referral marketing Archives - Fortress Consulting Group

It’s easy to be focused on pursuing bigger customers when growing your business, but paying attention to your current clients is equally important. If you want to keep your business thriving, it’s important to tend to your existing customers and keep them satisfied. Here are three habits to develop to help you cultivate a lasting relationship with your clients and run a successful business.

Be available.

Companies who make themselves available, especially when something unexpected arises, are always appreciated by their clients. Those who go above and beyond, even if it’s just a small extra touch in a service provided, are also valued by their customers. Quick turnaround time on client requests is even better. But don’t just be available during office hours—take the client relationship outside of the workplace by going out to lunch, a game or other event to show how much you appreciate their business. One saying from a client that we liked was “Relationships are built over time, not drinks.” Drinks don’t hurt, but proving yourself to your clients over a long period of time goes further than any gifts or entertainment.

Be receptive.

Never promote anything to a customer that isn’t in their best interest, and listen to their requests before providing your services. In other words, make sure your client’s best interest and your best interest are aligned. Companies that anticipate a client’s needs beforehand is also respected. And when providing services, ask your customers for feedback, listen to their advice and take action to improve your business. We believe that doing great work with tangible results for our clients will only help us strengthen our relationships with them and add to the longevity in our engagements.

Be honest.

Be open with what you can and can’t do, and fulfill what you promise to do for a client with quality work. If you don’t build apps, don’t say you can. If you’re delayed on a deadline, tell your client the truth and explain why. It is far too easy to overpromise and underdeliver, and clients appreciate transparency.

Communication between you and your clients is key so follow these three guidelines and your current customers will stay with you, which keeps your business prospering. You might even get some referrals from your hard work!

Word of mouth is what helped Airbnb and Dropbox grow quickly into the well-known brands they are today and you should be doing it too.

As a potential client, you may ask your friends about their opinions on a specific product or place, and as an actual customer, you’ll probably give out a recommendation yourself. In the business world this is known as referral marketing, and it’s one of the best forms of marketing when it comes to making sales.What makes it especially successful is its accuracy in targeting specific audiences since people tend to know what their friends like.

Customers will always talk between themselves so it’s important to ask yourself one question when providing different services and products and that is “What do customers want?”. When clients receive a great product or consistently great customer service from your business, they are likely to spread the word about it and that increases your chances to grow your business. Thus, the foundation of building up a company is based on referrals. There are many benefits to referral marketing and they include:

Transferred trust and implied endorsement

The first thing needed is for a buyer to trust a seller. People don’t like risks so when someone refers you to a buyer there is immediate credibility since the person who referred you is someone the buyer already trusts. Your most loyal supporters are more likely to give positive recommendations to their friends so the potential risk for loss is lowered. An added bonus is spreading a good word about your company has a huge potential reach today since people are hyper-connected to others through social media, apps and blogs.

Cost-effective client acquisition

When customers refer you to their friends and family, you’re essentially getting a tailored message to a specific audience. Because people recognize what their friends like or are willing to spend money on, referral marketing has high success rates for target audiences. A HUGE plus is you’re not putting time or a dime into referral marketing like you would have to with cold calling when you’re starting out or SEO when you’re more established so it’s free advertising—cha-ching!

Reduced sale cycle and closing

With referrals, you don’t have to spend as much time selling yourself because the trust between you and your prospective client has already been established. As a result, you can focus your time on creating a customized solution for the potential client.

Incentive to spread the word through benefits

If you can come up with a valuable two-sided referral program that benefits current clients and prospective customers, it will encourage existing clients to share your business with others because there’s an incentive. Benefits make current customers happy while alleviating the risk for new clients, and that has a major impact on your conversion rate.

Referral marketing, especially in the beginning, is the foundation for many companies, and it’s what helps grow businesses into distinguished brands overtime. So whether you’re starting out or better established, jump on the referral marketing bandwagon. Customers who are naturally inclined to recommend your business to their friends are big opportunities for you to increase your sales rate.

Tag: referral marketing

3 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty

MAKE YOUR MOVE.

Fill out the form, tell us about your project, and we'll reach out to you.

LET US HELP TRANSFORM YOUR BRAND.