Not necessarily. Your loyal customers are not always your biggest talkers. There is no relationship between buying behavior, frequent spending or customer loyalty and word of mouth. Ferrari customers, for example, aren’t referred to the brand by other customers — rather, Ferrari gets its referrals from all the kids that love cars. Look beyond who is buying and who isn’t to find your talkers.
What to do:
- Look for recommending behavior. Look at the people using your tell-a-friend forms or frequently talking about you online.
- Look for readers. Your blog and newsletter subscribers are often people looking for things to share.
- Look for people who want your gear. Anyone wanting to wear your logo is someone who wants to show you off.
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Great point that businesses shouldn't just think that "most loyal" or "best customers" are necessarily the ones that are going to foster worth of mouth. The points you raise are great, and I think companies should be using analytics to i.d. the most "talkative" customers and figure out ways to energize them. I wrote about that here: http://scottmalish.com/2009/02/02/word-of-mouth-w…
@scott_malish
Great post and may l added that competition entry junky`s, who just enter product or service competitions day after day may not even be loyal customers to even 10% of the company`s or small business having theses competitions or give-ways