Our site sells an expensive product most people only buy once. How do we encourage word of mouth promotion?

Our start-up will sell engagement rings online. We recently discovered that a major source of traffic for the market leader is word of mouth recommendations.

We know that great customer service, and exceding expectations etc. will lead to customers being happy enough to recommend us, but how do we facilitate or maximise the amount that these customers talk about us after their purchase?

Have it in mind that most customers will not publicly advertise that they have just bought an engagement ring - given that they are probably yet to propose.

What a great question. It must feel wonderful to be part of such a happy moment in people's lives. I am sure that you have thought about this far longer than I have -- but this is my idea:

You care about your customer. You want the ring to be special and wonderful. You stand by the ring and you are willing to make any custom changes to it after it is given and is to be worn. You want the Bride-to-be and the Groom-to-be to give you referrals when people ask them what a wonderful ring she has. Which I am sure they will do.

1. Make a gift card for free alterations and customization. It is activated online. Then as part of the registration you can reach out to ask for a testimonial for your website and your facebook fan page (linked to their profile for all their friends/family to see)
2. Make a set of coupons in your area -- or national-- that are for the things that a new bride will want. The coupons are activated online. See above.
3. Add a gift which is a close up professional digital image of their ring which they can use to send to friends -- or announce their engagement on the social media of their choice. They download the image online. See #1 above
4. Bundle 1-3 into a fantastic "Congratulations from your friends at X" kit

Now to make this really work you will need to have a good CRM linked with your website's CMS that allows you to keep track of when your customers pop the question. Call them, ask how it went, make sure they use the gifts.

Good luck with your endeavor!

To encourage a particular behaviour of your customers you need to figure out a way to reward those people. There are lots of possible ways to do this.

1. Offer the original customer a reward (monetary, physical - say free roses for the fiance, or coupon good for something, or a future discount.)
2. Offer the original customer a coupon that they can only give to a friend good for something of value. Many people will gift their friends with this method.