The importance of Reference Customers ?

**Polished** · 10-01-2009

Just some thoughts especially for anyone starting out. What does it mean to your business to have customers you can activley reference when trying to get a job ?

In my line of work in IT it's fundamental to have customers you can reference when trying to win new business, we all buy or hire based word of mouth and other peoples experiences a good job might get you 3-4 other jobs a bad job might loose you 12 jobs.

In the current climate and as Dave pointed out for people to get out there and market themselves - how important is it to you to have customers you can rely on to spread the good news about your talents?

**brian c** · 10-01-2009

Simple...if people are happy with your work,tidyness,punctuality etc then they will give you a reco.However if you are messy and do a not so good job and then they arent ,are they...at the end of the day you cant force anyone to recommend you..but keeping good relations with your customers and doing the little extras like fitting towel rails,soap dishes ,toilet roll holders etc ..goes a long,long way...what i have found anyway.I try and be as helpful as possible.

**Polished** · 10-01-2009

Just wondering Brian if you have ever asked them if you can use them as a reference if someone else in the area is looking to get a job done and do you build up a portfolio of 'reference customers' ?

**brian c** · 10-01-2009

ok m8,sorry...good idea..i dont do it but its food for thought m8.Do you have a reference portfolio then?

You are right about doing a crap job as there is nothing worse than bad word of mouth.

**Polished** · 10-01-2009

Tiling for me is a do it for myself thing, IT is the day job. It's just in my line of work and I can't see it being very different for any trade being able to say to someone " I did a job for xxxx down the road, and they were very happy with it, if you like I could ask xxx if it would be ok for you to contact xxx them if you would like someone's opinion of my work..." Of course you would have cleared this with them beforehand etc. Just a thought it costs nothing to ask and for the most part many people are happy to do so as long as they are not plagued :-) but it might be the difference between getting a job or not. coming at this from the 'customer side' when I get someone to do something for me - I ask others whom I trust who they would recommend, and then I get them to come price and if they have examples of work they have done or if they have done work for anyone in the locality

**brian c** · 10-01-2009

xxx is going to be busy...lol

**cornish_crofter** · 10-01-2009

When I finish a job I ask the customer for permission to take photos to show other clients. This way potential customers can see the quality of my work without having to contact a previous customer.

One conservatory company I get stuff from sometimes has a book of letters on their counter. These are all written by satisfied customers to thank the company for their work.

In your field it maybe perhaps a little difficult at times to solicit complements, and what can you take photos of? But you IT people are good at lateral thinking

**faithhealer** · 10-01-2009

Agree with CC. At the moment I am making sure my portfolio is full of customer references

**Oli** · 10-01-2009

I take photo's, and make a note on the back the date, customer name and address.

Then people can look at the photo's in the portfolio and should they ever ask if they can speak to the customer from the photo, ill speak to them and check its ok, never happened yet though, people seem satisfied that the pics are shown.

**Daz** · 10-01-2009

The job I start next week, the customer asked if I could provide 2 references. He wanted to go and look at the work, not just photos. Luckily I have quite a few customers that have said to me that if I ever need to provide a reference, that they would be happy to do so. So a few phone calls later and a lot of kind words spoken and I booked 2 bathrooms in

.

Reference customers are very important IMO.

**marc1106** · 10-01-2009

Being a kitchen fitter who has no showroom it is VITAL that my clients refer me and they are al happy to speak to prospective clients about me and the guys and also have had clients say "just bring em round, so they can see for themselves" which is not ony good for business but also gives me a buzz to know that they are THAT happy with the finished product!
So referals are pretty much gaurunteed work! so those clients who wll should and do get(from me) a bottle of chablis every XMAS