Try this for a week.

Great word of mouth only comes when people are happy with you. Your resume. Your service. Your appearance. Canadians are tremendously bad at complaining - they don't tell you what you are doing wrong, they just walk away and tell other people.

e.g. I know a really nice guy who has introduced me to some really important people. But over the last month, everytime he would send me an e-mail, it was marked "high importance" (with the little red exclamation mark). Of course I would read it right away and it would drive me nuts that it wasn't of ultimate importance. It seemed he was always yelling wolf on the internet!

Because he's a good guy, I added this to the bottom of an email:

BTW - could I offer a suggestion? You mark many of your emails as "high importance." I'm not sure if you do this a lot but it may dilute the effectiveness of your emails to people. Just a suggestion. D.

Here is his response:

Actually Dave, It may be happening more inadvertently rather than on purpose and thanks for bringing it to my notice bud; I will be more guarded.

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Try this for a week:

Ask 10 of your associates or clients: "If I could do one thing better, what would it be?"
Then listen.