Many contractors know the value of referral marketing, as it not only saves you on marketing dollars, but it also allows you to pass on greater rewards and saving to your clients.  Referral marketing is a win, win situation for your customers who are getting great service, and you are getting free word of mouth marketing.  In many ways, referral marketing is a natural process of growing your customer base and community outreach. 

Your focus as the business owner is to make sure you have a program setup, so it is easy for your customers to use and pass on. 

In getting your referral program, together you need to first ask yourself who is your target market and what are your offerings for the customer.  You also need to plan how you will be educating your customers on the benefits and the return they will get from the referral program.   

Once you have the foundation ready, then here are 4 steps to getting you started on getting more customers:

1. Get into the mindset of asking for referrals

All business owners should get into the mindset of asking for referrals.  It is one of the quickest ways to get new business.  Once a client who trusts you and passes your name to a friend than your job of selling your service becomes a lot easier, and your sales process gets faster. 

Make a commitment to a referral program and drive your customer’s behavior to recommend you to others in their circle.  One of the easiest ways to implement a referral program is by doing a survey at the end of each job. 

In the survey, you can ask the client if there are any others who could use your services.  You can also use the positive feedback to convert more client with trust by showing them that you have a process for quality control.

2. Leverage the lifetime value of your client

Stay in touch with your clients, and create a nurturing process, so that you stay on top of mind for any future work.  Educate your clients through newsletters or blogs so that you can always be seen as the trusted advisor. 

Call and mail your past clients to encourage them to give out referrals by sending over thank you coupons that they can use and refer to anyone that is looking for work.  Get your clients to sign up for a customer loyalty card, as this is another way to encourage loyalty and retention to your brand.

3. Get involved in referral partnership.

There are a lot of benefits of getting involved in a referral partnership.  One of the biggest benefits is that you don’t need to be cold calling individual prospects, because if you can get a referral partner that has a big database then they can mass promote your services.

The first step forwards setting up a referral partnership is to create a list of contacts that could be real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and non-competing tradies.

Develop a marketing bait piece that you can use to get referral partners on board, for example, it could be that the first 10 customers that sign up get a bonus service from you.  I would be careful with offering discounts because you always want to make sure you are making your bottom-line profits.

4. Use Social Media to your advantage

Create a twitter handle or a Facebook fan page and get your customers involved by posting promotions, news, and links to your referral program, so that it makes it easy for them to access the information.  A Facebook page also allows you to build a community where if a prospect is looking for help then your online followers can the opportunity to recommend your services.

Facebook fan pages and other social media platforms are very interactive and with any good relationship you need constant dialogue.  Another, benefit of Facebook is that you can continuously promote your referral program in many different ways, one being through a microblog.

Having a referral program allows you to attract customers who appreciate value more than price.  These customers are loyal and can help you grow and maintain the health of your business.

It is important to remember that you need to deliver on your customer service promise because these are the same customers if you do not they will spread the word.   Get a referral program set up, save yourself time, minimize cost and build a lifetime relationship with your client.