A number of years ago, I shared a story about an ad manager named Jay, who talked about the financial impact of happy and unhappy customers. On average, a customer will tell nine to 12 people about a good experience – and up to 20 people about a badexperience. That’s a dramatic ripple effect.
Using that formula, let’s say a business owner spends $300 a week in Jay’s newspaper. In a lot of media circles, that would be called a small advertiser. But if she has a negative customer service experience – or if her ads fall short of expectations – she might pull the ads out of Jay’s paper and move them to a competitor. Over a year, that $300 a week adds up to $15,600 in lost business. If she tells ten of her business friends (a middle-of-the-road number) about her experience – and if her story discourages them from advertising in Jay’s paper – that’s an additional yearly loss of $140,400.
In this hypothetical example, consider the power of habit. Suppose those 11 advertisers eliminate Jay’s paper from their media purchases for ten years. That amounts to $1,716,000 in lost revenue over a decade.
Imagine what the numbers would look like if we started the calculation with a $1,000 budget. Or if the initial disgruntled advertiser tells 20 people, instead of the more conservative figure of ten? And what if some of those 20 tell even more advertisers?
Whatever the damage assessment, this is a mighty good reason to take good care of advertisers, isn’t it? Like the old saying, “If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”
Although my conversation with Jay still rings true today, it happened before social media became such an important factor. Multiply the figures he mentioned by a hundred or a thousand or more – and a few extreme customer experiences can have a serious impact on a business.
According to the TechWyse Internet Marketing site, “Reviews, ratings, recommendations, and user-generated content…hugely influence people’s buying decisions. With a large amount of information available online, more consumers are looking for social proof to learn about others' experiences and help guide their purchasing choices.”
Forbes magazine writes, “With 80% of consumers making buying decisions based on a friend’s social media post, the era of virtual word-of-mouth recommendations is in full effect.”
All those years ago, Jay told me, “Every contact with a customer puts our reputation on the line. If someone in our office is rude to an advertiser, waits too long to return phone calls, or is sloppy about billing – we could lose business.”
On the opposite side of the coin, if ad teams have positive contacts with customers – and if advertisers get positive results from their marketing campaigns – there’s a lot to gain. Remember, someone with a good experience is likely to tell nine to 12 others. News travels fast, whether it’s good or bad.
When you look at things this way, it’s difficult to consider anyone a small advertiser. They’re all big.
(c) Copyright 2026 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training DVDs to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com
Using that formula, let’s say a business owner spends $300 a week in Jay’s newspaper. In a lot of media circles, that would be called a small advertiser. But if she has a negative customer service experience – or if her ads fall short of expectations – she might pull the ads out of Jay’s paper and move them to a competitor. Over a year, that $300 a week adds up to $15,600 in lost business. If she tells ten of her business friends (a middle-of-the-road number) about her experience – and if her story discourages them from advertising in Jay’s paper – that’s an additional yearly loss of $140,400.
In this hypothetical example, consider the power of habit. Suppose those 11 advertisers eliminate Jay’s paper from their media purchases for ten years. That amounts to $1,716,000 in lost revenue over a decade.
Imagine what the numbers would look like if we started the calculation with a $1,000 budget. Or if the initial disgruntled advertiser tells 20 people, instead of the more conservative figure of ten? And what if some of those 20 tell even more advertisers?
Whatever the damage assessment, this is a mighty good reason to take good care of advertisers, isn’t it? Like the old saying, “If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”
Although my conversation with Jay still rings true today, it happened before social media became such an important factor. Multiply the figures he mentioned by a hundred or a thousand or more – and a few extreme customer experiences can have a serious impact on a business.
According to the TechWyse Internet Marketing site, “Reviews, ratings, recommendations, and user-generated content…hugely influence people’s buying decisions. With a large amount of information available online, more consumers are looking for social proof to learn about others' experiences and help guide their purchasing choices.”
Forbes magazine writes, “With 80% of consumers making buying decisions based on a friend’s social media post, the era of virtual word-of-mouth recommendations is in full effect.”
All those years ago, Jay told me, “Every contact with a customer puts our reputation on the line. If someone in our office is rude to an advertiser, waits too long to return phone calls, or is sloppy about billing – we could lose business.”
On the opposite side of the coin, if ad teams have positive contacts with customers – and if advertisers get positive results from their marketing campaigns – there’s a lot to gain. Remember, someone with a good experience is likely to tell nine to 12 others. News travels fast, whether it’s good or bad.
When you look at things this way, it’s difficult to consider anyone a small advertiser. They’re all big.
(c) Copyright 2026 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training DVDs to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com