Let me take you back to the not so distant past before the Internet and when the telephone and other technologies were still on the distant horizon. How did people sell their wares? Word of mouth from satisfied customers. Fast forward some years and businesses used the newspaper, radio, then television and then BAM the Internet took over with its billions of websites. Did these work? Absolutely, because it was the only or best method available to them at the time.
Even though technology seems to have taken the majority of the stage today, do you think word of mouth is a “bygone days” approach to growing your business? If you think 'yes,' think again. Word of mouth from loyal and optimistic customers is still a very effective way to spread the message today of what you offer.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that business to business advertising or business to consumer ads are not a good investment. Of course they are. Why? Because advertising is the only way to reach your market’s full potential of new customers cost effectively, with convenience and repetition. We all know that message repetition is a key to effective media exposure.
What I am saying here is that the best way to improve the overall effectiveness of your advertising investment is by creating “mass word of mouth”.
What is “mass word of mouth?” An example may help.
Let’s say you are a Community owner and you want to fill vacancies at you location. First, if you have significant vacancies or lack sufficient retail sales, you should be engaging MHMSM.com proven Solutions Department. But I digress, so let me return to the point.
Let’s say you have 100 residents that have lived at your location and they are happy to be there and feel like living there has been a wise decision. Let’s also presume you have vacancies you want to fill or unsold homes. Further, one or more of the following may apply:
– You want to sell your location but know that you will get less for it if you have a lot of vacancies.
– You want the location to look successful not just for yourself but for the other residents as well.
– You just want to stop losing all of the potential revenue from vacant sites.
Customer statistics over the years have indicated that for every satisfied customer you have they will tell 3 to 10 other people about their experience. Imagine for a minute if every one of your residents told just 3 people about the great lifestyle they have living in your property. So if you have 100 residents and they each tell 3people – well I’m sure you can do the math – that’s 300 potential ways to fill your vacancies. Vacancy problem solved.
Yes, you need to have a website. Yes, you need to have a well maintained location and satisfied owners or renters, But in the end just having these will not guarantee your vacancies will be filled as you watch thousands of potential dollars fall through the cracks every month.
There are five things you should be doing if you want the tremendous impact of word of mouth exposure.
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Your residents need to have a good lifestyle and feel happy that they live where they do.
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You have to encourage word of mouth advertising.
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You have to reinforce for your residents the wisdom of their housing choice with your company.
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You need to give your residents ideas on how to help them solve some of their housing issues, needs or problems.
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Your staff needs to be effectively trained in customer service, sales and management skills to aid this word of mouth process.
For communities or retailers, our free new resource at MHLivingNews.com can help with many of these issues. It will reinforce the lifestyle choice they've made in manufactured housing. It will debunk some of the outdated myths that are tossed at 'mobile homes' by an unwitting media or others. Happier residents or customers, will yield over time more referrals.
We have a wide variety of services available that can help you solve many of your current challenges. We call it simply, Solutions. It says it all. All you have to do is let us know your challenge, and we can tell you the ways that we have helped other companies like yours solve them; profitably.
Then, you can join the 'word of mouth' that we get, like the testimonials found at that link. Want more, just call me.##
Posted for
Tim Connor
Business Development
MHProNews.com
MHMSM.com
And the new MHLivingNews.com
704-895-1230
tim@mhmsm.com