Word of mouth is one of the best things that can happen to a company. However, it can also work more against a company than for it. Whether or not you have a good rapport with a consumer can affect how he or she shares their opinion of a company. I often share my view of a company whether good or bad to my friends. I promote certain products or services over others, but the ones I have a beef with it, I tend to share more about them than the ones that I like. I believe it’s part of our make up as humans; we have a tendency to magnify the bad and ignore the good.
One service that I have recently become more appreciative of is banking. But more specifically, I have been made aware of how good my bank serves me with respect to another. I am proud to have TD Canada Trust as my bank. I, however, took for granted the excellent customer service that TD provides. I seldom shared about my TD experience with friends. This past summer, my eyes were opened as I had to go to another bank to take care of personal business. To this point, I had always felt good about doing banking until I had to do banking at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). To my surprise, the service they provided was not equal to the high standards of TD Canada Trust that I had grown accustom to. The service was lacking at RBC. There always seemed to be a long line up, people having problems and inadequate staff. The customer service representatives did not greet me with the friendliness that TD always has. At TD I feel appreciated and respected while at RBC I am treated just like another client. My RBC experience was less than stellar.
I have tried to take a new approach by promoting products that I like, but find it so hard to do. I feel that my friends need to know what to avoid more than what they should get. For example, I am more likely to tell friends to avoid banking at RBC than to promote TD, though I would suggest it as an alternative. People tend to care about other peoples’ opinions of different services and products, especially if it is a friend’s opinion. You are more likely to trust what your friend tells you more than what a TV advertisement tells you. There’s just more credibility. This just goes to show that you can have a great marketing campaign, but it all goes to waste if the service or product you are offering doesn’t provide the value your consumers are looking for.
