Why is Zappos.com so successful? Their CEO, Toni, turned Zappos into a company with one focus: client happiness. Client happiness is the key driver for positive word-of-mouth. Zappos has the highest net promoter score in the world.
If you want to integrate word-of-mouth in all your marketing processes, you need someone from top management to take the lead. In fact, if you think about it, Toni is the Conversation Manager of Zappos. Turning his company into a conversation company.
To make sure that your team is focused on developing and maintaining a great client dialogue, you need the right management tools. Once you use a new set of performance indicators (word-of-mouth related) to evaluate your team, they will act upon them.
It’s not just about a new set of KPI’s, but also about personal freedom. Only by giving your service people freedom to make personal decisions in order to boost client happiness, you will succeed. This implies letting go of policies that are just too strict. This implies letting go of giving approvals for all public client communication. It means: empowering people and believing in them to develop a great client relationship.
It requires structural change in the way most companies operate. That’s why I give the advice: appoint your CEO as Conversation Manager. He/She has the power to make those required changes and to create a focus on client happiness.