Successful small businesses know and have leveraged the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing can dramatically grow your customer base at little or no cost to you.
A Sure-fire way to grow your Small Business
Successful small businesses know and have leveraged the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing can dramatically grow your small business at little or no cost to you; it’s essentially unpaid advertising by your customers that don’t stand to gain personally by promoting your business. This form of marketing is so powerful because your customers put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation to their network.
So how do you take word-of-mouth marketing to the next level? Developing a structured customer referral program is an excellent way to maximize something you probably already do to some extent in your business — provide excellent service and encourage your existing clients to pass your name onto their colleagues.
Four things to consider when creating your referral program to grow your small business:
- Timing: Understand at what point your customer is delighted by your business. Ask for a referral only at the time of customer satisfaction, anything before can be perceived as too aggressive and reflect poorly on your business.
- Teaching: Inform your customer of the type of customers your business can help. Use questions to help them think of others who would benefit from your level of expertise and service.
- Treating: Most customers would provide your small business with glowing referrals without any expectations. My advice would be to take this as an opportunity to exceed customer expectations and show your appreciation for helping increase business.
- Thanking: Do not forget to show your gratitude after every referral and remember that you want to build your business, not burn bridges. Treat your referral sources with the utmost of care and you will not only build a foundation of trust but keep hot prospects calling.
These tips are simple and upon consistent tactics to promote your referral program, you will see growth in your sales revenue.
At FlagShip, we value and nurture the relationships we have established with our customers and recently implemented a referral program to benefit not only our growth as a company, but continuing to save our customers money on their shipping. Our customers receive a $25 shipping bonus for every referral that ships with FlagShip!