4 Ways to Promote Word of Mouth Referrals

Back in February, we asked active members what marketing was of better value than our site. Almost 60% of the 900+ businesses that answered couldn’t name a better value way of marketing their business than ServiceSeeking.com.au.  

About 20% said that “Word of mouth” was better value. The remaining 20% is divided between lots of smaller online and offline marketing methods.

This makes sense to me. It’s almost impossible to compete with word-of-mouth, which costs almost nothing and where there’s limited competition. But word of mouth often fails to deliver enough leads to keep businesses fully booked out.

We see ServiceSeeking.com.au as a reliable source of ongoing leads from which our members can build referrals. Here are some simple things you can do to promote word of mouth and turn one customer into many.

1. Do a Fantastic Job

The best way to encourage people to refer you to their friends is by doing a great job. Go beyond all expectations, and your customers will go out of their way to tell people how good you are.

2. Ask your Customers for Referrals

Ask every customer to refer you to their friends at the end of each job. Just by making the suggestion, people who may not have naturally thought of referring to it will now consider that as a possibility. Don’t assume people will just refer you. Ask them explicitly.

3. Make it easy for past customers to find you

Try to keep in touch with your existing customers through social media, direct mail or email. If your past customers have easy access to your contact details, it’s easy for them to pass those details along to their friends.

4. Reciprocal Referrals

If your customers often need the services of another business that’s not a competitor, try to set up some informal referral deals. Make sure that the other business has flyers or business cards that they can hand out when they refer you to their clients.

What other tips do you have to help word of mouth?