Word of mouth referrals are a great way to bring in new business whether you’re a business-to-business or business-to-consumer organization. But word of mouth alone won’t guarantee you a new customer or client. One person’s mention of your business to another is what gets you on the radar of a potential customer. Once they know about you, it’s up to you to earn their business. So how does that happen? How can you turn a word of mouth referral into a paying customer or client?
Here’s an example of how a word of mouth referral recently worked for me—from the consumer perspective.
Potential Customers Seek Out Trusted Sources
My family was planning a two-week vacation and needed to find a place to board our six-month-old puppy. Because this was our first dog, we had no track record with a local kennel. A simple yellow pages search just wouldn’t cut it when trying to find a place for our furry family member. That search would be way too impersonal for such an important decision.
I immediately chatted with neighbors to find out where they had boarded their pets in the past. I asked questions about their experience—what they liked and what they didn’t like. I listened carefully to their reasons to get a sense of what was important to them.
I already had in my own mind what would be important to us in this search. We didn’t want a kennel operation that was so large our little guy would be just another furry face. We wanted there to be ample outdoor space and plenty of opportunity for him to play with other dogs throughout the day. We wanted it to be clean and comfortable. We also wanted to keep him with people who were professional, caring dog people.
Potential Customers Go Online To Check You Out
My next step was to go online and research the websites of kennels neighbors recommended. Here, I was looking to get a feel for the business. Did it look like a professional, quality place? What information did they share? What would a typical day look like for a puppy? Would the place be small enough to give our puppy personal attention?
You can tell a lot about a company from its website whether you’re looking for a kennel, a lawyer or an accountant. If the website doesn’t make a good first impression (isn’t professional-looking, free of typos or grammatical errors, or doesn’t have the information I’m looking for), the company is off my list.
Based on word of mouth referrals and my own online research, I was well on my way to narrowing down kennel options before even making a first call to a kennel.
The Initial Contact
After visiting each website, my next step was to contact the remaining kennels and set up a site visit. The phone calls or emails to each of these places weighed into my decision-making. How helpful was the staff when I spoke with them? How prompt were they in responding to my email request or returning my call for a site visit? How flexible were they in the times that I could visit?
Making the Decision
So how did we end up making a decision?
The facility we ended up choosing scored big points in several areas:
- The website (and site walk-through videos) provided the information I needed and emphasized their many years of service (videos are a great way to convey information about your business);
- The staff was friendly and professional (they gave knowledgeable, reassuring advice over the phone on my initial contact which reinforced their credibility);
- The site tour was very helpful and relaxed; they showed me everything and walked me through the daily routine (the kennels were spacious, the site clean and air-conditioned, and there would be ample opportunity for our pup to play with other dogs throughout the day);
- Bonus points: They had an active FaceBook page and made daily video posts so we could see how our puppy was doing while on our vacation (their FaceBook page also had positive comments and ratings from regular happy clients);
- Extra bonus: Our veterinarian was familiar with the kennel operation and knew the owner.
The Cycle of Word of Mouth Referrals
We’re home now and glad to be reunited with our puppy. It’s nice to know that the next time we go away, we won’t have to go through the kennel search process again. It was clear our puppy was happy there and in good hands. The kennel succeeded in making us a loyal customer.
In the end, we used word of mouth referrals to help us find potential kennels, but made the decision based on our needs and priorities and who we thought best to meet those needs. Your potential customers will go through a similar process. Make sure you capitalize on those word of mouth referrals and at every step of the decision-making process so you can turn those potential customers into happy, returning customers or clients — and ideally a source of future word of mouth referrals for your business.
