a few of your customers today.

The people have decided - the very BEST places to Eat and Drink across Australia

2011-04-05T13:30:00.009+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

We get New Leads and Win More Work using Customer Reviews

2011-03-25T07:26:00.014+11:00

Chris Dimos from Mr Verandah has been building verandah's for over 15 years. Today he and his team take a moment to explain their take on using customer reviews on the web...

Louise and Chris in the office at Mr Verandah

"We were first reviewed by a customer back in 2007, and at the time, we were a bit surprised and didn't know what to make of WOMOW. But not long after that, we embraced the program and we certainly haven't looked back since."

"With customer reviews, we're putting our reputation on the line - but we're more than happy to do that! We've always believed in providing a quality service and we're prepared to back ourselves."

Louise explains that "when leads come in, we send them an information pack. In this we direct people to check us out on WOMOW and see what our customers are saying about us. We do this because we know that no matter what we say about ourselves, it's this customer feedback that really counts."

"Just in the last month we've had 2 or 3 customers come directly from WOMOW - and many more cases where WOMOW has helped us close the sale."

"We don't know how many of the jobs we do over a year are influenced by our reviews, but our sales conversion rate is pretty high and we're very happy to be using word-of-mouth online as a key part of our marketing. It's amazing how many people will mention the reviews to us once they've read them."

On a personal note, Dianne is also a fan of consumer empowerment. She recently found a great window cleaner and a fantastic mobile masseuse. "Plus, just last week I was emailed a special offer for a nearby hairdresser with great reviews so I'm booking in there to try them out."

"Like me, the people that come to Mr Verandah from WOMOW just want to go ahead straight away. They don't need to go through the whole trust-building stage as they already see us as experts in our field."

In summarising, Chris says;
"Word-of-mouth is a really good way of marketing our business - it fits really well with our business philosophy of letting our work speak for itself."

Four ways I use Word-of-Mouth to Grow my Online Business

2011-03-16T08:13:00.005+11:00

Robyn is rarely in the office, but she's found a way to maintain high levels of customer service and keep her online homewares business, Lifestyle Ensemble, growing strongly using word-of-mouth. In fact, there are four ways she uses customer feedback to fuel growth and manage the business...

1) Built-In Management Tool

"We rely on our staff and a number of external suppliers to provide our clients with a high level of service. By simply making sure we include a 'Review-Us' Flyer in with every order asking customers for feedback, we can be sure we'll hear about any problems with delivery, presentation, or the products we've sent. This gives me the ability to keep tabs on things when I'm not physically there."

2) Create a Customer Service Culture

"My staff are often working independently so its really important that they feel good about themselves and take pride in their work (especially being an online business where we often don't have direct contact with customers). Receiving positive feedback from customers reinforces how valued their efforts are. Whenever we receive a review we make a big deal of it and pat ourselves on the back!"

3) Get Found Online

For an online business, in fact for most businesses, getting found online is half the battle! "WOMOW is the only online advertising we do, and really the only regular advertising we do full stop. Yet, more and more people are finding us every day."

4) Get Potential Customers to Trust You

"There is still some skeptism in Australia towards online retailers so building trust is a really important part of what we do. We display our customer reviews on our website using the WOMOW Widget - that way people can see the reviews are independent, and they're extremely convincing." But for Robyn, using reviews is not just about showcasing some testimonials, "we use the review process to show that we're a transparent business and that we literally have nothing to hide. We make it clear that when someone buys from us, they can leave feedback which is publically available - so it shows people that we're confident in our service. It's personable like a conversation and the world gets to see it."

"Using word-of-mouth to grow our business fits our philosphy of basing our business around our customers and earning our growth. We're very happy and proud of our success - we continued growing right through the GFC and have just had our best Christmas ever!"

How to Respond to Positive Reviews

2011-03-15T16:36:00.019+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

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How to Respond to Negative Reviews

2011-03-15T12:14:00.027+11:00

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How to use Special Offers Effectively

2011-02-28T21:05:00.017+11:00

Win New Customers without Sabotaging Profitability

There's no question about it, special offers and discounts can be a great way to win new customers, boost short-term revenues, move stock, fill excess capacity, and achieve other business goals. But how do you use them effectively to get the best results?

Don't be Half-Hearted!

Firstly, if you're going to use an offer, make it an attractive! Not many people are going to change their buying habits for a 5 or even 10% discount. If you're looking for offers to really drive more new customers, you need to think of the discount you're giving away as the cost of acquiring a new customer. Yes, in the shoft-term your margins might take a hit, but think of the discount as part of your marketing investment. If your customers generally go on to generate a lot of repeat business, then you can probably afford to be very generous with your new customer offers.

Choose Your Audience Carefully

Secondly, you need to think where you're going to promote the offer. If it's only promoted to people that have signed up to receive offers (eg Groupon/Scoopon/Spreets), you want to tread carefully. This market is looking for the latest deal and is likely to continue that behaviour. It would probably take a pretty sensational experience to persuade them to become a loyal customer (they're likely to continue shopping around for a better deal elsewhere). If you can present your offer to people that fall more naturally into your target market (but still need a little encouragement to give you a try), then you're likely to be much more successful.

Be Smart when you Craft your Offer

Thirdly, try different ways of packaging up your offer. The same effective discount could be presented as...

25% off!
Save $50 (when you spend more than $200)!
2nd person dines for HALF Price!
Kids eat for FREE
2 courses + a bottle of wine to share for only $99!
Dine with us and see a movie for FREE

What sounds more effective to you? They might each cost you the same, but they'll sure to get a different level of response. You could also incentivise repeat business. For example, "start your weekly clean this week and get your 3rd week FREE", or "Get your Nails done today, and Get a Voucher for the next Manicure FREE".

The type of offer that works best will vary depending on your audience and your product/service, but often;

Percentage Off is the least enticing (unless you're able to give away more than 30%)
Dollars Off sounds more attractive (even if you need to put a minimum spend as part of the offer conditions)
Something Free is even more enticing, so long as it's something customers actually value (free delivery, buy something - get something else free, buy 2 - get a 3rd free, etc - but please don't throw in a canvas bag!)
Bundled offers can be exceptional (if done well) - the beauty industry often does this well with various "pamper packs", but why don't restaurants do this with the nearby cinema, or gyms provide a massage every 6 months, or computer services bundle in phone-support or virus protection?
Give-Aways and Go-Into-the-Draw to Win can be good, but the give-away or prize needs to be spot on (and fairly large for a Draw-Prize)

Businesses on WOMOW.com.au can use Special Offers to effectively target people that value quality and good service (the ideal type of customer). The offers you include on your profile are emailed to the members that have elected to hear about the reviews and offers from business in (and servicing) their areas. These are an extremely effective way to get more exposure and win new customers. So make sure you're making use of it and changing your offer frequently to keep it fresh and test what works best.

Special Offers combined with positive customer reviews? Unbeatable!

Industries that provide the Best and Worst Customer Service

2011-02-23T22:04:00.013+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

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Customer Reviews get you Found in Google (and other search engines)

2011-02-14T11:42:00.010+11:00

You know that search engine marketing is important, right? But did you realise that 80% of purchases for all goods and services start with a search on the internet! (Neilson Netratings). So if your business is not generating a significant amount of business online (whether you sell online or not), you're probably missing out on a huge opportunity.

Getting onto the first page of Google search results is every business owner's dream. But many businesses approach search optimisation in the wrong way...

A mistake businesses often make is to search for their own business name. If customers know your business name, they've probably already decided to use you. It's the other searches that you should focus on...

More important is to search for "[business type], [suburb]" or "best [business type], [city]" or "[business type] reviews, [city]", or even "[business type] [service speciality], [suburb]". In other words, don't search for "Lisa's Hairdressing Salon" - yes, your business should be found easily but this should be pretty easy when people type in your business name. Instead, search for "hairdresser, Eslternwick" or "best hairdresser, Melbourne", or "hairdresser reviews, Melbourne", or "hairdressers with play areas, Melbourne".

Getting found for very specific phrases and especially phrases that include "best", "reviews" and other similar words is something you can either employ the services of an expensive SEO business to help with, or you can enlist your customers to write reviews for you.

Customer reviews are an extremely effective way to optimise your business information for Google.

It's not magic. Customer reviews work to get found in Google because they're real people describing your business, in real people's language. They're also fresh information, which Google loves.

When people search for businesses, they use terms that you're unlikely to find on most business websites. But these are often the exact same words that your customers use to describe your business. For example, the website for Mike's Sports Physiotherapy might say something like "We provide professional physiotherapy services and treat all kinds of sports problems. We offer thorough assessment and treatment which can include stretching and strengthening programs."

On the other hand, a customer might write a review saying; "I hurt my shoulder playing tennis and decided to see a physio. Turns out my injury was quite easy to treat and only took 2 sessions. I was nervous at first but Mike was extremely gentle - I'd recommend him to anyone in the Eastern suburbs."

If a potential customer was searching on Google, they might type "gentle physio for tennis injury in eastern suburbs". Mike's website would fail dismally but his listing on WOMOW would have a great chance of being one of the top results. This is an extremely powerful way to substantially improve your positioning on Google.

Surprisingly, it can be extremely difficult for a business owner to know just how their potential customers are searching on the web. One case in point was a dog trainer. He had a great website but when one of his customers reviewed him on WOMOW and referred to him as the "dog whisperer", his web traffic soared.

And when people find your business, they see a whole lot of your customers telling them what fantastic service you provide! There's simply nothing more convincing than that.

So what are you waiting for? Start building up a bank of customer reviews and watch your traffic and new enquiries soar. The more reviews you get, the better this works...

Another Paradox: Customers are Happier, Just Because you Asked

2011-02-14T10:26:00.007+11:00

There's no doubt that positive customer reviews are an extremely effective way of getting new clients (some businesses report that 80% of their new clients come from their reviews). And the more customer reviews you have, the more effective this is (in fact, businesses with 5 or more reviews on WOMOW get more than 10 times as much traffic as those with only 1 review). But there's another important reason to ask your customers for reviews...

The mere act of asking for feedback, tells customers that you're a business that cares about their satisfaction... which in turn, makes them think better of you and feel more satisfied with their experience. It tells them that you're actually listening, that you care about them and want to make sure everything went well for them.

Businesses need to overcome their shyness in asking customers for reviews. It's time to put your ego aside, demonstrate you care, and stand behind your service!

If the customer's experience was positive, remembering the service and articulating it will actually reinforce these feelings and make them recognise the effort that goes into getting everything running smoothly. And because they're feeling grateful for your service, they'll usually be more than happy to leave a review for you (especially if you tell them how important this is to your business).

On the other hand, if their experience was not so perfect, the fact that you've asked for feedback makes them remember that you're a real person (not an abstract business), that you're trying to provide a great service, and although things a few things might have gone wrong, you're trying your best. Not to mention, if the question uncovers dissatisfaction, you now have a chance to rectify things and turn them into a very happy customer.

It's time to stop being shy and realise that asking customers for feedback actually increases customer satisfaction. In fact, not asking for feedback is like running your business with your head in the sand.

If you're not proactively asking for feedback, you're either missing out on the marketing opportunity of positive customer reviews, or not paying attention to things that need to be impoved.

With online customer reviews having more and more influence on purchasing decisions, in 2011, businesses should not be shy about asking customers to share their feedback online. Having a strategy to encourage and build positive reviews can become a significant part of your marketing program, will help to insulate the business from the occasional negative review, and can play an important role in getting your business found online.

How I find the RIGHT type of Customers for my Business

2011-01-26T06:08:00.015+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Australian Consumers Demand Better Service (but grant second chances)

2011-01-26T00:37:00.020+11:00

When it comes to customer service, it turns out that we Australians are some of the the least tolerant customers in the world - second only to Mexicans. In fact, almost 9 out of 10 Australians say they would stop using a business if they receive bad service! Just the punch in the face you needed? Don't worry, it's not (quite) as bad as it sounds...

A recent survey(1) explored preferences and attitudes of customers from Australia and eleven other countries. The findings show that 28% of Australian customers are only willing to excuse one service lapse before blacklisting the company. However, a large portion of Australians (48%) will allow two poor customer service experiences before deciding to end their relationship with the business altogether.

This prospect of a ‘second-chance’ provides businesses with a great opportunity to improve the service and provide more value to their customers. Most reasonable customers understand that there are occasional lapses in the level of service delivered, but if customers realise that a bad experience is an exception rather than the rule, they will be much more understanding and inclined to give the business another go.

The research also found that customers are more forgiving of poor service if they've generally experienced good service with the company over time. This finding highlights the importance of building lasting relationships with each customer and understanding the value of each customer rather than just the transaction.

The Barometer also shows that contrary to popular opinion, a good service experience has a greater impact on customers than a negative one. Consumers are more likely to give a company repeat business and to speak positively about the company after a good service experience (96%), than they are to never do business with a company again (88%) or speak negatively about the company (89%) after a poor experience.

This brings us back to the importance of collecting feedback. Your satisfied customers are usually very happy to refer your business to others (either verbally or online) for nothing more than the gesture of goodwill towards their friends and the business. This feedback then not only brings new customers to the business, but also reduces the impact of a poor customer experience.

Surprisingly, the study found that when bad service is received, Australians are unlikely to provide direct feedback to the business. In fact, compared to the other countries, Australians are among those who are most unlikely to speak to the business’s owner or manager about the incident and even less inclined to write a letter or an email to the company. So you can't rely on customers proactively telling you they're unhappy, you need a system for collecting their feedback.

After experiencing poor service, 35% of Australians say they will post a comment online such as a blog or social networking site. Although is not such a high proportion, it is incredibly influencial when you consider that 90% of people go to the internet first when they need a product or service! It’s therefore extremely important for businesses to have a great track-record online.

When things do go wrong, the study found that the most important thing a business can do is to acknowledge the mistake. In fact, more than half of Australians rate financial compensation second to that of an apology. An apology can go a long way in making a customer feel that their problems are being addressed and that they are valued and appreciated.
So, to make amends for a poor customer experience:

Acknowledge the poor service and provide an apology. Ideally, this should be done by the person at fault, or by the manager / owner.

Plan, plan, plan. Have a plan to deal with unsatisfied customers. This should be something the business owner or manager discusses with all employees. It only takes one employee to turn a good experience into a bad one and vice versa. Every employee has the power to build or destroy relationships.

Resolve the issue speedily, effortlessly and courteously. Consider the value of the customer rather than the transaction.

Yes, we're a picky bunch but let's face it, it's not that hard to get right most of the time and make amends when we do slip up. Come on businesses - let's rise to the challenge of servicing a nation of hard-to-please consumers!

Find out more about promoting your business with word-of-mouth.

(1) Conducted by the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer

Our Business Survey: The Results Are In

2011-01-17T21:53:00.008+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Remind me again, why am I doing this?

2011-01-14T22:31:00.043+11:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

One magic question that could turn your business around

2010-11-02T21:06:00.010+11:00

You've probably heard the saying about marketing - half of it works, the problem is knowing which half. Although we now have more data than ever before, marketing is still a black hole for most small businesses (and many larger ones). We're constantly bombarded with ways that we can spend more money promoting our businesses - but most of the time we're making decisions blindly. However, there is a fairly simple method that can help us evaluate our current marketing and guide future decisions...

You simply need to ask customers;
"How did you hear about us?"

Not clever, not perfect, but also not difficult.

And if you're not already doing this, asking this simple question really can transform your business.

Of course, there are a thousand reasons why this is difficult to do in your own business, but let's forget perfection and realise that having some data (imperfect as it may be), is an enormous improvement on having no data. Here are a few ways that this can be implemented easily within any business (including yours);

Include an extra column in your bookings book - there's a hairdresser I know that does this and uses a single letter code for her common sources of customers (this same hairdresser continues to swear that she gets 10-12 new clients every week from WOMOW)
For online orders or computerised bookings include a field in your data structure to capture this information
If it's too much to ask every customer, run a week-long drive twice a year and focus on asking every customer during this period only. Involve staff and make it fun to quiz customers on how they came to be using your services (I know a restaurant owner that does this with great success)
Spend a day on the coal-face yourself (or if you're already there, give some focus to this subject for a few days). Question each customer you come into contact with as to how they first heard about you - even customers that have been using you for a while.
Remember to drill into responses - if someone says, they found you 'online', ask what website they were on or what they were searching for. Likewise, if someone says 'word-of-mouth', ask who it was that referred them (you might find that certain customers are key referrers and it would be a great idea to send a thank-you)
Build the question into your forms so that sales/customer service staff will remember to ask the question (if this field is left blank, you should be asking some questions!)
If you're a retailer and can't easily build this into your POS system, consider running a mini contest between sales staff to see who can collect the most responses. Or put a prominent reminder on top of the bags or packaging so that staff are prompted to ask this question while they're chatting to customers. You can just have them fill out an paper sheet listing the purchase amount with the source of the customer.

Of course, marketing is not quite this simple as various elements usually work together and often it's not until a customer has seen you in several places that they decide to actually use you. Nevertheless, this simple question can give you some great insight and may provide some unexpected results. One mechanic I spoke to recently said "I never thought that so many people would be looking online for a mechanic - boy was I wrong!"

Be warned though, the results you get from asking customers how they found you will usually raise more questions, and you'll probably need to get a bit more scientific to answer those (which we'd encourage you to do). But likewise, it's an area where the Pareto Principle usually applies, meaning that you'll get the bulk of the benefits from this small snapshot of data. So it's an extremely worthwhile business discipline that you can implement this week!

Good luck and feel free to drop us a line to let us know how you go.

The Best Startup Business is...WOMOW - Word Of Mouth On the Web!

2010-10-04T22:18:00.024+11:00

Last week, we were thrilled to hear WOMOW announced as the WINNER of the MyBusiness Best Startup Award!

We've now been running for 3+ years this is further evidence of the impact we're having on the Australian business landscape.

The Best Startup award was sponsored by ANZ and the judges were impressed by WOMOW's unique, word-of-mouth marketing platform, and by the win-win value proposition we offer to both consumers and businesses.

In 5 years time, we hope you'll be saying "I was onto WOMOW before most small businesses even understood what 'online reputation' was!"

Look out for us in the November MyBusiness magazine.

(Photo: Fiona Adler accepting the Best Startup Award from ANZ)

Marketing doesn't work like that!

2010-10-03T15:52:00.022+11:00

The inspiration for this article is a conversation I had this week from a business cancelling their Happy Customers Program on WOMOW. Their reason? They had "tried it for a month and it hasn't worked" - that's right, they said one month! (And in fact, it was slightly less than that.)

I'm sorry Mr Premature Evaluator, but Marketing just doesn't work like that!

As much as we'd all like a magic tap that we could turn on and off as our business needs changed, I've been looking and I haven't found one yet! Yes, there are a lot of campaign formats that can be turned on and off easily, but the effect that they have on people is almost always cumulative. Occasionally, it happens that someone sees an ad for the first time and places an order, but that scenario is rare.

Most of the time, marketing tools work in conjunction with each other, and involve some repetition and time. For example, a prospect might;

hear about you through one medium, but promptly forget the name of your business
later, when they have a specific need, they search online, come across your business and click as it sounds familiar
then they do some more searching to see what kind of a business you really are
and finally decide to call after finding some information that convinces them you're a great business

Another prospect might;

search online for your service because they have a specific need
come across your business and be impressed by your stellar reputation and professional website
promptly get distracted (ie check Facebook / read an email / attend to children / answer the phone)
later hear about your business through another medium, remember how impressed they were when they found you, and decide to call (and then it still might take a meeting, proposal and several emails and phone conversations before they actually purchase!)

The paths customers can take are rarely straight forward or linear so the key is to choose several key marketing tools and get them working together. This is combination of tools is your marketing strategy. Yes, you should definitely track and measure your marketing, but you definitely can't do this over one month!

Using WOMOW to promote your business is all about using word-of-mouth to;

Make sure that when people search for your business or, more importantly, for a service that your business provides, that they find you
Present your business in the best light possible - with great reviews from your customers (the most trusted form of marketing there is)

And it should be noted that the more reviews a business has, the more traffic they get and the better this works (the Happy Customers Program also helps businesses get customer reviews).

So, Mr Premature Evaluator, with just one review and a 1 month trial, is a loss to WOMOW but sadly, his loss is far greater. I'm sure that word-of-mouth on the web would have been a fantastic way for this business to get more prospects and earn their trust (incredibly important in his industry), but unfortunately, he will probably never know and will probably continue to waste time and money trying various different things, without really trying anything at all.

There are plenty of businesses successfully using WOMOW as their only form of marketing, but they've built their profile and reviews up over a few months. Here's one we heard from this week...

"We get 90% of our work from WOMOW and we're growing fast! We don't have a shopfront, any signage on our vehicles, or even a website, but with WOMOW heaps of people are finding us online every week. On average we sign up 3 new customers a week and now have over 200 clients with regular cleans. WOMOW has been the best thing we've done for our business!"
Sandy K from Let Us Do It 4 U Cleaning

WOMOW is not a gimmick. It is part of a long-term marketing strategy to build a place on the web that shouts your praises and helps people find you. It will not (necessarily) work overnight, but with some time and some reviews, it will almost certainly help any business that provides good service where trust and word-of-mouth are important.

WOMOW a finalist in the 2010 MyBusiness Awards

2010-09-13T14:56:00.005+10:00

WOMOW.com.au has been announced as one of the top 3 Start-Up businesses in the 2010 MyBusiness Action Coach Awards.

Thanks for your support and keep your fingers crossed for us!

WOMOW Video: How to Turbo Charge your Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

2010-09-13T10:08:00.007+10:00

Watch this to see how you can ramp up the word-of-mouth for your business, manage your online reputation, and win more customers.

Put your word-of-mouth on steroids and let your customers become your best marketing tool yet...

WOMOW stands for Word Of Mouth On the Web. It helps businesses get found on the web and promote themselves with word-of-mouth. Did you know that most people trust consumer recommendations over ALL other forms of advertising and marketing and also that customers that read reviews are much more likely to purchase? Check out the video to see exactly how this can work for your business.

WOMOW outperforms Yellow Pages, a hairdresser tells

2010-09-13T09:38:00.012+10:00

Natasha Varga, owner of hairdressing salon Green Butterfly, was surprised and thrilled to find that some of her customers had entered glowing reviews on WOMOW.com.au. "That was the first time I'd heard about it - when I received an email saying my business had been reviewed. I later joined the Happy Customers Program and I haven't looked back." "The majority of our new clients now come from WOMOW - way more than Yellow Pages. Plus, they're coming from all over Melbourne, not just our local area. I particularly like it how they come with a level of trust and positive expectations - it sets our relationship off to a great start and makes it easy to keep the good vibes going! Almost all of the customers we get from WOMOW will re-book straight away and most go on to become regulars so it's having a big impact on our business."

When joining though, Natasha says she was still a bit skeptical, "To be honest, I was very surprised that WOMOW would work so well for us as I'd heard that women were less trusting of the internet, but our experience here has proven that to be wrong. There are heaps of women (and men) searching the internet and finding us on WOMOW every week! Lots of our clients tell us they use WOMOW for everything now."

"We love it when we get a new review - I'll print it out and stick it up in our back room. We're particularly chuffed if someone mentions one of us by name!"

When asked what their secret is behind providing great service, Natasha says that "we haven't got any particular secrets (I wish we did!). We just try to be honest, give as much of ourselves as we can, and enjoy what we do. I think this genuine care rubs off on customers. Plus, it's much easier to provide great service when we have such great customers!"

"Since joining WOMOW's Happy Customers Program we're almost always booked out a few weeks ahead. For any businesses that wants to promote themselves with word-of-mouth but hasn't yet joined WOMOW, I'd highly recommend it. It's excellent value and it has changed our business for the better!"

New start-up, Miss Eyelash, is off to a flying start with instant word-of-mouth

2010-07-24T08:05:00.012+10:00

Not long ago, Emma Vosti decided to treat herself to getting eyelash extensions for a special occasion. She looked fabulous and was overwhelmed by the positive comments she received from friends and family. Fast forward just a few months and Emma now runs "Miss Eyelash" - a thriving business built almost entirely on word-of-mouth with the help of WOMOW's Happy Customers Program. Emma says; "WOMOW has been awesome for me. I've already got 90 clients - and almost all have come directly or indirectly through WOMOW".

Upon opening up about 3 months ago, Emma says she "tried some other online directories (some of which are quite expensive), and I also tried advertising in some local magazines and newspapers. But the fact is that over 90% of my customers come to me after reading the reviews on WOMOW."

But Miss Eyelash is not a hobby business as Emma says; "I'm very serious about what I do. This is what pays my mortgage, puts food on the table and sends my children to school. I love being able to make other people look and feel fabulous, but I've spent the time training and I'm now focused on building a great reputation and long-term relationships with my clients."

"I'm definitely getting lots of people finding me online as my WOMOW listing comes up quite high in Google searches. Word-of-mouth is really important for a business like this because a lot of people have had bad experiences where the lashes have been applied poorly, or just an average experience that really hasn't looked that great - so people are looking online for recommendations. It's quite a niche market but because I focus only on eyelash extensions, I do them a lot quicker, and the quality is very high. I also put in up to 70 lashes per eye whereas most salons do only 30-50."

"I'm loving this business as I'm meeting ace people all the time and helping them look fantastic. With WOMOW it's been very easy to build up a bank of positive reviews and I certainly feel like I'm getting great value from being part of the Happy Customers Program. I also love the fact that I can click a button and get more flyers sent to me. I've even met a like-minded business through WOMOW and I now operate from their premises on a regular basis, which is helping me service my growing client base."

"It's very rewarding seeing customers' feedback online and I'm looking forward to building long relationships with my clients."

Customer Service Sins: 5 (surprising) things that piss customers off

2010-07-20T15:34:00.012+10:00

Sorry, this blog update has moved.

>> Please click here to read this article <<

Our Customers Don't Talk about our services but we still benefit from Word-of-Mouth

2010-06-21T22:52:00.004+10:00

Melissa Whalen runs an interesting business that's thriving - yet no-one talks about it! Jeune provides a mobile cosmetic medicine service, providing their injectable treatments and hair removal services at beauty therapists salons across Victoria. And yes, amongst other treatments, that means Botox, dermal fillers and IPL.

Think you don't know anyone that uses Botox? Melissa says that's probably not true as it's actually a lot more common than most people think. The thing is that most people don't like talking about the cosmetic medicine treatments they use. Which could be a bit of a problem for a business that relies on word-of-mouth for referrals!

Melissa says that "most people find us either by doing online research, or by discussing their needs with a trusted professional. Our business model of working through beauty therapists captures the second group, and WOMOW helps us capture the people that are Googling around looking for services and recommendations online."

She says that their main focus is on providing a great service that people will be happy with, and the word-of-mouth virtually looks after itself. "We particularly focus on giving people a very honest opinion of what we can achieve. If their expectations are realistic, then we're very confident that we'll end up with a very happy client. In some cases, people actually need fewer treatments or get a better result than we'd quoted - which of course delights them."

It's a simple strategy but one that certainly seems to be working as a scan of some of Jeune's customer reviews makes it clear how much people trust in their services. In a relatively short time, Jeune has built up an incredibly loyal client base - some of whom have moved interstate and even come back to Jeune for their treatments! "Our prices are reasonable and we offer a consistent and reliable service - extremely important when you're dealing with something as personal and sensitive as cosmetic medicines."

"Sometimes we'll get a 70 year old with a very limited budget asking to look young again. While we could offer some help, they're not going to be happy with the outcome - so we'll tell them they'd get a better result by using their money to buy a new outfit! We'd rather turn a customer away than have someone less than overjoyed with our service."

You can see customer reviews for Jeune's services here: www.womow.com.au/biz/Jeune-North-Melbourne/

Proactive word-of-mouth - is it possible?

2010-06-21T17:20:00.013+10:00

Yes, it's true - just as some people are natural athletes, some businesses seem to generate lots of positive attention because of their product or market. But in reality, these people and businesses are very few and far between. For the most part, like great athletes, great businesses WORK REALLY HARD to get positive word-of-mouth. (Think the hype surrounding every new Apple product release is accidental? Nope! That's a well-oiled PR machine working it's bum off.)

Great businesses don't sit around waiting for people to start talking about them. They ask their customers for referrals, request online reviews, keep top-of-mind with customers through interesting and relevant ticklers, and above all, they do everything in their power to provide every customer with the best experience possible.

Sounds too much like hard work? Of course it's easier to provide mediocre service, never bother keeping in touch with customers, and sit around blaming the state of the economy for the lack in enquiries - much easier! But that's not the road to a successful business that's buzzing. It does take a bit of effort and thought - but it's also worth it's weight in gold. Why? Because...

People don't believe your advertising anymore
That's right, we've become a cynical bunch and we all know how marketing works. We won't take anything at face value anymore. Advertising is still great for building awareness but it's really tricky to build trust, preference or a real connection with advertising alone.
Word-of-mouth is now permanent, searchable and pervasive
While we might not chat to our neighbours as much as in times gone by, the internet actually makes word-of-mouth much more powerful because the comments, reviews and mentions that your business gets today, can be found by people searching next week, but also next year. They can also be seen by people nearby, and people anywhere in the world looking for a business in your location (which is great for web businesses or those that service people that travel). Most importantly, thanks to the magic of search, your feedback is seen mostly by people that are actually looking for a service just like yours. People that value good quality and good service, and in some cases, will pay extra for it.
You might need to call on your positive reputation one day
No matter how good a business you run, one day you'll get some negative feedback online. Warranted or not, someone will put a ridiculously bad comment up on Facebook, Twitter, their blog, or some other online forum. If that's the only feedback about your business on the web, it's going to look really bad - whenever someone searches for your business, that's all they'll find. But if you've already built up a great bank of positive feedback, one negative comment is almost irrelevant (of course, you should still address it, but on it's own it's unlikely to do any real damage).

Some business owners are hesitant to ask customers for reviews or mentions online, but ironically, most people actually think more highly of businesses that ask for feedback and feel flattered to be singled out. If they're happy with the service they've experienced and feel that you've gone out of your way for them, most are more than happy to return the favour. In fact, they'll probably be a happier customer, just because of the fact that you've asked them for honest feedback (seems weird but you'll see for yourself).

Word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is and if you're passionate about creating buzz for your business, you need to get this working. So don't be shy and don't be lazy, hand your customers a MEGAPHONE and start building up your online reputation!

“Our service is paying off with the Happy Customers Program”

2010-06-02T16:34:00.001+10:00

...that’s what Mairead Carstens from MetroMovers (furniture removals company) tells us – and it’s the same story we get from other businesses in the program. Mairead explains that “in an industry that’s not exactly known for its customer service, our focus has been on setting a new standard and doing things differently. But while this constant striving for service excellence has always been our passion, it was often difficult to convince customers of the MetroMovers point of difference. With WOMOW, we now have a tool to really demonstrate to customers that we’re serious about service every step of the way.”

MetroMovers joined WOMOW’s Happy Customers Program only a couple of months ago but has already had at least 10 new clients book after seeing their WOMOW listing (possibly more when they include the ones that say they searched online). Mairead says that “when people see our WOMOW listing, they’ve already decided to use us – so they’re definitely easier to sell to”. Plus, the enquiries tend to come from quality-oriented customers who value good service – “so they’re not going to shop around for the cheapest price”.

It’s not just about short-term client acquisition though as Mairead views their ratings as the reputation the business is building for the long-term; “we know that the feedback we get today will be a huge advantage – both now and in the future. The more reviews we can get, the stronger our web presence becomes.”

Mairead says that a side-effect has been the impact that customer feedback has on staff. “Whenever we get a positive review, we print it off and put it up in the staff room for all to see – it really motivates our people and everyone’s hoping one of their customers will mention them!”

When asked if they had any doubts about being reviewed, Mairead explained that “Like any business, sometimes things do go wrong along the way, but we’re confident in our ability to fix things up and end up with another happy customer – and we’re more than happy to be transparent about it and let everyone see how we operate”.

Customers show their appreciation for great service

2010-05-14T22:32:00.011+10:00

Was your business ambushed in the recent WOMOW Hug-a-Business promotion? These were!

Annie, from Annie's Dog Grooming, getting a heartfelt hug from customer Kerrie. See their customer reviews on WOMOW... http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Annies-Dog-Grooming-Altona/

Happy customer, Lyn sharing the love with Ann from Klawz (recently reviewed as one of the best Hairdressers on the Gold Coast). Check out their customer reviews... http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Klawz-Nerang/

Jodie hugging the owner of Universal Seafoods - her favourite shop for quality seafoods. See their customer reviews...
http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Universal-Seafoods-Canning-Vale/

Zak hugging Shakil - one of the very talented chefs at Bukhara Indian Restaurant! See there reviews... http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Bukhara-Indian-Restaurant-Double-Bay/

More businesses are getting hugged!

2010-05-04T21:32:00.012+10:00

The people of Australia are getting behind the Hundred Hugs promotion in force! Business owners - brace yourselves! Customers - if there's a business that gives you great service, give them a hug (there's a voucher in it for you - see details here!)

Here's the latest hugs just in...

Natasha hugging her chiropractor - Anthony from Feel Amazing Wellness Centres. Check their great reviews on WOMOW here - http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Feel-Amazing-Wellness-Centres-Chatswood/

Valentina (on the left) hugging Michelle - the owner of Oyster Bay Massage Therapy. Valentina credits this business for keeping her out of hospital - see her full rating here - http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Oyster-Bay-Massage-Therpay-Oyster-Bay/

One happy customer! Gail (in the middle) with Dominic and Kate from Hair On Como. Check her customer review here - http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Hair-On-Como-Parkdale/

Kate with Carmen from Simply Strandz - http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Simply-Strandz-Of-Redcliffe-Redcliffe/ "I wouldn't let anyone else touch my hair!"

Why are we doing this?
Call us crazy (you won't be the first), but this promotion is to celebrate WOMOW reaching 100,000 reviews for Australian businesses. We're looking for 100 HUGS for 100,000 Ratings and we're rewarding the members and businesses that participate (we think you all deserve a hug!). So, the first 100 members to send in pics will get a $20 voucher to spend at the business they hug, and for those that also share their pic on Facebook or Twitter, we'll make this a $50 voucher. That way we're giving more business to the businesses that people want to hug. So everyone's a winner!

Get Hugging!
If you're a business owner/manager, why not ask a customer for a hug (we dare you!). And if you're a customer, give your favourite business a massive HUG from us. There's a voucher in it for you and its a good thing to do anyway!

Click here for the promotion details.

Word-of-mouth is driving my Cleaning Business

2010-04-21T14:30:00.006+10:00

Sandy from Let Us Do It For U - Residential and Small Office Cleaning recently joined WOMOW's Happy Customers Program and says she's thrilled with how well it's working. She admits that she only joined after finding that some of her competitors were doing well on WOMOW but says she hasn't looked back since. In fact, her business has gone from doing 50 bookings a month to over 200 bookings a month! She says, "WOMOW is fantastic - I get so many calls from it and I don't advertise anywhere else."

"We've now got 6 good reviews and people love it because they get a really personal insight into what we're like to deal with. When they call us, they feel like they've done their research and they know us - which means they're ready to make a booking!"

"We also love getting the feedback - it keeps us in touch with customers and helps us understand what's important to them. We want to make sure that our service continues to be spot-on because keeping customers is even more important that getting them in the first place. Plus, we love hearing how we're helping to make our clients' lives easier."

"Our reviews on WOMOW also helped us win a sizeable contract which has made a big difference to our business. My problem is no longer 'how to get new customers', but has changed to 'how to find great staff'!"

You can see the listing and ratings for this business here - www.womow.com.au/biz/Let-Us-Do-It-4-U-Residential-and-Small-Office-Cleaning-Moorabbin/

If you would like to be featured in a WOMOW case study, please write to us telling us how word-of-mouth works for your business - support@womow.com.au

WOMOW's Hundred Hugs have begun

2010-04-15T22:35:00.029+10:00

We're looking for a Hundred Hugs for businesses - because we think great businesses deserve a hug! The first pics are in - don't they just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Jo with Fab from Food for All Seasons www.womow.com.au/biz/Food-For-All-Seasons-Warrandyte/

Charlotte hugging her favourite hairdresser - Kylie from Capelli Hair & Beauty Studio www.womow.com.au/biz/Capelli-Hair-and-Beauty-Studio-Ferntree-Gully/

Heather hugging Dr Maltby (she said he deserves a hug as he's recently made her daughter's smile even more beautiful) http://www.womow.com.au/biz/Kawana-Dental-Buddina/%20%205%20days%20ago%20from

Teresa giving her singing teacher a beautiful hug. She says Kane's given her confidence and insight into the correct way to sing (and lots of others agree) www.womow.com.au/biz/Kane-Wheatley-Marrickville/

Jan giving a hug to Jenni Kate Beauty www.womow.com.au/biz/Jenni-Kate-Beauty-Baxter/

Martine hugging Renee (on the left) who is the owner of the The Beauty Pavillion in Mt Waverley
www.womow.com.au/biz/The-Beauty-Pavillion/

Jane hugging her vet, Rob from Eureka Veterinary Hospital in Ballarat
www.womow.com.au/biz/Eureka-Veterinary-Hospital-Ballarat/

Why are we doing this?
Call us crazy, but it's all about celebrating the fact that we're about to reach 100,000 ratings. We're looking for 100 HUGS for 100,000 Ratings amd we're rewarding the members and businesses that participate (we think you all deserve a hug!). So, the first 100 members to send in pics will get a $20 voucher to spend at the business they hug, and for those that also share their pic on Facebook or Twitter, we'll make this a $50 voucher. That way we're giving more business to the businesses that people want to hug. So everyone's a winner!

Want to participate?
If you're a business owner/manager, why not ask a customer for a hug (we dare you!).

And if you're a customer, give your favourite business a massive HUG from us. There's a voucher in it for you and its a good thing to do anyway!

Click here for more information about this promotion.

"My customers have become my sales force!"

2009-11-22T13:43:00.003+11:00

Elaine Daher from Bluebell Conveyancing explains how word-of-mouth can work for professional services...

“When someone first told me there were customers rating my services online – I panicked and raced to the nearest computer! What if I’d done something wrong, what would they be saying? I need not have worried though, as the ratings were very positive and now play a big part in driving my business forward. In fact, we’re consistently getting several new clients a week because of our ratings on WOMOW.”

“It’s made me realise that when you’re genuine about providing a good service, customers are more than happy to let others know about their experience – it seems to be their way of thanking you. The flyers are an easy way to encourage them to do this on WOMOW and the system works really well. But the best part is that these reviews are helping my business get found online and are bringing in lots of new clients. My customers have effectively become my salesforce!”

“I’ve been really surprised to find how many people search online for recommendations when they need a new business. We’ve always had a lot of new clients from traditional word-of-mouth, but I never imagined that putting that feedback online would generate so many more enquiries. When people buy or sell property, they often don’t have a preferred conveyancer, so it seems that a lot of them go hunting on the web. With so many ratings, I’m lucky because often their searches will lead to my WOMOW listing and I’ll get a call.”

“The clients that come to us this way are impressed from the outset and feel confident in choosing us. I think we’ve represented almost every WOMOW enquiry we’ve had.”

Bluebell Conveyancing's listing on WOMOW can be seen here - www.womow.com.au/biz/Bluebell-Conveyancing-Williamstown/

Want to be trusted? Use consumer reviews...

2009-10-21T21:00:00.000+11:00

People buy from businesses they trust. Whether it's an expensive B2B purchase or a simple dinner out, there are risks involved in every transaction and consumers choose to deal with businesses they believe minimise their risk. If they feel that a particular restaurant has less chance of disappointing them and embarrassing them in front of their friends, that's the one they'll choose. And if it makes sense for this type of transaction, think about situations where there's more money involved, more permanent repercussions of the purchase, or more personal services being selected. Trust me, trust is the holy grail...

So, if you're a business owner or marketer, how do you build trust? Well, there are 3 pieces of research that show how online consumer reviews can go a long way towards building a reputation people trust...

1) Almost two-thirds of people read consumer-written reviews on the internet (Deloitte & Touche)

Yes we all know that the world has gone online but did you know that all kinds of people are looking online for all kinds of businesses? We don't just research our electronic purchases online, these days people use the web to search for and scrutinise all types of businesses. One case in point is ADM Motors - a mechanic that joined WOMOW a couple of months ago. It's owner Adam says that he "never thought so many people would be looking online for a mechanic - boy was I wrong!" Since joining he knows of at least 10-12 new customers that have come to him after reading reviews about his business online - some driving all across town just to use a mechanic they feel they can trust (without ever having met Adam or used his services previously).

2) 78% of people trust other consumers' recommendations above all other types of advertising and marketing (Nielsen)

So, given that people are looking at online reviews, how much impact do they have? Well according to a recent Nielsen Golbal Online Survey of over 25,000 consumers from 50 different countries, people trust online reviews more than any other form of marketing or advertising. That's right, people don't need to know who has written the reviews, they believe what they read. The only source of advice found to be more trusted was a personal recommendation from someone they know.

Some of the businesses on WOMOW have experienced this heightened trust first-hand with Greg Mulroy from Body and Scents Perfumery saying "when people read our reviews online it gives them confidence that they'll get exactly what they expect and not a fake copy". Similarly, Nicole Seagren from Vision Finance encourages prospective clients to check their reputation on WOMOW "it gives them a positive mindset so they come to us expecting a good result and we get off to a good start".

3) People that read reviews are 30% more likely to purchase (Coremetrics)

So how does trust relate to sales? Well, studies by Coremetrics show that when businesses make online reviews easily acccessible, sales jump by an average of 30 per cent! Again, plenty of businesses on WOMOW are finding a fairly direct relationship between the number of positive reviews they have and the new clients they get from WOMOW. Misty's Diner has lots of positive ratings on WOMOW as they've been encouraging customers to enter reviews for almost 2 years now. This effort is paying off as Misty now attributes around one third of her revenue to customers that read her reviews online.

But are consumer reviews a short-term phenomenon that will go away sometime soon? Well, Trendwatching.com has labelled this the "Transparency Triumph" and predicts that even though review sites have been around for some time now, "we ain't seen nothing yet". They note that the trend is empowering consumers as never seen before - something that people aren't likely to give up without good reason. They also see the trend helping savvy businesses build inspiring brands and say that those that embrace consumer reviews are set to benefit as (in their words)...
"Reviewing is the new advertising".

Click here for more information on using WOMOW to build a bank of online reviews.

Word-of-Mouth: the Marketing Heavyweight in a Downturn

2009-08-20T21:21:00.006+10:00

While many businesses are suffering in the current economic climate, our research shows that businesses that use online word-of-mouth are coming out stronger than ever.

When times are tough, consumers seem to be placing even more weight on word-of-mouth referrals. WOMOW's usage trends, coupled with the findings of qualitative research carried out on a sample of the businesses on the site, revealed that;

Consumers are now much more likely to rely on word-of-mouth referrals before parting with their money, and
Businesses listed on WOMOW with several positive ratings had seen an upward surge in business, instead of the plateau or decline economists predicted.

“Our research suggests that buyers are more discerning about how they spend their money right now, and are turning to word-of-mouth recommendations before trying a new product or service.” In the period from September last year to now, WOMOW’s members have tripled and traffic has increased by over 270 percent.

The trend towards more reliance on word of mouth is having an amazing impact on the businesses that have several positive ratings, with many attributing a good part of their recent success to the site.

For example, Albert Square dentist Joanne Flaessas said that her business had “boomed” during this recession due to word-of-mouth referrals, many found on WOMOW. “In December we were doing about two teeth whitenings a week and now we’re doing five times that amount,” she said.

Vision Finance director Nicole Seagren said the firm relied purely on word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied customers, often through the WOMOW site, for new business. “We’ve just had our best year in quite a few years – probably up about 15 percent.”

Christina Stamatopoulos from Body & Bronze said that “since we joined in February, we've had at least 25 new clients that have found us through WOMOW. Customer service is a huge part of our business - and now it's paying off! We've had a bigger year this year than any other year! I don't think we've been affected by the downturn at all.”

Adam from ADM Motors said that “WOMOW has been really great for us. In the last few months, we've had 10-12 new customers from it - and they're just the ones that mention it to us! We've got people travelling more than 20kms - just to get a roadworthy done! I guess they see our reviews and they know that we won't rip them off.”

To help people recognise the businesses that take customer satisfaction seriously, WOMOW has recently introduced stickers which are free to all businesses that repeatedly get great customer reviews. “With people now taking word-of-mouth recommendations so seriously, we want consumers to know when they’re entering a ‘dodgy–free’ service zone - and we also want the businesses that provide good service to get the recognition they deserve.”

If your business is on WOMOW with 3 or more ratings and an overall rating of 4or 5 (out of 5), please contact us for your free "WOMOW Badge of Approval" stickers.

How small businesses can boom with word-of-mouth: here's one example

2009-07-28T10:28:00.000+10:00

While lots of businesses are announcing massive staff cuts, Lee Davies, the proprietor of Salon Lavan, is looking to put on more staff because her business is growing at a phenomenal rate. The small hairdressing salon is fielding calls and acquiring new customers from all over Melbourne - simply because people have heard that she provides a brilliant service. How do they find out? Word of mouth on the web – otherwise known as womow.com.au. Based in Elsternwick, Salon Lavan is getting calls from Essendon, Emerald, Keilor, Croydon and even further afield. Who’d have thought that people would travel 40km and more just for a haircut! But this business demonstrates just how powerful word-of-mouth - and the promise of a good haircut - can be.

Davies first heard about WOMOW when a customer mentioned that they’d rated her business after having a haircut. Soon enough, new enquiries started coming in, leading Davies to take a proactive role and begin encouraging customer ratings.

Davies says; “The best advertising comes from my customers – they write what they think of my services and suddenly I’m getting enquiries from all over town! I’ve built this business on word-of-mouth with WOMOW. ” Having customer ratings at an independent source is extremely convincing for people that value good service. These days she says the salon is averaging 12 new clients a week that find them on www.womow.com.au.

So how does she get such great feedback? Davies runs her business with a simple but effective philosophy – “treat people well and do a good job”. It’s an old-fashioned approach, but combined with an easy way for her customers to spread the word around, it works. She started the business four years ago but has “seen a lot more growth in the last year since being part of WOMOW’s Happy Customers Program”. Salon Lavan currently has over 20 customer ratings and they encourage more by giving customers flyers which explain the importance of their feedback. “Our customers are happy with us, so they usually don’t mind spending a couple of minutes letting others know about their experience.” Davies knows that the more favourable ratings they have, the more exposure they get on the web (both on WOMOW.com. au and on Google).

There’s also plenty of research to back up Salon Lavan’s experience with word-of-mouth marketing. One study showed that almost two-thirds (62%) of consumers read consumer-written reviews on the internet to make purchase decisions (Deloitte & Touche, 2007). While another showed that 78% of people trust other consumers’ recommendations above all other types of advertising and marketing (Nielsen, 2007). That’s pretty powerful stuff – especially when you consider that the cost is almost nothing. What business can afford not to be implementing an online word-of-mouth strategy?

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Got a story about how word-of-mouth or WOMOW is helping your business? We’d love to hear – please email support@womow.com.au or call us on 1300 496 669.

Could this be the easiest way to be found in Google?

2008-08-20T22:06:00.000+10:00

Getting your business listed near the top of a Google search is a very tricky task indeed. Big businesses find it hard enough, but for small businesses that don't have the time or money to put into SEO (search engine optimisation), it can be almost impossible.

There are lots of factors that determine how websites are sorted - and Google doesn't let us in on all their secrets. However, some businesses are finding that there is a relatively easy (and legitimate) way to get found on Google.

In general, Google favours the most relevant content from the most credible websites. So you need your business on websites that are well optimised for search engines, alongside words that people are searching for. One easy way to achieve this is by getting people talking (writing) about your business on a popular website. In case you haven't guessed, one good example of this is http://www.womow.com.au/.

Why are ratings so effective?

There are a couple of reasons. One is that on a review website like WOMOW, it's easy for your business name to be mentioned several times. Another is that the developers behind WOMOW have structured the web pages so that the content is easily spidered by Google. But it's also true that you could achieve these benefits from other types of websites.

The real reason that a site like WOMOW helps you get found on Google is because it's real people describing your business, in real people's language.

When people search for businesses, they use terms that you're unlikely to find on most business websites. But these are the exact same words that your customers use to describe your business. For example, the website for Mike's Sports Physiotherapy might say something like "We provide professional physiotherapy services and treat all kinds of sports problems. We offer thorough assessment and treatment which can include stretching and strengthening programs." On the other hand, one of his customers might write "I hurt my shoulder playing tennis and decided to see a physio. Turns out my injury was quite easy to treat and only took 2 sessions. I was nervous at first but Mike was extremely gentle - I'd recommend him to anyone in the Eastern suburbs."

If a potential customer was searching on Google, they might type "gentle physio for tennis injury in eastern suburbs". Mike's website would fail dismally but his listing on WOMOW would have a great chance of being one of the top results. This is an extremely powerful (and free) way to substantially improve your positioning on Google.

Surprisingly, it can be extremely difficult for a business owner to know just how their potential customers are searching on the web. One case in point was a dog trainer. He had a great website but when one of his customers rated him on WOMOW and referred to him as the "dog whisperer", his web traffic soared.

So how do you make the most of this rating phenomenon?

Get lots of customers to rate you on WOMOW.com.au
Literally all you need to do is get into the habit of asking every customer to rate you. Not everyone will, but if your customers are happy with your service, they're usually more than happy to do this for you. (By joining WOMOW's Happy Customers Program, you can get flyers which you can give to customers make it easy for you to tell them how to rate your business).

Make sure your business is listed correctly
Check that your address, phone number and especially website and email address details are included an accurate. To do this, you just claim your business listing (there's no cost).

Include extra information about your business
Upgrade to an Optimised Listing and you can include a description for your business that helps you get found on Google. Here you can list the brands you supply, the areas you service, the products or services you provide, whatever it is you think people will be searching for on Google.
Keep the ratings coming
Because Google values fresh information, it gives priority to pages that are frequently updated with new content so it's important to develop a way of requesting ratings from customers systematically. Aside from handing out flyers, you could also enclose a request (or flyers) with invoices, send recent customers an email asking them to rate you, or display a sign that explains how you rely on customer referrals and ask them to rate you that way.

Start this week and watch as your web traffic grows over the next few months. As they say, it may not happen over night, but it will happen!

Use Business Awards to Generate Word-of-Mouth

2008-07-16T22:02:00.000+10:00

A great way to get people knowing and talking about your business is to enter (and preferably win) business awards. When you start looking, there are quite a few of these around - some general, others more industry specific.

As I see it, the main benefits are;

Media Attention - Businesses that win awards have something to tell the press. Often the award organisers have their own highly polished PR department that will help promote their award, as well as the businesses that achieve some success. The best thing about this is that media coverage leads tends to lead to more media coverage.

Exposure to Key Influencers - In my experience, the businesses and people entering awards are often decision-makers and important influencers in their industry and community. While it might not seem like a huge number of people you're physically getting in front of, they're the 'movers and shakers' of our society. (In a previous business we owned, winning an award put us on the radar of the company that ended up acquiring us several years later.)
More Web Links - I'm no Search Engine Optimisation expert (I leave this aspect to others I work with), but I know that when you have more links pointing to your website your Page Rank increases and you'll be more likely to show up higher in Google's search results. The more popular the website that links to you, the more impact this has. By entering awards, you're business will often be listed on the awards organiser's website (hopefully with a link to your site). And if you get media attention from the awards, this can also give you more links.

Birds-Eye View - Probably the most important benefit of all is that the process of entering awards causes you to reflect and think deeply about the current state of your business. The entry requirements are usually all-encompassing and force you to address every aspect of your business - including the more strategic elements (like your vision, culture, exit strategies, etc) that are easy to neglect on a day-to-day basis. Yes, we all intend to devote some time to long-term thinking, but for most of us, this only happens when we have an awards deadline to work towards!

On the downside, entering awards can be fairly involved and really needs dedicated chunks of time to be done properly. We think it's worth it though and have entered several awards with WOMOW.com.au and our previous business (Invizage Technology).

One business award currently seeking entries is Anthill's Cool Company Awards. We've got our entry in so why not give it a go? In their words...

Is your company a step ahead of the rest? An organisation of rule-making and rule-breaking leaders? To put it simply, is your company 'cool' in 2008? Applications are now open!
Click here to nominate.

10 Ways to get Customers Referring Your Business

2008-06-24T20:50:00.000+10:00

Most businesses know that the best way to get new customers is through word-of-mouth recommendations. Most of us base a lot of decisions on recommendations because we tend to believe someone who is not trying to sell to us. (Think about the last few purchasing decisions you made – whether it’s choosing a restaurant, a tradesperson, or a hairdresser, most of us rely on word-of-mouth to some extent.)

But the tricky part about word-of-mouth, is that it’s largely out of your hands. However, there are several things you can do to encourage your customers to recommend you to others.

Make sure customers are happy with your service
This is literally as simple as asking them what they thought of your service. For some businesses it might mean making it policy to ask how the customer’s meal was, or calling a few days after a service has been completed to make sure everything is ok. If there was any problem, this gives you the opportunity to find out about it.
Ask them to rate you on the web
For some businesses this sounds scary but if your customers are happy with you, all you need to do is ask if they’d mind posting a rating on the web for your business. Most people love to feel needed and if they’re happy with your service and you’ve developed some level of rapport with them, they’ll be more than happy to help you out. Misty’s Diner has been doing this for several months and at the time of writing has 120 customer ratings in WOMOW.

Obviously we suggest you use WOMOW.com.au but the key is to have your customer ratings in a public forum run by an objective third party. That’s what makes them believable!
Ask for personal referrals
At first glance this can look desperate, but all it means is letting your customers know that your business is built on word-of-mouth and if they know anyone that would be interested in your product/service, to point them in your direction. Later, when they’re having dinner with friends, hopefully they’ll remember this simple prompt and it’s amazing how often a referral will come about.
Let them know some inside secrets
Give customers something interesting to say to other people. It doesn’t have to be particularly ground-breaking stuff either. It could be something about yourself and why you got into this business, the types of clients you deal with, something about a major project you’re working on, really anything that gives them the opportunity to tell someone else something they don’t already know.

Imagine the difference between saying:-
“I know a great plumber who might be able to help you out with that”
and:-
“I know a great plumber who specialises in grey water solutions. He was just telling me about a job he just finished where…”
Keep in contact
Your customers could be in a position to give you a recommendation at any time, but if they haven’t heard from you in years its not likely they’ll remember you. The key is to stay in touch through personal phone calls, mailouts, newsletters, emails, lunches, whatever it takes to make sure that when the opportunity arises and a friend asks “do you know a good accountant around here?”, your name will be the first they mention.

One way to achieve this and combine with point 2 above is to email your clients saying that you’d like their feedback. Let them know that you’re using a website to collect feedback and would really appreciate it if they could rate you (if you want to use WOMOW just include a link to your WOMOW page).
Dare to be different
Another way to ensure your customers remember you is to be different in some way. There’s any number of ways you could do this but some businesses I’ve come across that do this use things like bright uniforms, posting a quote of the day, asking customers to pay what they think is a fair price instead of using a price list, use dramatic packaging, provide a mobile service (instead of in an office), or serve each customer a fresh muffin on arrival. Really this is marketing 101 in terms of setting yourself apart from your competitors, but think of it not just as a way of being better, but as a way of being remembered and talked about.
Let everyone know about your ratings
When people are checking out your website or in the midst of the sales process, let them know what your other customers say about you by showing them customer ratings or testimonials. These could be printed out in your office, a link to you WOMOW listing from your website, or included in your written quotes (eg “See what customers are saying about us here www.womow.com.au/biz/xxxx”)
Thank people for their recommendations
When you do get a recommendation, make sure you thank the person and let them know how much it means to you. This could mean phoning the customer that just sent their colleague to visit you, sending a box of chocolates or bottle of wine. When you get ratings on WOMOW, you can post a comment on their rating thanking them for their rating and for using your service – they’ll be more inclined to give you more recommendations, plus for everyone else reading, it looks like you really care. And unless the rating is anonymous, you can send them a private email too with a personalised thank-you.
Above all, provide great service
This underpins everything else, but I can’t let it go unmentioned. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of the business and forget about the customer experience. Be a customer for a day and put yourself in their shoes. What’s it like to phone your company, walk into the waiting room, email you, visit your website for the first time? Is there anything you could be doing better? Are there any basics that you’re missing? Once you get a few ratings, you’ll soon know what aspects of your business customers value the most.
Go one step extra
If it’s at all possible, make it a policy to do something extra that customers wouldn’t expect. Call the next day to see how everything is working out, remember their order from their last visit (or set up a system that does), give them a coffee / wine / mineral water / chocolate on arrival, set up a TV with relevant DVD’s in your waiting room, offer a free fitting service, write to them and offer a free maintenance check, give them a free air-fragrance with your service, or allow them to keep something else associated with your business.

I know of one car dealership that provides a lifetime of free carwashing to anyone that buys a car from them. Not only does this provide a great talking point, it ensures the customer remembers them next time they’re looking to buy a new car.

If there’s something you can do to really wow your customers, they’ll be so grateful, they’ll look for opportunities to even the score. As they say, the difference between extraordinary and ordinary is the “extra”!

Once you start regularly implementing just some of these ideas, the referrals will start flooding in. It’s a great way to do business!

Word-of-Mouth Goes Online

2008-06-23T19:05:00.038+10:00

Ever wondered how some people seem to find all the best businesses? Word-of-mouth has always been a sure-fire way to find great businesses and avoid the worst. In fact, word-of-mouth is often said to be the oldest and most effective form of marketing. But recently a new website has begun revolutionising the way word-of-mouth works in Australia. It’s called WOMOW.com.au and it stands for Word Of Mouth On the Web.

WOMOW.com.au is somewhat like a business directory (excepting that it’s written by users, all businesses are rated, and businesses don’t pay to be included), and similar to a web forum (except that it’s more structured so that information can easily be retrieved by others). The result is a unique tool that’s already changing the way that thousands of people find and choose businesses – and it may end up having a dramatic impact on the business landscape.

Just imagine, you’re looking for a mechanic that won’t rip you off, or a hairdresser you can trust to give you a great new look, or you need to organise a funky dinner venue for a bunch of friends… what you want is a recommendation. Jump onto www.womow.com.au and search. There you’ll find businesses that have been rated by real customers – many with lengthy descriptions that give you a really good idea about the business.

Say you’re looking for a mechanic…

About Town Mobile Mechanics (Melbourne) by Jablue
“It might seem as I'm generous in my praise in that I've rated Rob & About Town in the highest category for all criteria - but that was honestly my experience. My car had been broken down for some time & after chatting to Rob he agreed to come to my home on that day to diagnose the problem. He arrived on time, found the problem (starter motor) very quickly, and had a replacement fitted for an agreed price. I was able to pay by bank transfer, and he even checked a problem my sister was having with her ignition while I was on the computer. Couldn't be happier !!!!”

Or a cleaner…

Theema Cleaning (Greensborough) by MelissaL
“Have used Theema Cleaning twice for a spring clean at my house including windows. When it comes to window cleaning they really know their stuff in terms of different types of glass and what products to use. They use environmentally friendly cleaning products and have a great team that come in and get the job done in record time. I also used Theema for cleaning the blinds at my office and they did a fantastic job at short notice for this as well. Would highly recommend.”

Or maybe a physiotherapist…

Rating for Coburg Physiotherapy by krees
“I have a chronic back injury, and I've been to many physiotherapists before, but none have fixed me like these guys. They are never late with appointments, are open later than other places, so you don't need to leave work early, and is a great experience. Compared to other physiotherapy centres, they are also quite reasonable priced, and also cover work cover and pensioners.”

Traditional directories let you find businesses, but how do you know if they’re any good? The businesses that pay the most are always the most prominent, but you know nothing about their service (other than they’re paying a lot for advertising). WOMOW co-founder, Fiona Adler, believes that “good businesses deserve to be rewarded for their efforts and WOMOW helps them by amplify their word-of-mouth reputation”. Product reviews are everywhere on the Internet so it’s about time we had an equivalent resource for finding out about local services. And what if businesses provide poor service? Adler says, “people need to know about that too!” In fact, WOMOW.com.au does more than help people find great businesses, it gives consumers recourse in the event that they’re treated poorly - in effect, giving more power to consumers.

But the real strength in WOMOW is that it provides an incentive for businesses to treat customers well. “Give people a great experience and they’ll thank you with a positive rating on WOMOW – and before you know it, more people will start trying your business, giving you more opportunities to show what great service you can provide.”

And it already seems to be working for some businesses...

Misty Singer from Misty’s Diner in Prahran says that "In one night alone, new customers from WOMOW accounted for almost a third of our revenue! It gives me goosebumps when I read some of the great things our customers are saying about us." (You can see the actual ratings here - www.womow.com.au/biz/Mistys-1950s-Diner-Prahran)

And hairdresser Lee Davies from Salon Lavan claims that “Business is booming – in the last 2 months, we’re been getting several new clients a week – just because customers are writing nice things about us on WOMOW.” (You can see Salon Lavan’s ratings here – www.womow.com.au/biz/Salon-Lavan-Elsternwick.)

WOMOW.com.au has been up and running for less than a year but already has more ratings for all kinds of businesses than any other site in Australia. In fact, users have already entered over 16,000 ratings and traffic is growing at around 25-30% each month! There’s a real sense of community coming through too. People are realising that by spending a couple of minutes submitting a rating and sharing their experiences, they can contribute to their community by helping their neighbours get great service and supporting the customer-focussed businesses in their area.

With more and more people turning to WOMOW to rate their favourite and least favourite businesses, we could be seeing the beginnings of a people’s movement for better customer service. And that’s got to be good for everyone – except the dodgy operators that is!

Check it out at www.womow.com.au.

Key Facts about WOMOW

WOMOW.com.au went live in July 2007 after winning three out of four categories in the Melbourne Universities Entrepreneurship Challenge in April 2007.
As of June 2008, WOMOW’s users have entered over 16,000 customer ratings with a new rating currently being submitted every 6 minutes. WOMOW already has more ratings for all types of businesses than any other website in Australia.
Traffic is strong and growing at 25-30% per month.
WOMOW began in Melbourne but now operates throughout Australia with localised ratings for each major centre.
WOMOW covers all types of businesses – eg: tradespeople, hairdressers, gyms, doctors, physiotherapists, child-care centres, restaurants, activities, cleaners, vets, dentists, mechanics, accountants, computer repairs, wedding services, beauticians, and lots more (basically anything you’d like a recommendation for)

The WOMOW Blog

WOMOW Re-Launching as Word Of Mouth Online - WOMO!

Word-of-Mouth Online has Doubled our Revenue!

Can Businesses Review Themselves?

Why Advocates Recommend Brands: What's in it for the reviewer?

Domino's Pizza Shows Reviews at Times Square, New York

A Strong Online Presence is Fuelling our Growth

Why Word-of-Mouth Online Works

Can Consumer Reviews be Trusted?

Creating a Reviews Tab on your Facebook Page

Marketing by the Numbers: A Case Study

Promoting your Reviews on Facebook

The Top 5 Things Bugging Your Customers

It's not about the Money, Honey

Creating a "We Love Customers" Attitude

Renew your Customer Focus: New Financial Year Resolutions

12 Tips for getting more Customer Reviews

Doing Business in Tough Times: 7 tips to get you through

Businesses Urged to update their Dinosaur Marketing Strategies

Testimonials are Good, Reviews are Better (what's the difference anyway?)

Control

Direction

Source

Credibility

How Transparency Benefits Your Industry (yes, even health and medical businesses)

Savvy Consumers are Becoming the Norm

Transparency shifts the Focus to Quality

Stop Hiding and Own Your Service!

Announcing: The Best Health and Medical services in Australia

Check out the Best Health and Medical services here...

Get the rock star treatment: 10 tips for getting good service

When you sell your business, how will you measure Goodwill?

You're Dumped: Why Customers Leave

The Word-Of-Mouth Revolution is hitting Australia

Customer Satisfaction at a TWO YEAR High

Make Deposits with your Customers' Bank Accounts

The people have decided - the very BEST places to Eat and Drink across Australia

We get New Leads and Win More Work using Customer Reviews

Four ways I use Word-of-Mouth to Grow my Online Business

1) Built-In Management Tool

2) Create a Customer Service Culture

3) Get Found Online

4) Get Potential Customers to Trust You

How to Respond to Positive Reviews

How to Respond to Negative Reviews

How to use Special Offers Effectively

Win New Customers without Sabotaging Profitability

Don't be Half-Hearted!

Choose Your Audience Carefully

Be Smart when you Craft your Offer

Industries that provide the Best and Worst Customer Service

Customer Reviews get you Found in Google (and other search engines)

Another Paradox: Customers are Happier, Just Because you Asked

How I find the RIGHT type of Customers for my Business

Australian Consumers Demand Better Service (but grant second chances)

Our Business Survey: The Results Are In

Remind me again, why am I doing this?

One magic question that could turn your business around

The Best Startup Business is...WOMOW - Word Of Mouth On the Web!

Marketing doesn't work like that!

WOMOW a finalist in the 2010 MyBusiness Awards

WOMOW Video: How to Turbo Charge your Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

WOMOW outperforms Yellow Pages, a hairdresser tells

New start-up, Miss Eyelash, is off to a flying start with instant word-of-mouth

Customer Service Sins: 5 (surprising) things that piss customers off

Our Customers Don't Talk about our services but we still benefit from Word-of-Mouth

Proactive word-of-mouth - is it possible?

“Our service is paying off with the Happy Customers Program”

Customers show their appreciation for great service

More businesses are getting hugged!

Word-of-mouth is driving my Cleaning Business

WOMOW's Hundred Hugs have begun

"My customers have become my sales force!"

Want to be trusted? Use consumer reviews...

Word-of-Mouth: the Marketing Heavyweight in a Downturn

How small businesses can boom with word-of-mouth: here's one example

Could this be the easiest way to be found in Google?

Use Business Awards to Generate Word-of-Mouth

10 Ways to get Customers Referring Your Business

Word-of-Mouth Goes Online

Australian Consumers Demand Better Service (but grant second chances)