blogThe other day I and a lucky bunch of other ski shop employees had the fortune to demo next seasons skis. We gobbled up the opportunity to test the abundance of equipment from major brands such as Nordica, Volkl, Rossignol, K2, Salomon,Kastle, etc.
The majority of time I spent riding the lifts with my friends from the Snow ski shop. However, a few times that sunny thursday morning I took the chance to sit with the local skiers at Labrador mountain.
In particular one gent and what he had to say has stuck in my memory. Like any avid skier with a seasons pass and bright morning smiling on him, Dave took the day off from work to feed his Rossignol B2’s. Besides exchanging the usual pleasantries, Dave expressed his dissapointment at the ski reps refusing him the chance to demo any of their skis.
From the manufacturer reps perspective I can understand why they refused Dave the opportunity, after all this event was specifically for ski shop employees. But in my opinion it wasted a chance to generate additional word of mouth for the killer equipment due out this coming season.
Sure I am going to preach to my circle of contacts, and customers which skis I thought rocked. My friends will likely act on the advice, my customers to a much lesser extent because of what they rightly or wrongly perceive to be my ulterior motives.
Dave on the other hand is the best brand evangelist you can get. Give him the unexpected surprise of testing your skis to his hearts content. Tell him how that Rossignol Z15 is a better ski, exactly how it will make him a better skier. Take down his information, ask Dave if you may contact him over the summer to keep him in the loop and the relationship alive. Do that and the people who Dave tells about his awesome experience will think of your brand first when deciding to purchase their new skis for the coming season.
Have you seen a missed chance to generate word of mouth?
Tags: word of mouth
