Brands are rightly interested in customer advocacy: they want positive word of mouth. The question is, which customers generate the most of it? If you think it’s long-standing, loyal customers you’re in for a surprise.

Research shows that the amount of positive word of mouth customers generate tends to either stay neutral or decline with brand tenure. As something becomes part of the fabric of our lives we become less likely to proactively mention it. Why is that?

It’s simple really — we share the news not the olds. We tend to talk about things that are novel, current, fresh, or different. 

Think about your own behaviour: you might talk about a restaurant that you’ve just been to, a movie you just watched, or a product you just bought because they’re topical. 

You’re less likely to start a discussion about the brand of coffee you’ve bought every day for ten years, for example.

This means that if we’re trying to drive advocacy we might want to focus on the experience for new or first time buyers and ensure their path to purchase, on-boarding and initial product or service usage experience is exemplary, and not expect our current customers to act as a megaphone. 

The Leader’s Guide to Customer Experience gets into more detail. Link in the comments.

#customerexperience #cx

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