Transparency is officially in, whether we like it or not.  This is only good news if you provide a great product and customer experience.  The bad news is that if you don’t, Yelp will let you, and a massive amount of your current and potential customers know.

Check out this excerpt from the article on Inc. below:

For two days, Goodman was transfixed by the discussion — and she started to get paranoid. “I couldn’t tell if the people coming into the store were real customers or just people who were going to say something about me on Yelp,” she says. A customer would ask an innocuous question — for instance, “How long have you been open?” — and Goodman would panic, fearing that her response might become fodder for yet another Yelp comment. “I was saying to myself, ‘Come on; that’s crazy,’ ” she says.  ” ‘Don’t think this way.’ ”

At the end of the second day, she decided to end the crisis by apologizing. She figured out Sean’s last name — Clare — with a Google search and found his address in the white pages. His house was just two blocks from her store. She walked up the stairs to his front porch and, at 6 o’clock on a Sunday evening, knocked on his door.

Accounts differ as to what happened next, but a struggle ensued. Goodman says she started to explain that she had come to apologize for her e-mails and was attacked; Clare says Goodman began yelling, forced her way into his house, and refused to leave. In any case, the two became entangled, grappling until Goodman fell down the steps. When she hit the ground, Clare ran back inside and slammed the door. The police arrived a few minutes later.

Business owners strike

Defining Your Purpose is at the core of breeding word of mouth:

• People vote for candidates that share the same values, they want to buy from companies that do as well
• Companies who establish a purpose outperform other companies by 5 to 1.
• A purpose is not a cliche, empty “mission statement”. It is a defined reason for a business to exist other than profits.
• A purpose can also be defined as a definitive statement of the difference you want to make in the world.
• But… your purpose must be relevant to your audience.
• Advertising is not a differentiator. A purpose is.
• Purpose fosters meaningful innovation… Do not innovate just for the sake of innovation.
• Look at every opportunity and ask: “Does it help fulfill the purpose?”

A story is essential in delivering your message through word of mouth.

• Stories are packets that you give to customers that help word of mouth spread.
• You must provide your customers with a story and make it easy to tell yours to others.
• The story must interest, amuse, instruct, and inspire.
• A story is an account of events…with vivid, specific details.
• A story must have a “neat” element that makes it worth telling.
• 4 Elements of a story: Character, Setting, Problem, Resolution.
• The “theme” of your story aligns with the defined “purpose” of your business.

Using social media to spur word of mouth is more about process than technology.

• Select customers to become “customer evangelists.”
• Make them the face of your business, reward them, champion them.
• Listen to the online conversation.
• Join the online conversation and tell your story.
• Start small, don’t wait, fly under the radar if you must.
• Effective marketing through social media and WOM is 10% technology and 90% process and execution.