WOMMA Basic Training, Part 2

I’ve just gotten back to Lander from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Basic Training. In addition to Scott “that guy with the nametag” Ginsberg’s keynote, there were a few other sessions that really stood out for me.

Fred Reicheld, the author of “The Loyalty Effect” and the brand new, ”The Ultimate Question” did a great presentation on how treating people “right” pays off with loyalty and growth. How often at a marketing event do you hear about “The Golden Rule” and how you really need to only ask one question to find out how your customers feel about your organization. The ultimate question? “Would you recommend us to a friend?” For the record: 97% of NOLS grads answer this question, “Yes.”

Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for New Yorker Magazine gave a real fun presentation on humor, creativity and how people ingest humor. We got to look at a bunch of New Yorker cartoons and heard some of the stories behind them.

Jackie Huba’s session, How to Create Customer Evangelists was fun as well. She offered six pretty common sense principles and then offered illustrations that got my creative juices flowing. NOLS Alumni Rep business cards are in our future. Maker’s Mark Ambassadors have nothin’ on our NOLSie Army!

The NOLS Bus: An Engine for Word of Mouth
On Friday afternoon I did a presentation about the NOLS Bus and word of mouth. Here are the slides from my presentation.

I started the presentation with some background information about NOLS and discussed NOLS as a values-based organization and a school that is often the most impactful educational experience in our student’s lives.

I told the group that 80% of our students first hear about NOLS via word of mouth (WOM). This is organic and our grads, just naturally want to tell others.

We talked a bit about how NOLS amplifies WOM by lending a helping hand with supportive programming—our Alumni Rep Program, Preferred Retailer Program and a fledgling Parents Program.

I told the story of how the bus started at the grassroots when NOLS grads Lindsey, Logan and Thomas came to visit NOLS with Project Biobus, a recycled vegetable oil powered school bus.

We talked a bit about the mechanics of the program and then focused specifically on the intersection of the NOLS Bus and WOM. There are three things that we have seen happen as a result of the NOLS bus program.
1. NOLS is a topic of conversation in the “Grease Underground”, those folks around the country pioneering alternative energy transportation.
2. School teachers around the country are calling us to schedule visits by the bus. They know the educational value the bus provides and they tell other teachers at other schools.
3. The Bus program has energized NOLS grads. They help at events, they are proud of the message and the creativity the bus represents and they get to be involved personally with alternative energy, collecting veggie oil and helping with the filtering.

We ended up going through some of the “numbers”—miles traveled, media events, etc.

Attending the presentation among others was Britt Allcroft, the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine; NOLS grad, Betsy Whalen with Discovery Education; and Stephen Houghton, Webmaster and Really Nice Guy at Clif Bars.

It was great conference. I look forward to further involvement with this very creative group of folks. Some of the sessions were a bit too focused on manufacturing WOM rather than earning it for my tastes, but I ended up with a whole list of takeaways that I'll be sharing with folks in the office.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director