Nielsen Survey: Word of Mouth beats Advertising

Check out this Nielsen survey.

If favorable Word of Mouth is the way to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and sales, then can we afford not to create a great customer service experience?

For many companies, this is the season for determining 2008 budgets.

Try this: take 10% of your company's advertising budget and invest 5% in improving your products and services and 5% in improving your customer service operations.  Track the results.

Seriously...try it.