The Power of a GOOY Experience

Now that GOOY (Go Out Of Your way) is in our vocabulary let's figure out why a "GOOY Experience" is so powerful and what that means to Word of Mouth.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than what's an experience worth? The only value I can come up with is "priceless". Priceless because even though, for the most part, we as people are visual learners, pictures still only tell part of the story.

For example, let's say you're interested in traveling to Italy. You want to find out as much as can before you go so you start by reading a brochure describing Italy and some of its characteristics.

Do you really have a clear understanding of what to expect just from reading a brochure?

Next, you go online and discover a photo album of Venice. Hundreds of photos of everything from the historic architecture to the meadering gondolas. Wow, nothing like a photo to do everything words are unable to do in presenting the beauty of Italy. But, are you convinced and ready to travel?

Finally, you run in to a close and trusted friend who just happens to have returned from a trip to Venice. As you visit she shares with you in detail what she experienced. She describes with great emotion, the sounds, the smells, and what it felt like to be in Venice.

She recounts for you her interactions with the local residents, directs you on where to eat and which hotels really provide a true Italian experience. Then continues with what time of the day is best for experiencing a gondola and which canals provide the most desirable views.

She answers every question you have about what to expect when visiting Venice. The only thing beyond the power of her experience is the experience you gain on your visit to Venice.

This is where GOOY Word of Mouth really gets it's brawn. Words and pictures can in no way compare the the Experience of a Trusted source! Short of the source you trust the most, YOU, this close friend did more in convincing you that Venice was worth your time and money than any brocure or photo could ever do.

Whether you are quick to take risks or do all that you can to avoid them, at some point you're going to want to know the experience of someone that went before you.

In the next post we'll talk about WHY the experience of another is so important to us.

Water Cooler or GOOY Word of Mouth.

It seems to me, that Word of Mouth could be placed into two categories. The first is Water Cooler Word of Mouth, and the second, and far more powerful, is GOOY Word of Mouth.

Let's start with Water Cooler Word of Mouth. Just like it sounds, this is the casual kind you would share around the proverbial "Water Cooler. It could be one subject or many but it involves sharing some kind of information. The challenge becomes, what kind of information is being shared?

Many times the information is just opinion or worse yet gossip and you can usually tell the difference by the volume of the person's voice that's sharing it.

Now opions are fine, we all have them, but in the end they are just opinions. I like the definition of Opinion from Dictionary.com - "a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty."

Why "insufficient to produce complete certainty"? Well, because of two important things:

1. What kind of credibiltiy do we give the person sharing the opinion?
2. Is the opinion based on experience? (I'll talk more about "experience" in my next post.)

I believe it is those two primary considerations that make opinion, "insufficient to produce complete certainty" for most people with Water Cooler Word of Mouth.

However, problems with "opinion" do not just stop with a person's credibility or experience.

All of us have had experiences with the kind of person that has an opinion on everything and relentlessly wants to share it with everyone rarely when it's asked for.

At first it seems cute because someone has taken the role of livening up the conversation. But at some point, usually sooner than later, it just becomes annoying. Sometimes, to the point that you avoid the "Water Cooler" altogether.

"Asked for" is the important point here because regardless of how much credibility or experience you have, unless someone asks for your opinion, you're safest keeping it to yourself.

And guess what...in the end, the more you share your opinion only when asked, the more you'll be asked to share your opinion.

As a side note, if you want to find out if you're a know-it-all opinioneer that hangs out at the Water Cooler, take count of how many questions you ask someone in a conversation. If you ask less questions that you answer, then lookout, you may be an "Opinioneer". (By the way that's not a good thing!)

So, with all of that, what is GOOY Word of Mouth?

GOOY Word of Mouth is...Go Out Of Your way Word of Mouth. (I had to leave the "W" off because how would you pronounce GOOYW anyway?)

GOOY is the kind of Word of Mouth that is based on experience not just opinion. Not just any experience but the kind that causes you to go out of your way to share with others.

Now, I'm sure you're thinking that going out of your way sounds just like the description I gave for opinioneers.

Actually, they're not like opinioneers at all and here's the difference. Opinioneers share their opinion when they are not asked. If you're a GOOY, you share only when asked directly or even indirectly, with convincing enthusiasm.

Let me give you an example: you're in a line at the grocery store and you overhear someone behind you ask the person they're with "Who do you know...that's a great mechanic?". You politely turn around and say something like "I'm sorry I didn't mean to evesdrop, but I know the most trusted mechanic in town. If you would like, I'd be happy to give you his name and number".

That's GOOY Word of Mouth. What's the difference? It has two parts; first, someone was asking, second, your answer is not opinion, it's personal experience. In fact, it's a GOOY experience.

That "GOOY experience" is exactly what you want people to have when they interact with you whether personally or more importantly your business.

So in the end, the most powerful way to market your business is to do all you can to enlist the most GOOY's and do all you can to avoid the opinioneers that hang out around the Water Cooler.

Rob

Picking up where we left off!

After spending the last three years researching, speaking and training on the subject of Word of Mouth, I have found myself a little disillusioned with what I was discovering. Not disillusioned with Word of Mouth, but with what I call the "expert" industry.

It seems that people are coming out of the wood works claiming to be experts on this or experts on that. But really, who are they and where did they get their expertise? With that in mind, I had to look at whether or not I was any more credible than any of the other so called experts?

(Of course we all hear opinions through Word of Mouth but we'll talk about that another time.)

So I began to ask myself "Who am I to think I'm some kind of expert?" I was passionate about what Word of Mouth could do to help small businesses but was that really enough? In that process of reevaluation, I started slowly backing away from doing workshops and soon stopped looking for speaking engagements.

What I had forgotten was that "Who Do You Know?" had created quite a following. There were people that had found value and help from what I had been sharing and were now looking for more. That became an answer in and of itself. Maybe I'm not yet the expert, but certainly what I had been sharing brought value.

So, what "more" do I offer and how do I offer it? Well, I am going to publish the book but the timing has to be right. So maybe the best place to "pick up where we left off" is with this blog.

I'll start sharing everything I've come to understand about Word of Mouth as well as everything I'm continuing to discover. I'll work hard to keep it fresh, honest and sometimes frank.

Let me know what you think, share your comments, tell your friends or colleagues and let's have some fun figuring out what's really possible with Word of Mouth!

Rob