Is word-of-mouth a thing of the past? Maybe it’s just evolving
The era of the Google review is upon us. From the french fry truck to the car dealership, everyone is asking us only for 5-star reviews. And it's got a lot of folks wondering if sharing one's honest opinion over the back fence is a thing of the past.
Cindy and Mark are local residents who, after engaging a local company to renovate much of their home, opted to share their journey with an independent storyteller. It gave them a chance to celebrate their achievement while offering helpful feedback to the contractor, Thumbs Up Painting and Renovating.
If the fatigue of sorting through suspicious reviews from Gary F. and Sally G. is driving you into a little bit of a funk then you're not alone.
As an engaged business owner, Sarj Elawar from Thumbs Up Painting and Renovating was open to innovation. While Sarj likes a glowing 5⭐️ rating like the rest of us, he opted for a different approach: he handed off a few client phone numbers (with permission) and let the storyteller (yours truly) make the approach.
With an open mind, local business owner Sarj Elawar invited his clients to a face-to-face meeting with a local interviewer.
Freed up from the expected Google review, Sarj's clients were thrilled to sit down over coffee and discuss the story arc of their renovation projects. The most poignant high points were celebratory. They obviously made it into the Thumbs Up brand story as the clients wanted to share their positive experiences with others. Word-of-mouth commentary was foundational to the film, thus giving new context to an old concept.
Meanwhile, the complete story – balancing highs, lows and details in between – was then crunched into actionable data for Sarj to use with his team. More stories will eventually lead to more data, but this is a new beginning for a chapter that will blend qualitative data collection and storytelling.
The reframing of word-of-mouth advocacy is exemplified in this story. There is substantial reliance on client voices to communicate the narrative arc of their experiences:
