Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

BUILDING AN INFRASTRUCTURE POWERED BY WORD OF MOUTH

The idea behind flipping the funnel is that a company can grow its business and customer base by expressly concentrating on retention, customer experience, relationship building, and the networked effects of customer-originated word of mouth. Whereas the first three focus on maximizing value from a business’s existing base (measured predominantly against tenure, frequency of purchase, and basket size), the final component emphasizes new introductions or connections formed with the outside world via insiders. In other words, it’s about growing the customer base from the inside out.

There are five primary ways to harness the all-powerful community-powered word-of-mouth effects to achieve these worthy goals. I’ll call them the five Rs (only because it Rolls off the tongue and is easy to Remember).

1. Rants, Ravings, or Riffs

2. Response in Real Time

3. Reviews

4. Recommendations

5. Referrals

All five exist in an organic state—they happen naturally. However (and this is whole point, is it not?), companies can absolutely tap into and harness these efforts, parlay them on top of others, integrate them into existing systems or processes, and finally, propel them to even greater heights via explicit investment (buy, build) or implicit support (sponsorship).