The one thing that most business owners know first hand is that one bad experience travels much more quickly then one good one. While you may have 100 happy customers just one unhappy one will spread the news like wildfire. It is not that your happy customers don’t want to say the good things they know about your business but in most cases they very simply don’t really give it much thought and won’t really promote your business unless they are asked to.
Some business owners are okay with asking their customers for referrals and some find this practice a little bit awkward but either way referrals are the crux of any good business and are essential to growing your business to the next level. It is good to try and find different ways to encourage referrals from your customers and many businesses do so by offering the referring customer a special discount, deal, or coupon for referring a friend. This can be a great way of asking people to refer without actually asking them.
Another thing that companies find very helpful to get their customers talking up their business is offering referral gifts. These can be very simple promotional items like printed mugs but they tend to encourage people to begin talking up your business to family and friends. It can be a great way to get them thinking about the people they know who could benefit from a business just like yours.
At first this may seem a little bit awkward but over time the more your customers know that you are looking for referrals the more people they will find to send your way. They probably know someone right now that they could refer to your business but if you don’t ask them for a referral they may never think to send customers your way. The more referrals you can get the better and more stable your business will be.
