This is a lesson for all businesses, whether you are a supplier or an operator in the village and care sectors.
If you are not marketing/promoting your business successes to your existing customers you will be going backwards and your business is open to easy threats.
The big six aged care operators in the middle of the storm now – see more below.
What am I talking about? Importance of word-of-mouth marketing.
Customers expect that you will do a good job. This will be the level that you will be judged unless you remind them regularly that you do a great job – above and beyond what is the market expectation.
The No. 1 tool and easiest is client testimonials. Over 40 years I have never been knocked back when I have asked a client to provide a comment for our marketing material. (In nearly all cases I have written them and they have signed off).
If you are not reminding your customer of your ‘great job’ (word-of-mouth marketing), when they are approached by a competitor with a fresh offer, or a new staff member joins and wants to make an impression by ‘shopping around’, nobody in your customer company will be defending you.
You will be under attack and fighting from a weak base.
If you read our weekly newsletter The SOURCE you will know that the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Association (ANMF) is aggressively targeting the top six private aged care operators.
The ANMF’s claim: the big six make excessive profits from government-funded aged care (because they skimp on nursing staff) and dodge paying tax.
The ABC, The Australian newspaper and now a Senate inquiry have all picked up this position and run with it.
The big six have nothing to defend themselves or to refute claims.
They do not have customer service satisfaction. They do not have a ready group of testimonials. They have not been marketing to their customers who could call upon to rise up and defend them.
Are you the same?
79% of people trust testimonials and online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Word-of-mouth marketing is simpler than you think (as long as you’re doing the job customers).
Here is a link to an article that I found, it is very good at sparking our imaginations of what can be and how to do it.
In today’s world ratings are massively powerful – and easy to implement.
A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a rating. A survey of your customers for simple questions will generate an NPS score for you. This can be done through independent/confidential online services.
We use our Google Analytics traffic as a rating. For villages.com.au and agedcare101.com.au traffic builds every month. Online customers are rating us. Every new business pitch features our Google Analytics results.
There are three quick word-of-mouth wins:
- Identify and nurture your top customers
- Ask for reviews/ratings when things are going well – don’t wait!
- Use tools to automate the process
But first, to protect yourself from attack, commit to a word-of-mouth strategy long-term – so it doesn’t drift.
Chris
