Word-of-mouth marketing is very important for a pet business. I found this great article on the Small Business Trends website ~ 16 things you can do yourself to create word-of-mouth for your business. I summarized the 15 things that are important to me when it comes to dealing with my clients and staff.

  1. Do more of what your customers like. Use the feedback that your current clients give you to identify what they like.
  2. Stop doing what makes them unhappy. Identify what they don’t like also. A survey might be a good idea to identify what your clients like and what they don’t like.
  3. Ask your employees. They write your story every day so ask them! Do more of what makes them recommend their company to their friends. Stop doing anything else.
  4. Review your sales reports. Are your sales going up or down?  A word-of-mouth, viral ad, campaign will accelerate the results.Why? More people will tell your story. And if that story is a story of a company whose customers are abandoning it, then more people  will hear that story. If your sales are going up, find out why. Do more of that.
  5. Review your sales-by-item reports.
  6. Hire A-Players. Hire the best. Then you have the asset to create the best.
  7. Remove C-Players.
  8. Motivate your employees with incentives that matter to them. Ask them what is meaningful. You may be surprised at what and how little it will cost.
  9. Connect their meaningful incentives to the goals of their company. Explain why they are important to reach. To do that, you must answer these three questions your employees will have: What’s in it for me? Why should I care? Why should I believe?
  10. Stay out of their way. Do your employees generate revenue? Do they lower expenses? Do they make each other happy? Do they make customers happy? Stay out of their way while they do that.
  11. Give them the tools and resources they need.
  12. Make employee reviews a celebration. Celebrate their strengths and accomplishments. Find ways and tools and areas where their strengths are on display.
  13. Celebrate failure. Acknowledge it, allow it, recognize it. And learn from it.
  14. Use social media.
  15. Know your community.

Lesson learned ~ Make sure you listen to what your clients and employees are saying. Listen first and then act! Social media and surveys could be your ears :)

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