Hi Bryan, how can we improve potential referral business from our existing clients #AskPh

Question asked by @ollieanddarsh

So, Ollie and Darsh, this is a great question but specifically a great question because it’s coming from you. Let me explain to everybody else whose watching it, Ollie and Darsh are a dentist practice that people actually like visiting. I don’t know how they’ve done it but they’ve cracked it. This is a very special little business, well not so little actually, by far the market leaders in the UK I would say, phenomenal brand, brilliant customer experience when you go to the dentist, work that out!!

So, for you to get referrals from your existing customers, for me to answer this for a different business, it would be quite easy. For me to add value to what you’re doing already from your customer experience is tough, however, I’ll have a go. In terms of that moment where the new customer thinks it’s going to be horrible dentist, typical dentist experience and they are delighted because actually, you know what, this is really funky place, the service is ace, there’s tea and coffee on tap make me feel great, it’s moving in the right direction and that drill didn’t really hurt, blah,blah, blah. That’s the moment to capitalise on real, real time marketing in my opinion, so they could refer somebody when they get back, they could refer somebody straight away. When you deliver such exceptional service, as you experience with Ollie and Darsh, it is OK to explicitly ask for a referral face to face and online and I think, start with excellent customer service and then be just transparent asking for a referral you find that people will be delighted to help. Now, if you get slightly more technical, if you’ve got your customer database, try uploading that to the likes of Facebook and create a custom audience marketing campaign and specifically ask your customers on Facebook for a referral or do they know somebody else who would like and introduce promotion. You do Whitening Wednesday’ and some fantastic promotional stuff. Ask your customers to pass it on, give them an opportunity to introduce somebody to an exceptional brand experience that you offer. So, easy one for Ollie and Darsh because they are awesome, a brilliant dentist. For every other business out there, the answer is, start with analysing your customer experience if you delight customers, asking for referrals is relatively easy and it’s okay to do it explicitly, transparently and open and honest.