“When you do something that makes lives better, people want to shout it from the rooftops.” - Sarah George

Word of Mouth

As a service providing business owner you love helping your clients. And you're pretty sure they love you too since you make their life better in some way. The referrals that reach out to you tell you "so-and-so recommended you as the best." While that's great, what is being said that you don't hear?

Here are 4 ways to capture the word of mouth your clients are talking about.

1. Ask for feedback

Actually ask your clients about their experience with you. You can do this directly via email, conversation, or even better - make it part of your process where you ask for review/feedback toward the end of your client's journey with you.

Here is a creative example. I received this card (below) with a purchase I recently made. You choose - truth [leave an honest review] or dare [post a review and incorporate your personality]. The gamification makes it more engaging than simply asking for a review. Think about what your clients would be excited to respond to.

2. Turn on Your Listening Ears

There are two things I'll say you can listen for:

1) When you're in the community, what are your ideal clients talking about surrounding the service you provide? Who are they recommending? What matters to them? This happens in your physical community as well as digital. Go online to social forums, groups, and pages - what is being said? Facebook is swarming with people "looking for recommendations" and hashtags are used as search terms. Listen and respond.

2) What is being said of competitors? The good, the bad, and the ugly. What is NOT being said? I don't offer this in a way to slander anyone but what does your ideal client like/not like; know/not know; see/not see about the competition? There maybe something your competitor does that your ideal client likes and you offer that too but they don't know about it. Listening to information about competitors helps you improve your messaging based on what your ideal client is in search of. 

3. Give Them Something to Talk About

Create a "buzz-worthy" story around the services you offer or happenings in your business. When there is something to talk about, people will talk. This is your opportunity to bring people into your world who don't already love you. So press and community involvement becomes key. Remember not everyone knows what you do and the only way they find out is to talk about it. 

Feature business specials, updated credentials, awards, partnership, anything you are doing that will make an impact on who and how you serve. You might not think it's a big deal to achieve an excellence award (you're just doing your job!) but to prospects it shows your expertise.

4. Build your community

Chances are you are involved in more than one thing outside your business (golf league; service club; non-profit board and/or committee; recreational sports, etc.). Do the people you see each week know what you do? Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But they know you personally. What is said about your character can be more worthy than what's said of your business acumen. Take note and add it to your marketing messages.

Conclusion

Word of mouth referrals are the greatest compliment to your business. When you do something that makes lives better, people want to shout it from the rooftops. Take a strategic approach to using referral gold to your advantage to further your reach with ideal clients. It's great to hear people are talking about your impact, leverage it to bring in more.

Are you using word of mouth to your advantage? If you want to leverage this gold to the best of your ability, schedule a call with me!