Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell 4 to 6 people about their experience. So that's a way to significantly influence the word of mouth about your business. Don't act as a nameless or faceless business; genuinely talk with your customers as a person representing the business. Address your customers by name, and tell them your name at the very beginning of your interaction.

Talk to your customers as you would in person, not like you would in a press release.

A third of consumers say they experience rude customer service at least once a month, and 58 percent of them tell their friends. This is exactly how word of mouth can work against your company's reputation for the long term. It's very important to be respectful of a customer's mood when trying to resolve an issue they have with your company.

Keeping your patience is key to giving your customer the time to air out their issue. And, in turn, it creates the opportunity for you to help resolve the issue and make them comfortable.

At a time when it's easy to have a two-way dialogue with your customers, it's important to truly listen. When listening to your customers, take into account what changes your organization should make from this feedback, and then follow through. Your customers are the lifeblood of your organization, and not dealing with the reasonable requests could cause backlash.

Use the following methods to gather feedback from your customers:

• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Observation
• Point of Sale
• Customer Service
• Social Media
• Communities and Groups
• Email and Web Forms

It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for 1 negative experience. This is how sensitive trust is between a business and its customers. No matter your size, keep your customers in the know when it comes to positive and negatives changes to your products and services that affect them. It's crucial to tread lightly when making changes to your products and services because your customers have become accustomed to what you've already got.

Here's what to do to gain trust:

• Heavily research whether changes to your company could alter public perception.
• Be methodical in how you communicate the changes to your product and services.
• Tell your customers when you've made a change, you've screwed up, or you've done something right. A healthy mix will give your customers a transparent look into your company that can't be forged.
• Find value in the feedback about your company changes.

Being transparent in the digital age is a must. Much like the principles discussed above, transparency is a critical factor in building trust, satisfaction, and love from your customers. What does it mean to be transparent?

• Transparency means that you are not afraid of feedback.
• Transparency means that you have nothing to hide.
• Transparency means your employees' personal and work persona blur.
• Transparency means you like to have conversations with your customers.