#1 Turning Bad Word of Mouth into Good Word of Mouth.

How could Westpac and Genesis have turned around their recent bad press?

If people have a bad experience they tell 10 people. If they have a good experience they tell 3. At The Village Square we want to bring you, hot off the press, hot, hot, hot – experiential learning to get you better at Referral Marketing and Reputation Management FAST.

So here is the call to action. You’ve probably heard the bad press about Westpac and Genesis recently – and both of them are spending a fortune on advertising sustainability (If not check out the facts below and then vote).

Creative briefs are all flawed. Why? They only talk about stimulus and response – they neglect the critical factor – ‘what will people talk about?’. So let’s find out shall we?

Facts on Genesis and Westpac

Genesis

Genesis – leaves customers in the cold

On the long weekend of the 2-4th June a computer glitch meant that many pre-paying customers with meters went without electricity for Genesis….It was the weekend they were closed – so no-one could call them !!!

Are you more likely to talk about the reported news item in relation to:

• a computer glitch (74%, 17 Votes)
• their sustainability (26%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 23

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On TV3 it was announced subsequently that ‘they’ ie customers could contact Genesis and receive $50 as compensation.

The next Ad break showed a well crafted piece of communication showing Genesis’ commitment to sustainability.

Westpac Bank plc – pays 10 million to customers instead of 10,000 as a loan.

• A client in New Zealand applied for a loan of $10,000; due to a bank error at the end of May they were actually paid $10,000,000
• In the same week Westpac had a series of high profile ads launching it’s sustainability program

In the last 3 weeks, are you more likely to have talked about Westpac in relation to:

• Losing 10 million (96%, 22 Votes)
• Sustainability (4%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 23

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So what are you doing to encourage positive Word of Mouth versus negative? It’s easy to look at other companies – have a look at your own and what do you see? Poke, poke, poke.