Increasing Referral Business

Referrals from existing customers are one of the key marketing components that will kick your Dealership into another gear.  According to a research study done by the McKinsey group, 43% of baby boomers site favorable referrals from friends, relatives and peers as one of their main determining factors when considering a contractor for home improvements.  Generating referrals is a function of three main things:

 

1) Getting people to talk about you in the first place.  Some Dealers begin their businesses with the attitude that word of mouth advertising will generate the leads they'll need immediately.  Looking at this viewpoint logically, a majority of home and business owners don't even know about the concrete resurfacing and repair option when they have issues relating to their concrete.  Couple this with people who don't know about a new business that offers a product and service that most people don't consider an option yet, and you can see where word of mouth advertising is anything but.  To get people talking about your business, you need to do the things outlined in step two effectively.  However, you also have to have the ability to walk through these steps with new customers on a regular basis.  Good, old fashioned, advertising is where the initial interest and response will come from.  Once you begin to put work on the ground and have satisfied customers, you will see an increase in the referral business.  It's the equivalent to adding fuel to a fire first, not looking for the heat.

 

2) Making sure the customer's experience leads to favorable referrals.  Most Dealers site doing a good job as the key component to having a solid referral stream.  This is true to a degree, but is not the only element that can lead to more referrals.  From the first moment a customer sees your company, to the follow up after the job is completed, every interaction can lead to a greater referral source.  Some key areas to consider:

* How does your advertising look?  Is it professional?

* How are your phones answered?  Does the customer get a warm, professional greeting (Good afternoon, CTi of Largo, can I help you?) or do they simply hear "Hello" and then have to dig to see if they've reached the right number or not.

* When they invite you into their home, do they receive a prepared and educational presentation of the CTi products or is it simply a bid number given to them without them knowing what they're purchasing.  Did the Dealer's sales representative show up on time?  Was he prepared?

* When your crew shows up on the job site, are they dressed appropriately?  Is your truck or trailer properly lettered so they know it's your crew showing up?  Did your crew show up on time?  Was the job completed on time?

* Follow up after the job.  Did the customer receive a thank you call or note after the job was finished thanking them for their business?  Did they receive a call after the job was completed to see if any issues need to be addressed?

 

3) Asking for referrals.  You probably have many satisfied customers if you've been in business for any length of time.  No matter how elated these customers are, human nature dictates they probably won't call you simply to give you someone to follow up on even if their neighbors, relatives, friends, etc. asked about their installation.  Calling periodically (every few months) to follow up on the job (see the last bullet point on item 2), and simply asking the customer "has anyone else inquired about your patio?  Did they happen to mention if they would like for me to call them to schedule a free estimate for their job?"  There are sales studies showing that asking a simple question such as this can increase referral business by 20% to 500%!