For your photography business, what is your most cost-effective advertising avenue to bring in new clients?
Direct mail? No. Newspaper? No. Social Media (Twitter, Facebook or Blog)? No, not even social media (although a close second and climbing.).
It is word of mouth and the Referrals you receive.
Referrals are like report cards. They will tell you how you’re doing at building client confidence in your products and services. When referrals start coming in, you know you’re doing something right with respect to managing your customer relationships.
The basis of referrals starts when you make a promise to a new client and flourishes when you follow through on that promise. Life-long clients are made and referrals are earned through your consistent delivery of beautiful images creating a memorable experience delivered with impeccable service.
And if done consistently, you won’t need to ask for referrals. They will come to you automatically.
So now, you need to track and reward your clients for their loyalty — our P1 Action of the Week.
PhotoOne has a place to store and manage your referrals in our studio management software. It’s easy to use. No need to keep stacks of referral cards in index boxes or “yellow stickies” with names and dates as part of your client relationship management.
Let’s look at how easy it is to keep Referrals in PhotoOne Software:
1. Go to any Edit Customer screen in PhotoOne, click on the Profile tab.
2. Click on the Referred By Customer/Vendor [#] box.
3. Select the referring customer or vendor off of your list.
4. To run a report on the Referrals:
Go to: Reports > General Reports > Customer Referral Report
Now, send them a thank you note, a gift card or certificate – whatever you desire. But don’t forget them and they won’t forget you.
Here at PhotoOne, we ask every studio “How did you hear about us?” If they tell us that a PhotoOne user recommended them to us, we track it and we reward our studios with 2 months of extended support and upgrades.
Your clients will be pleased that you thought of them, that you’ve kept good track of their referrals and that you have thanked them accordingly. These few easy steps and thoughtful reward will help to build a database of life-long clients.
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