Are You Referral Ready?

Listening to your customer is no longer a passive activity that businesses can get around to when they have time. Thanks to a renewed emphasis and the availability of online resources, it is becoming a more integrated and strategic part of the marketing process. Since satisfied customers can be such a huge source of referrals, building an active process for listening to them is a key component of Referral Ready.

Unhappy customers have always used negative word-of-mouth to a greater degree than happy customers have used positive word-of-mouth. The problem is that today, an unhappy customer can broadcast a bad business experience to the entire world with the click of a mouse. Rather than complain privately, customers can choose a more damaging public forum.

Make a list of five A+ clients or clients whose relationship you want to improve. Take them separately to lunch or breakfast, with the intent of asking a lot of questions about your product, your service delivery, and ways to improve your marketing message. LISTEN to what your customers tell you, positive or negative, and take notes so you can refer to that information later. Follow up with a note that expresses how the information was used.

Businesses that tap into and learn from their customers have a distinct advantage. By investing emotionally in client relationships, the Referral Ready business learns first-hand how to better market to clients, how to solve problems before they start, how to make changes with end-user benefits in mind, and how to generate referrals from people who will gladly evangelize about your business…if they feel valued.