[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Hi all,
How many people on here use a referal system where you reward people for spreading the word about you? What is the success rate? What system do you use?

It is something I have never really done before but can see how well it could do!!

Cheers
John

[derek west]

in theory the referal system sounds really good and i'm seriously thinking about doing one in the near future, only concerns i have are.
 i do a fantastic job and get a lot of referals without paying, my customers seem to like telling there friends so payment incentives may have no bearing on the amount of referals i get.
i'll be watching this thread with interest.

lets hope its a good one john and stays on the referal theme.

derek

[clinton]

Just use plain old word of mouth mate

Have never given an incentive to my clients as they seem to be more than happy to recomend me and thats after nearly 19 years

Be good to know what others do mind you.

[John Gregory]

took a phone call this afternoon, can you come and clean my lounge carpet ? customer did not even ask for a price, I asked her where she got my number from she said I did a job for her neighbour a couple of months ago. like Derek said do a good job and you will get referals. I must of left a good impression coz the customer is not going to be home when I do the job she is leaving the keys next door .  In theory she is letting a complete stranger into her home I must come over trustworthy as well as cleaning carpets well

John

[derek west]

must admit john, a lot of my customers go out, either to the shop or to walk the dog, never been handed the keys yet but its much the same, ish.
and i do look a bit of a thug so i must come across as a nice guy.
derek

[Joe H]

One of my regular customers goes off to work as soon as I arrive.
Keys left on the mantlepiece for me to lock up after the clean, plus a signed BLANK cheque for me to take and fill in! 

[Dave_Lee]

I did a little research among my customers some years back regarding rewarding them for refferals. The up shot of it was that they were happy to reccomend, without any incentive, in fact they thought a reward system would put them off reffering me to their friends. They didnt like the idea of being rewarded, they preffered the thought that they were rewarding ME for doing a good job for them.
Dave.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Doing a good job isn't always enough the customer expects this and dependant on the person you may or may not get a referal depending on what they are like.

A referal system is a way of nudging your customer to tell their friends and family about you, it works for Sky and BT etc and they wouldn't use it otherwise but it takes alot of policing, I did it years ago but found it ate up too much time so dropped it, I still get booked up with work.


Shaun

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

Ihave just had these cards done by vista print.

I give a few to each customer. They right their details on the back and give to a friend they cet me to do the work and give me the card, i give them 5 quid off and send £5 note to the name and address on the back of the card!

Simple

Only just started it so can't give feedback on it yet

Cheers Goron

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Simular to what I did perhaps I got lazy (or too busy) nice and easy Goron that's the way to not confuse the issue.

Shaun

[Chris Galloway]

Ihave just had these cards done by vista print.

I give a few to each customer. They right their details on the back and give to a friend they cet me to do the work and give me the card, i give them 5 quid off and send £5 note to the name and address on the back of the card!

Simple

Only just started it so can't give feedback on it yet

Cheers Goron

and just up your prices by £10

[Jim_77]

or 20

I have a referrals scheme, my 2nd attempt at it tbh.. not too successful, like Shaiun says you need to be onthe case all the time, nudging people.

Over the next few months I'm going to make a concerted effort to keep mailing all the customers involved but if it doesn't work out I'll drop it.  Before I started doing this around 20% of my business was coming from un-prompted referrals anyway.  I just thought it'd be an idea to see if I could up that.

I don't know about anyone else but my stats show that the average job ticket from a referral is higher than anything else, even old customers.

[Ricky M]

Keys Left eh , thought it was the norm for long time regs, just checked and ive 19 custys that leave keys in SPECIAL places , 5 have given alarm codes .


  Mind you the Gdad has cleaned for these folks for 12 years + B4 I took over .


  Got 4 custys that phone just B4 they go on hols and say Clean what you think needs cleaning !!

   3 Leave SIGNED blank Cheques !!

     This was as much as a shock to me as will be to you s but the Gdad has been trusted so much, recon cause he never OVER charged , mind you he not needed the £ for 15 years.



            Ken you live up the road from me wouldn mind a chat 07932 706390 Ricky



                   R.T

[craigp]

I think theres a bit of a myth among new starts that think do a good job and your be able to stop advertising after 3 years, if only.

Often customers will recommend you to friends BUT them friends dont actually call you.

I've done countless jobs where the customers over the moon, referals? none. (as far as i know)

Repeats are what I have built up to a useful point, recomends are ALOT less common.

Craig

[craigp]

Forgot, referals Like others tried a discount system years ago, was a headache, dropped it. Leave extra cards for customers to pass on, nieghbour nouger works better.

[Ricky M]

Hi Craig,
             around 60% off my biz is reco but the biz has been going bout 30 years but kept small and domestic only other than 2 jobs done once a year, however the price has always been low.

 Had custys sayin is that enough ? are you sure ? even get tips off some folks !

[Steve Chapman]

Hi Craig,
 around 60% off my biz is reco but the biz has been going bout 30 years but kept small and domestic only other than 2 jobs done once a year, however the price has always been low.

 Had custys sayin is that enough ? are you sure ? even get tips off some folks !

Ricky,

If you drop the charge altogether you'll be busy forever and never have to advertise  :


steve

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Dear Jim, (grovel grovel)

Any chance of a look at your referal system?

shaun_ashmore@lineone.net

Thanks

Shaun

[Barry Livingstone]

you will have no chance Shaun then his cover blown

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Post it then

address on my website

Shaun

PS I don't care who he or even she is (Jim etta ) good info is just that, do you know who I am? you'd have to bow if you did!