5 Quick Tips for Gaining Business Referrals

Word of mouth advertising is an incredible tool for building your business. Individuals often trust their friends and family to let them know which businesses to choose. Getting those word of mouth referrals can build up your client base and bring in more business. So how do you get them? We have a few quick tips to get you started.

• Offer an incentive for referrals. This can be as simple as offering 10% off of a future event rental if a new customer mentions who referred them.
• Leave your business card behind. A word of mouth recommendation is great, but it’s unrealistic to assume that someone will remember your business name or website URL. Leaving your business card with your customers will give them something to physically hand to another person with all of your contact information.
• Build relationships with other business owners. This is extremely important in the event planning industry. When an individual needs one service for an event, they probably need several more as well. Having a relationship with other business owners means that they can easily refer you to their customers to fulfill their need for reliable businesses for their event.
• Respond to positive feedback with a referral request. When a customer leaves a positive review on your social media sites or offers a verbal compliment, respond by thanking them and asking them to pass along your business name to friends and family.
• Send follow up emails. It’s always a good idea to follow up with your customers a week or so after an event. Waiting a week lets the excitement and stress of an event fade and allows you to communicate with a client more effectively. Thank them for their business and ask them to consider leaving a review and referring friends in the future.

The most important tip when looking for referrals is to provide a quality customer experience. If you do a great job and help a customer to plan a great event, your customers will be happy to refer you time after time.