How to drive word of mouth

Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise (the cross-border money movement company), discusses how Wise built word of mouth into its primary growth engine, which accounts for roughly 70% of new users. The conversation covers measuring word of mouth, using NPS to find the levers of advocacy, the discipline of building a 10x better product, and how Wise structures its global teams.

01Key learnings

• Measure word of mouth by simply asking new customers how they heard about you and overlaying that on attribution and direct-traffic data.
• Use NPS as a proxy for viral potential: moving promoters up the scale roughly doubles how many people each customer refers, so NPS gains compound.
• Read the verbatim NPS comments company-wide; Wise found customers repeatedly asked for lower prices, faster transfers, and easier use.
• Aim for a 10x better experience rather than incremental conversion gains, since recommendation requires delivering something customers didn't know was possible.
• Work backward from the ideal end state (theoretical minimum cost, maximum speed) and then plan the multi-year path to get there.
• Turn cost structure into a pricing advantage by allocating every operational cost back to the customers or routes that generate it, then lowering prices for the majority.
• Make the value customers receive visible: a simple savings graph on the success page, shown after a transfer, tripled the share rate.

02Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.