[Max Campbell]

A lot of our business is referrals / recommendations, and we have tried to increase it.

We've left A6 cards, filled in with the customer's name, for her to pass on, offering various deals.

We currently leave 3 self-printed flimsy vouchers - one giving the customer herself a discount when she calls us back and 2 that give a referred customer and the referring customer an amount off a job. We've tried time-limited and open-ended versions.

Even if we get a repeat or a referral, they don't use the vouchers. We see very few vouchers back at all.

Anyone got a hot scheme to really get people to actively recommend you? What are the important factors? For example, we currently leave them when finishing the job, but we've been thinking we may do better to send, say, a week later

[Len Gribble]

Max

Though I don’t subscribe to the social net working club (like me) I get a lot of referrals from it

[Craigp]

I've had customers not use £10 off vouchers they have had too. I can only think they was embarrassed to use them? maybe they feel it makes them look a cheap skate as it's not like they are dealing with a faceless company like tesco.

Len, once again I am baffeled by your post 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Truth is we don't network like the Americans they love to tell all and sundry about what they have had done and who to use, we are just too bloody British for our own liking referrals are done a bit cloak and dagger you can't push it you have to subliminally get into their heads.

When I used to clean carpets cheap when I first started I used to get more referrals more often without asking or at least it seamed that way I didn't have to build up a relationship with a customer they just used to come but the relationship they had was with the money and not me as soon as I raised the prices ever so slightly then they'd move on to another company many came back but then when raised them again they went away again it was like an ebb and flow, I change tact and build up a relationship on a different slant now many of the customers I have now are of the same demographic stance but are just have a different mind set.

Shaun

[Daren Morrish]

Ive tried various methods in the past. Have given out vouchers at the end of a job to be passed on to friends / family but like yourself, only get a very limited, almost non existent response rate. To be honest I don't even bother passing them out any more.

I would love to know the holy grail of a system that works well in the UK.

Daren

[Max Campbell]

Max

Though I don’t subscribe to the social net working club (like me) I get a lot of referrals from it

Sounds like there's a nugget of wisdom in there somewhere, but, sorry, Len, I can't figure it out.

[wynne jones]

What makes you recommend someone?

[maxcampbell]

What makes you recommend someone?

Good point - I'd only bother if someone asked.

[andy east sussex]

i know slightly diffrent with me i put prices up last years by a fiver and bloody calls stopped i couldnt belive it cost me alot in advertising with no return even previous customers didnt call just a difficult business to be in basically there always someone cheaper than you and the customer would go for the cheaper clean. i dont have alot of money and when i go shopping i see things which look good but can only go with what i can afford so maybe thats what customers do i guess

[Hilton]

On your invoice put a tear off slip on the bottom with the date their next clean should be due including a £10 off voucher if they book it in 14 days before hand, also include another £10 off if they give you a referal that actually turns into a paying job.

Thats a double incentive to call you within 12 months.

Someone asked why you recommend someone,

Quite simply that feeling of a job done well at a price that you did not have to break the bank for (that does not mean cheap).
The service provider has to be personable with out being overbearing, clean and tidy and at the end ask me if I am happy with the results and if so would I recommend them to someone we think might be in need of their services, if not why?

With out asking this question, you will never know.

A friend of mine has incorporated into his web site a customer response/comments page,

after every job every customer gets a card (they do this in restaurants) asking you fill in your comments and then you will be entered into a free prize draw, but he encourages them to do this online and to leave 'any' comments they like good or bad, this is very important. any negative comments are followed up immediately with a call or letter offering a revisit with a FREE clean or money back.

Its early days but he is reporting a great response he has not given any money back 95% of comments are positive and he has rebooked a couple of free visits, he does this as quickly as possible..........I love it ,i have no idea how to do it, I am meeting him to learn how to do it should we go ahead with it.

[Ian Gourlay]

If you are prepared to Offer an Amazing Offer to you reffered customer Yes such as a Free Room of Carpet Cleaning you may stand a better chance.

Big Drawback converting them to have more work done . Some are good at this others are not.
 

[mark_roberts]

When I think about it the people who refer me the most are the people who

!) have used me more than once
2) we get on well and know a bit about each other
3) are on the same social wavelength.
4) usually women who lunch and talk

A fuel card I have just started using 2 months ago offered me £50 for every client I referred.  I thought thats a good offer but 2 mins later was thinking about something else and I never bothered.

Wasent it Kirby who asked on the day for names and addresses to mail to.  Never fancied that approach.

Mark

[wynne jones]

So apart from Hilton, nobody's got a fvcking clue! 

Buy a book, go google it, do a course. There are tons of them. 

[garry22]

after every job every customer gets a card (they do this in restaurants) asking you fill in your comments and then you will be entered into a free prize draw, but he encourages them to do this online and to leave 'any' comments they like good or bad, this is very important. any negative comments are followed up immediately with a call or letter offering a revisit with a FREE clean or money back.

You can do this with a QR code.

I've got the details on my PC somewhere. If only I could remember where.

[Mike Halliday]

another way to look at it

i never recommend anyone, its just not something i do, I suppose if someone directly asked me....." have you used a plumber that you would recommend" and i had (and knew his name & number) i would recommend him. but if someone just mentioned needing a plumber I wouldn't bother.

this plumber could do all sorts to make me recommend him but it wouldn't work.

I think the people who recommend people will do it without encouragement, so why spend time & money trying to get people to recommend you..... they will do it anyhow if its in their nature.

spend all your time finding new customer..... your existing customer will come back & recommend you without you wasting your time trying to encourage it.

do your maths, how much time & money are you spending trying to get recommends? would you get more work if you spent it on finding new customers,

[maxcampbell]

We do already leave a feedback form, with freepost envelope, and call any less than very good feedback.

We ask when they want a reminder - 6, 12 or 24 months, and mail them accordingly.

We collect email addresses.

We already give them a double incentive, as vouchers. What response do you get on referral vouchers mailed out at reminder time? We already get a good response to reminder letters.

One idea I have heard since discussing this is to use gift vouchers for a shop, rather than money off our services, and I think that's got some mileage.

Separately to this question, we do want to improve return rate on the feedback forms, which is about 40%, and we are thinking about a lottery ticket for returning.

[maxcampbell]

another way to look at it

i never recommend anyone, its just not something i do, I suppose if someone directly asked me....." have you used a plumber that you would recommend" and i had (and knew his name & number) i would recommend him. but if someone just mentioned needing a plumber I wouldn't bother.

this plumber could do all sorts to make me recommend him but it wouldn't work.

I think the people who recommend people will do it without encouragement, so why spend time & money trying to get people to recommend you..... they will do it anyhow if its in their nature.

spend all your time finding new customer..... your existing customer will come back & recommend you without you wasting your time trying to encourage it.

do your maths, how much time & money are you spending trying to get recommends? would you get more work if you spent it on finding new customers,

I know what u mean, but this isn't an alternative to finding new customers - we do plenty of that, too. It's just a little part of the business we feel we could be doing better - after all, once you've found a customer & made them happy, it makes sense to exploit all that work.

[Carpet Dawg]

a lottery ticket! You'd be gutted if they won the jack pot!!    give them a scratch card instead.

[Len Gribble]

Max

I don’t give a lot away

Think Mike may have a valid point (I think the people who recommend people will do it without encouragement, so why spend time & money trying to get people to recommend you..... they will do it anyhow if its in their nature.)

Think it’s called social networking works for me and don’t cost me a penny 

[wynne jones]

Well at least now Mike has told us we can stop trying.