Customer Evangelism — When It Works, It Really Works!

I'm reading another very interesting book: Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force. The authors tell us something we've known for awhile, but perhaps haven't really taken full advantage of:

"The marketing world has changed dramatically since the advent of the 21st century. Technology has leveled the playing field to make quality less of a competitive difference. ...product and service levels have nearly evened out, as have price advantages. We're drowning in a sea of media and information overload. In a world with so much choice, how do people make decisions? By relying on trusted friends, colleagues, or family members."

The book goes on to show how various businesses of different sizes have expanded tremendously by the actions of their CUSTOMERS. Some of this we know of as "word-of-mouth." But in some cases, it went far beyond word-of-mouth to a "customer evangelism." In these cases, you have customers promoting the living daylights out of your business. They'll do it a variety of ways, but they are so in love with what you do and how well you treat them, they take customer loyalty to the max.

Are your customers going out of their way to promote you and your business? If not, whatever time you spend helping this activity along is time very well spent.