Going through some business blogs, I stumbled upon a blog written by Seth Godin, ‘The selfish truth about word of mouth (why referrals don’t happen)’, which urged me to think about the concept of ‘word of mouth’. Seth talks about some questions which can arrive in the mind of a person who refers businesses to people via communication.
Seth makes it appear as if the referral takes up many risks by referring a business product or service to others. He has tried to convey that a referral is at gunpoint from both the provider and the person to which it is communicated.
Deviating from Seth’s thoughts I believe that word of mouth is not related with any risks for any of the participant. According to me, word of mouth is marketing of your personal experience of a particular product of a service via oral communication. It is not necessary that if your experience with a particular product is positive then the experience of the person it is referred to will also be positive. It depends on a person’s own attitude, needs and satisfaction requirements. Word of mouth is just sharing your own experience with somebody else, it is the person’s choice whether he or she would want to try the product or service.
I believe that a person should never turn away from spreading their experience of a service, as it is a matter of personal experience. Therefore, I would conclude by saying that Seth is not wrong, its just that his point of view on the matter is different from mine.
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