The True Nature of Word-of-Mouth: Exceeding Expectations
The internet makes word-of-mouth spread incredibly fast: if something is genuinely good, consumers will share it quickly. But what earns word-of-mouth? Lei Jun spent a long time working this out, and the answer came from two personal experiences: a disappointing trip to the Burj Al Arab, and a meal at Haidilao that moved him deeply.
The problem wasn't the hotel itself. The Burj Al Arab's service was actually excellent. The problem was those "years of dreaming": expectations had been raised to the sky.
Word-of-mouth is not a function of experience alone — it's a function of "experience minus expectation." Drag the two sliders to see how the same level of experience generates different word-of-mouth under different expectations.
Both presets have the same experience score. Only the expectation differs. This is what Lei Jun meant: "When expectations are extremely high, you can never earn genuine word-of-mouth."
Click the cards to flip them and see the surface impression versus the truth Lei Jun experienced firsthand.
Burj Al Arab
7-star · Opulent grandeur · Dreamed about it for years · Heard endless rave reviews
Click to flip — see the truthThe service was actually exceptional
When you entered the restaurant, they first asked "Where are you from?" Answer Chinese, and a Mandarin-speaking server appeared immediately; first-time guests received gifts with a photo card to sign; dishes from around the world were introduced, and there was even a chef specially brought in from Suzhou, China, invited to chat with the head chef.
Haidilao
A hotpot restaurant · Is the service really better than a five-star hotel? Probably not...
Click to flip — see the truthOne thing no five-star hotel can imitate
The servers' smiles that came from the heart. Hotel and airline smiles are trained, artificial; Haidilao's smile can't be faked. Lei Jun asked a server why she was so happy. She said: "I'm a laid-off factory worker, and Haidilao was willing to take me in and pays me 4,000 yuan a month. Do you think I wouldn't smile?" That moment moved him.
Independent developers hold a card no large company can ever have: low expectations. Nobody expects an indie developer's product to be perfect. This is not a disadvantage — this is Haidilao's starting position.
- Don't raise expectations: every time you write "best-in-class," "disruptive," or "redefining," you push yourself one step closer to Burj Al Arab territory. Say 80% of what you could say and leave 20% for users to discover themselves.
- Care is visible — the same principle as the headphone jack detail in Xiaomi 1S: not every thoughtful touch gets noticed, but the moment a user finds one, it becomes an "oh, so that's it" word-of-mouth moment.
When users come in with "just trying it out" expectations, every ounce of genuine care you put in exceeds them.
- Human authenticity — your version of "a smile from the heart": reply to feedback emails yourself; when you fix a reported bug, reach out to the user proactively; write changelogs like a human, not "improved certain experiences." These things corporate process can't produce — just as five-star hotels can't imitate Haidilao.
- Cheap surprises: a paying user receives a handwritten thank-you; a feature requested late at night appears in the next release; near-zero cost, but users will screenshot and share it. Word-of-mouth spreads fast on the internet — and that applies to solo companies too.
WOM = Experience − Expectation: Word-of-mouth is simply exceeding expectations; when expectations are extremely high, genuine word-of-mouth is impossible.
Two-restaurant contrast: The Burj Al Arab lost because expectations were raised to the sky; Haidilao won on a smile that cannot be faked.
Exceeding expectations isn't hard: The hard part is genuinely caring. Every industry still has room to exceed expectations — the question is whether you do it.
Source: Compiled from Lei Jun's public entrepreneurship lectures