Client recommendations | SHOPFLOOR ANALYSIS
IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU
ou must have seen this classic format of TV advert. You know, the one set in someone’s house where a guest comes to visit and the homeowner tells them all about their new favourite washing powder, coffee, must-have gadget (delete as appro- priate) and how great it is.
Y
Despite obviously being written by marketeers, and performed by actors, this style of advertising still makes it feel like a recommendation is happening right in front of your eyes. So, when ad companies are faking it and it still works, that shows the great power of a recommendation.
According to research by global consulting firm
BCG, word-of-mouth recommendations are between two and 10 times more effective than other forms of marketing, while business analytics specialist Nielsen found that consumers were 77% more likely to buy a product if their friends recommended it. Furthermore, speaking to David Barker managing director of marketing specialist Inspire KBB, he tells me that 80% of the business his clients get comes through recommendations. So, they are vital to the survival and growth of any retailer.
Pretty powerful statistics. If methods and approaches could be implemented that could increase the chances of your customers recommending you, then you’ll have more leads (and
August 2022 · Word of mouth
First and foremost, what are the fundamentals of receiving glowing rec ommendations from your customers?
KNOW IT...
Most independent KBB retailers rely on recommendations as a key driver of sales, but how can you ensure happy customers commit to leaving reviews or tell their friends and family about you? Toby Griffin investigates
brilliant leads at that) for little or no cost. It’s time for some deep analysis on this topic to see what can be learnt.
of consumers are more likely to buy a product if their friends recommended it
77%
As Muhammad Jawad, general manager at KBB specialist House and Haven in the West Midlands, puts it: “Encouraging a customer to recommend you only works if you do a good job in the first place. I believe if I have done a great job from start to finish, then I won’t even need to mention about recommending myself or the company, as the customer will automatically do that.” This sentiment is echoed by Stephen Atkinson, a partner at Waterloo Bathrooms in Birkenhead: “At the moment, we do nothing to encourage customers to recommend us. We’ve been going for 30 years, so we don’t have to. We’ve always stuck to reasonable brands and good service.”
Keen to see if promoting recommendations is common or not in the KBB industry, I carried out a poll on LinkedIn, asking the question, “How do you encourage customers to recommend your business”.
The results came in with 44% of respondents indicating that they don’t actively do anything to generate customer recommendations. More than a third (36%) said they do ask customers for a recommendation, 17% said they email their customers a link to a review website, while just 3% said they offered some sort of reward to clients for making recommendations. Clearly, many retailers don’t feel the need to encourage recommendations and are happy that it will happen organically, but there is no doubt many do.
Verbal request So, let’s look at the most popular way to encourage recommendations – asking your customers outright. For many, this can seem like an awkward conversation to have with a customer and knowing when in the design/consultation/installation process to broach this subject also adds to the uncertainty. “The trick is to plant the seed early,” explains Inspire
KBB’s David Barker. “During the design process, say something like ‘Our business is built on referrals and recommendations, so at some point I’m going to be asking you for a referral’. If necessary, it can also be used as a negotiation tactic, as if a customer is asking for a discount, you can always ask for something in return, which can easily be that they refer you to at least one of their friends or family or post a positive review/testimonial.” To best demonstrate a customer’s mentality during their relationship with your business, American business expert Jay Foonberg suggests customer satisfaction is at its highest shortly after a project is completed. From this, he created ‘The Curve of
29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
