THE OTHER SIDE OF CUSTOMER ADVOCACY?

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“Make advocacy moments repeatable.”

I was once in a restaurant in London highly recommended by my friend as an authentic Italian spot. Hoping for a dose of sunshine in the autumn gloom, I ordered several dishes. None of them were good. Antipasti were dry, pasta was overcooked, meat was chewy. Confused, I messaged my friend, who was terrified and apologized profusely, although it was obviously not his fault. Still puzzled, I asked the staff if anything changed recently.Turned out, their original chef left and took the knowledge with him. The good story shared with me could not be repeated for me.

These several weeks I have talked about recommendations, moments of advocacy, and making sure that even the bad experiencesare turned into good stories. What I haven’t talked about yet is the other side of advocacy. What happens when someone receives a recommendation? What happens when they follow up? The person who recommends puts their heart and soul into it. Their social stand may depend on it. By failing to repeat a good experience, we fail not one, but two people at once. This is why advocacy moments need to be a programme, and not rely on a goodwill of employees or a one-off occurrence. You need to make them repeatable to make sure the stream of recommendations doesn’t stop.

How do you make sure those who come by recommendations are recognised?