Word-of-mouth is more than recommendations

Abstract

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is often operationalized as recommendations, which is only one among several aspects of WOM. Therefore, a focus on recommendations is likely to misrepresent what customers say to other customers. Our empirical study found support for this argument: we found that the sender’s telling of what had happened to him/her, in terms of a story, is an additional part of WOM. We also found that customer satisfaction, generally considered a main determinant of WOM (when it is narrowly defined as recommendations), is a less potent predictor of WOM than the level of incongruence of the event triggering WOM.

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is often operationalized as recommendations, which is only one among several aspects of WOM. Therefore, a focus on recommendations is likely to misrepresent what customers say to other customers. Our empirical study found support for this argument: we found that the sender’s telling of what had happened to him/her, in terms of a story, is an additional part of WOM. We also found that customer satisfaction, generally considered a main determinant of WOM (when it is narrowly defined as recommendations), is a less potent predictor of WOM than the level of incongruence of the event triggering WOM.