Word of mouth - a plea for a marketing detox
It was when I heard that the influencer had asked for payment to install a particular brand of worktops that I snapped.
We all know – or can guess – about “collaboration projects” where kitchens, appliances and worktops are installed at cost in the home of a major Instagram name “for the exposure.” But I heard recently that a British “influencer” had approached one of the biggest names in Quartz, offering to house worktops in exchange for payment. This was just too much. I am glad to say that the quartz company involved refused to play ball. Paying less than the regular price for a new kitchen is one thing; being paid to have a new kitchen is quite another.
It seems that every day we hear of influencers being critiqued for endorsing this or that slimming or health product. I guess we should be glad that when it comes to drugs and diets there is some legal attempt to shut down the worst of the fakery. But everyone needs to be aware that exactly the same marketing approaches are being applied to EVERYTHING – and kitchens and kitchen worktops are part of that, right along with skinny jeans and energy drinks.
We all have to play the game to some degree, of course. We live in a world not only of actual, human “influencers” but, to an even greater extent, unseen, algorithmic decision makers. Search Engine Optimisation, the feeding of the hungry streams of our social media threads – we all have to work at it.
Why do I write this blog? At one level, it is to give our customers a great experience during their first contact with us: to introduce the AG brand of honest and direct information and low-pressure sales. But it is also, always, with an eye to how those customers find us in the first place. A great website that no one sees is of little value; I write with a view to Google and other search engines finding us and showing who we are.
So, every week, we have a blog, and we post it to Facebook and often to LinkedIn. We are members of Checkatrade, to submit ourselves to their review and quality check process. Every day we put some of our fitters’ pictures up on Instagram. And we are glad to be involved in well-designed collaborations with designers where final exposure of the kitchen – and our quartz and granite worktops – is always part of the plan.
But, though I play the game, I am increasingly uncomfortable with the whole charade which you feel taints you if you use the internet and especially social media for marketing. We have a product and a level of customer service which speak for themselves. And I am writing this as a reminder to… myself… really… that our biggest marketing secret is now what it always has been – the warm, positive word of mouth of our customers.
For myself, I feel I need a detox from the world of social media. Not just a break from the endless and repetitive arguments about politics and religion and who was the Greatest Rock Guitarist Ever Of All Time, but a break from the falseness and fakery of so many sunny-shallow endorsements of this or that product. I need a break from Influencers.
And when I look at the ‘thank-you letters’ from our customers, I feel detoxed already. Real people with real kitchens, who have paid us real money to put real worktops in. No back-handers to have this or that stone – just honest old fashioned service, with a listening ear to hear what the customer is looking for. Every week we get the thank-you letters; they are SO refreshing, and they indicate the kind of word of mouth that we have working for us!
Just this week – a very lovely and not untypical note from a Guildford quartz worktops customer
Word of mouth does cut both ways, of course. No company is perfect all the time – mistakes and errors do happen. But I am so glad that I can honestly urge real people to listen to what real people say about us! I have every confidence that when errors occur, the way Affordable Granite reacts is never to shrug it off, just disappear or take no action. We leave customers happy – we know that we have vastly more smiles spreading the word about us than screaming faces, and so we can really trust to let word of mouth do the work.
So here is the challenge for you our potential customers. Watch out for our vans – see where we are working. The chances are that if you are in North Eastern Surrey or Mid-Sussex you already know people who have had their granite or quartz worktops installed by Affordable Granite. Ask how we did. Get real. Do the word of mouth detox. Don’t simply believe what I say here, and certainly don’t go with the latest wonder-material being shouted about by a paid influencer. Get back to the simplicity of real people talking about their real kitchen. You trust your family, your friends and your neighbours to tell it like it is. So do we!
We are Affordable Granite, the leading installer of granite and quartz worktops in Surrey, Sussex and across the South East. We are confident in our reputation as a genuine, professional, caring company, run by real people, for real people. We know that our reputation is ultimately worth vastly more than any fake endorsements. For samples, quotes and any questions connected with any aspect of worktop installation or kitchen design, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01293 863992 or by email on sales@affordablegranite.co.uk/ .
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