How many times have you had good service and told someone else about it? More importantly, how many times have you had bad service and talked about it?
They say that when you get good service, you tell one person. Conversely, when you experience bad service, you tell ten people!
Whether it is in the retail, hospitality or travel industries, service is an important element of marketing, and can ultimately affect brand perception.
In the digital age, where communication is simple and uncensored, immediate and easily accessible, it is important to acknowledge this.
Think of the popular website Trip Advisor – which is a review site for the travel industry. Trip Advisor is allowing past and potential customers to engage with each other, meaning if one past customer has had a bad experience, they will pass it on to more people. Given our saying, it would make sense that there would be more people sharing negative experiences with others, than positive – and the market reach would be significantly larger.
I for one, along with many of The Stormettes, use Trip Advisor to influence my purchase decisions! In fact, resident Stormette Jenny recently booked a trip to Fiji, and checked every potential hotel out on Trip Advisor. And that’s just us! Imagine how many other people out there are like us.
Trip Advisor is just one example of a review site – there are many others out there across many different industries which can make it extremely difficult for a brand if they have had instances of poor service.
It is important to note, that by ‘service’ I am not simply referring to staff – everything from uniforms, to cleanliness, to décor to product quality contribute to the overall service of a company, and it is important to keep this in mind, as you never know what people could be saying about your service!
Love, Tash and The Stormettes xxxx
