Getting referrals to your business is probably the most satisfying forms of marketing because firstly, it doesn’t cost anything and secondly, it is confirmation that your customers are happy with your service.
Most business owners though, leave referrals to chance. You’ll know this when you hear the term ‘word of mouth marketing’ which basically means there is no marketing strategy but we must be doing something right. Nothing wrong with this if it supplies a steady stream of new business but the risk is that if you really doing such a great job for your customers you could be potentially missing out on lots more business.
Even the happiest customer may not feel compelled to actually take any action in recommending your services to anybody they know. It doesn’t mean they didn’t like your service but they have got other things to do. However, if you ask this customer for a favour and that favour is to recommend you to some of their contacts, that’s when you will see your referrals increase.
It’s so deceptively simple that so many business owners miss it. Just by asking for referrals from your customers (preferably verbally rather than through email) will start a chain reaction that will result in increased referrals. If you are already doing a great job for your customers, why would you not want to ask?
I guess some may be embarrassed to ask in case the customer isn’t happy or it may feel pushy. But when you think about the times that you have received a great service from a business, you are very keen to recommend and if someone from that business asks you to recommend them, you are way more likely to actually do anything about it.
So next time you see a customer, ask them for a referral and see what happens.
