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Austin, TX—Happy customers will spend more money with you: 21% more, to be exact, according to a recent study conducted by American Express. They’re also the ones most likely to talk you up and drive more potential customers to your door.

What’s the easiest way to get more people talking positively about your brand? According to the editors at Wordofmouth.org, there are three very basic elements to get right if you want to start the buzz going.

1. Are you doing anything worth talking about? Unfortunately, just being good at what you do isn’t enough to create a buzz. Sure, you have a great reputation, great product, and great service. But that just gets you a seat at the table; it doesn’t get you talked up. What makes your product or service or reputation truly remarkable? That’s what will create a buzz.

2. Ask your customers to talk you up. Remind them as they’re ready to leave, put it on your receipts and your website, and tell them how much their referrals mean to you.

3. Make it really simple to spread the word. Give customers free samples (say, of jewelry cleaner or cloths imprinted with your store name); enough for them to share with friends. People love swag and it helps spread the word. Add simple sharing buttons to your website and shopping cart. The easier it is to spread the word, the more likely people will.

But not all talk is good. In the wired world, news travels fast and a disgruntled customer can trash you to the world before you even know they’re upset.

Separately, this article in eMarketer.com says ignore negative buzz at your own peril. It cites the American Express survey, which, in addition to its finding that customers will spend more with a company they like, shows that 46% of respondents had gone to a company’s own social media site to vent their frustrations about poor experiences with the brand. But according to customer service software firm Satmetrix, only 49% of companies worldwide both tracked and followed up on customer feedback on social media. 19% tracked it but didn’t act on it, and more than a quarter (28%) did neither.

American Express says the top five actions of consumers who use social media for customer service reasons are:

1. 50% are seeking an actual response from the company about a service issue
2. 48% are praising a company for outstanding customer service
3. 47% are sharing information about their service experience
4. 46% are venting frustration about a poor service experience
5. 43% are asking advice of other users about how to improve their service experience

While respondents to the Amex study said they’d spend 21% more with companies that had great service vs. companies that don’t, nine out of ten respondents (93%) say they rarely find companies that exceed their expectations in service—and more than half (55%) have walked away from an intended purchase in the past year because of poor customer service.

With brands having so many pages on different social networks, it is hard to keep up with all of them, acknowledges the eMarketer article. But two important ways to deal with negative situations are to have a plan in place specifically to deal with bad buzz, and constantly monitor, track, and respond to those comments.

There are a growing number of products and services to help companies monitor online buzz via keywords, track online sentiment, and jump into potentially negative situations earlier in the process, but, says the article, there’s still no substitute for knowing what the different channels are and interacting with the customers.

Want to learn more about growing good word of mouth marketing? Wordofmouth.org offers a free download of an action plan, starting with eight steps to build an easy and inexpensive word-of-mouth marketing plan.

Top image: Sodahead.com