As a company owner or manager, it’s important to view – and use – your current clients as a key source of sales leads and potential new business. It’s equally important not to simply assume that they are actively recommending your company and making referrals unless there is clear evidence of this. How can you “activate” loyalty in these instances though? And encourage “passive” but happy clients to become word-of-mouth marketers of your offering and brand?
In our experience, it’s often simply about having a very honest conversation with the clients that you are comfortable approaching about this. As a small business, your success (and the fact that the client has partially enabled that) speaks to their success, which is something they will usually want to celebrate. Asking key contact points if they can act as a reference for potential new clients and if they know of anyone who might need your service offering can add a new dimension to your relationship, and generate renewed interest in your company. It’s usually a conversation worth having, especially over lunch or a cup of coffee.
Depending on your relationship with the client and the type of projects you have completed for them, another option (which could complement or act as an alternative to the above) could be to include them in a press release or media interview. In this case, you would probably need a PR company to help you with this. The thinking here would be to generate a “public testimonial” about your brand, positioning your service offering in a positive light. While this will require an investment from you, this money can end up being well spent – especially if you then use it as additional marketing material, including the interview/ press release in your company profile for example, as well as on your website. Most clients will be happy to receive this type of “free” positive publicity, further cementing your relationship with them.
Another simple way to encourage clients to promote your company and talk about your brand is to do the same about theirs. By referring them to potential new clients or making them aware of opportunities you have heard about in the market, you will add unexpected value. Reciprocity will also usually be a by-product of this referral – without your actively having to have a conversation about this in most instances.
While these are just a few of the approaches some of the businesses on the Property Point programme have had success with, perhaps the most important thing to note is that the starting point for any word-of-mouth requests has to be developing and maintaining positive relationships with your clients. Unless you take the time and make the effort to build brand loyalty, you cannot just expect it. You have to get to know your customers and make each interaction with them count. In this way, you’ll get a very good sense of who you can ask to be a potential brand ambassador and how best to ask them – and could end up well on your way to opening the door to new customers and markets.
