Tap into Reasons to Recommend You

Let’s say you’re planning to buy some new furniture for your living room at home. Which is a better predictor of the set you select?

• Your best guess of what your friends and family would think of each set you’re considering.
• Your personal opinion of each set, doing your best to put aside what your friends and family would think.

     If you’re like the people in a Michigan State University study, the better predictor would be your best guess about the opinions of your friends and family. That’s not really surprising. One function of living room furniture is to make visitors and family members comfortable. What others think powerfully influences the purchase decisions we will make.
     That’s true not only for the products and services the shopper selects, but also for the particular stores they shop at. You’d like one of those stores to be yours, so tap into the reasons that your current customers would recommend to their families and friends your store and the items you’d like those others to purchase from you.
     How to do that? Here are some tips, based on findings from a review by a researcher at University of Manchester in the United Kingdom:

• Encourage customers to talk about their preferences with store personnel and on social networking sites. Many consumers share advice mostly because they love to talk.
• Allow customers to show off their expertise when they’re in your store. Many consumers recommend a store and particular products after their self-esteem is raised.
• Give customers warnings they can share with friends. Many consumers become more likely to recommend your store when they feel you’ve rescued them from problems. And some consumers are more likely to recommend products when they can balance praise with warnings of traps to avoid.