How to supercharge your customer's recommendation.

Every business wants their customers to speak glowingly about them. They want to make advocates out of their customers so they will tell others in their network. Imagine if there were a way to make personal recommendations from your customers over 100% more effective.

According to a recent study done at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, improving the power of customer recommendations is possible. The study was based on a parent's choice of a pediatrician, but it’s reasonable to extrapolate the findings into any field leaving some margin of error, greater or lesser, depending on the field in question.

At the heart of the study (as far as we are concerned anyway)  were three scenarios.

1. Doctor takes your insurance and your neighbor recommends them.
   
   
2. Doctor takes your insurance, your neighbor recommends them and has positive online reviews.
   
   
3. Doctor takes your insurance, your neighbor recommends them and has negative online reviews.
   
   

Before we give away the outcome, most people would think that 1 & 2 would have similar outcomes and 3 would be less. You would be correct only with 3.

In scenario one 22% of respondents said they were very likely to select that physician. Frankly we expected that to be a bit higher; perhaps more like 35%. All in all, not a very shocking number. The other end of the spectrum was the third scenario and in that case only 3% were very likely to choose that doctor.

The second scenario adds that the doctor has positive online reviews and that’s when the quantum leap happens! Forty-six percent of respondents said they were very likely to choose that doctor! What would it mean for your practice or business if you could improve the effectiveness of your client’s recommendation by over 100%?

Let me leave you with 3 action steps to begin getting more reviews today:

1. Give great service. That may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often it is overlooked.
   
   
2. Confirm Satisfaction. “Is there anything else you’d like us to do?”
   
   
3. Ask. Let your clients know you want their feedback
   
   

---