Bad news generally trumps good news, right? Not so fast, says a recent Forrester Research report, “How customer experience drives word of mouth.”
According to the report, which surveyed 4,500 customers online across 12 industries, more people talk about good experiences than bad ones. Surprise, surprise.
Not so surprising: bad news is discussed more frequently than the good stuff.
The prevalence for good news isn’t across the board. In four of the 12 industries—credit card providers, health insurance plans, and TV and Internet service providers — bad news ruled. The most positive customers were from retail, banks and hotels.
Who’s talking? Gen Yers have the most good things to say — and the most bad — according to the report. Younger boomers are the least likely to say good things, while seniors aren’t likely to talk about bad experiences, except with regard to health plans.
So the good news is that people are talking about good news. The bad news is that people tell more people about bad experiences.
What’s it mean? To marketers, clear generational differences in the bent and frequency of messaging — who says what about what — should be top of mind moving forward.
If you’re in an industry that tends to generate passionate feedback from an age group that doesn’t mind spreading that news — let’s say Gen Yers and retail — you need to be paying attention and planning how to react to the commentary. A teen Facebook page that we developed for a major retail client takes a proactive approach that’s been quite successful. The client monitors commentary from its nearly 8,000 fans and jumps in to clarify discussions, reinforce trends and announce special offers.
Likewise, if you’re operating in an industry that typically generates positive feedback from Gen X and Gen Y types, using social media to amplify those voices can pay huge dividends.
What’s important to understand is that word-of-mouth feedback can’t be stopped. Furthermore, you’d be foolish to try stopping it. However, you can and should set your sights on monitoring it, understanding it and steering it with an ever-so-subtle hand. Your brand will love you for the effort.
