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A few weeks ago I was doing some research for the new website we rolled out this month when I came across a review on Google for one of my favorite pizza places: "Tasted like a rubbery piece of dough that was frozen. Had a bad after taste and way too much sauce . . . very bad."
He rated it a zero out of 3. The next five reviews rated it as a 0, 1, 0, 2, and 1. Comments included, "Cold, unappetizing, overpriced," "Pizza is over priced and nasty," and "Not much to write home about." Did I mention this is one my favorite pizza places? And believe me, I know pizza. I'm at the gym every other morning trying to work it off.
 | | What if all advertising was like word of mouth. Could be good. Could be very bad..... |
Negative Bias
What we have here is a classic case of negative word of mouth bias (or perhaps an unprincipled competitor or angry former employee). The upsides of word of mouth are obvious--it is "free" and is deemed credible. Downside? You have almost zero control over how much you get or whether it is positive or negative. According to a TARP Worldwide, Inc. study, if people love your service or product, they may tell a few people who will quickly forget. If they had a bad experience, they will tell an average of 12 people about it. Those 12 will tell another 6 each, until an average of 85 people are tainted by one bad experience.
Positive word of mouth is going to be the backbone of any good business, but isn't it interesting that you never see a super-successful company relying solely on word of mouth to bring in new customers?
Thanks for your business,
Reed
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