My fiance's name is Guisselle. She's a hair dresser at an upscale salon and spa. An interesting story about gaining a new client via word of mouth.
A lady sees her neighbour's new hairdo and says "I really like your hair. Where did you get it done?". The reply is "This girl Guisselle, over at The Spa".
A couple of days later, the same lady notices a co-worker's hairdo and asks the same question. The reply is "My hairdresser Guisselle, at The Spa".
The very same week, she asks yet another co-worker about her hairdo. The reply is "This girl at The Spa, ...". The lady interrupts with "Let me guess. Guisselle?". "Yes! How did you know?".
It was at this point the lady decides to make an appointment with Guisselle.
It took seeing Guisselle's work three times and seeing how happy her customers were before this lady decided to go ahead and try her services out for herself.
How many satisfied customers do you need to have out there willing to talk about your product or service before your reputation reaches that tipping point? This is the point at which all your hard work pleasing customers starts to really pay off. Your reputation for quality precedes you and not just because one person is happy, but many.
This lady may very well not really trust the opinion of any one of those people individually, but after all of them express the same opinion, she can't help but try Guisselle's service out for herself.
I'm afraid I don't think there's a short cut to reaching this tipping point. There's nothing marketing or a new software feature will do to build that reputation.
A lot of hard work and making sure every customer is happy. That's the only way.
Guisselle has put in the hard work and is now at the top of the scale from one to awesome.
