A Ninja's Best Friend: Referrals

The Freelancer's Guide to Increasing Referral Business

One of the biggest challenges involved in freelance work is reaching and maintaining a steady workload. For many freelancers finding new clients can be a time-consuming process, which leaves less time for income-producing work. What if this effort could be reduced or eliminated? You could more completely dedicate your focus to earning money and doing a great job.

Increasing the amount of referral business you receive can be one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of time that is spent on no-income producing activities. Actively working to increase referrals from clients, friends, and family is often not a priority, as many freelancers feel that is not in their control. Instead, they just wait — and hope — that someone sends them a referral.

Reasons to Love Referrals

They Find You

Less work is required on your part to land new gigs via referrals. Less work for the same results is always good.

Trust

Those who are referred to you will have a higher opinion of your services and more trust for you because someone they respect has recommended you. The trust that they have for whoever recommended you is partially transferred to trust in you.

You Have an Advantage

If a client is talking to other freelancers in regards to their project, as a referral from a friend you will have an advantage over the others (all other factors being equal).

Free Advertising

Word-of-mouth referrals are essentially free advertising for you and your services. Not only is it free, but it’s actually more effective than just about any other type of advertising you can do.

They Snowball

The more happy clients you have, the more referrals you’re likely to receive. And the more referrals you receive, the more customers you’ll have spreading the word about your services. In most cases, the longer you’ve been around the more referrals you’ll get.

12 Ways to Increase the Number of Referrals You Receive

1. Provide Superior Quality

The best thing you can do to improve your chances of getting referrals is to provide a quality of work that blows clients away. Clients that get these results will be your best advertisements as they have had a great experience and can share their story with others in need of great service.

Without high quality work, you’re unlikely to get many referrals, if any. People simply don’t want to refer a friend to someone who won’t live up to their expectations. If you’re focusing too much of your effort on the other methods of growing referrals, your quality of work can suffer and your other efforts will be wasted.

2. Take Care of Your Customers

Customer service counts for freelancers, too. Focus on providing timely and clear communication, and always be professional. In many cases, the service provided is actually what satisfies the client more so than the work itself.

3. Under Promise, Over Deliver

It’s a bit of a cliche, but it is very effective in allowing you to keep your clients satisfied. Don’t promise them anything that isn’t likely to happen, and give yourself the chance to out-do their expectations. With this strategy they should never be disappointed.

4. Ask for Referrals

Sometimes you just have to ask for what you want. Many clients will be willing to refer you to friends or colleagues, but they may not even think about it unless you bring it up. Remind customers that referrals are a big part of your business, and ask them if they know of anyone that could benefit from your services. If you have done an exceptional job for them, chances are they will make an effort to help you in this way.

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Ways to Get More Customer Referrals for Your Freelance Business
In the world of freelance, customer referrals are everything. The amount of customer referrals will often determine how successful one’s business can really be. As word spreads quickly, having customers refer others to you and your services is a wonderful way of gaining new business and making more money. There are a few distinct ways to get more customer referrals for your business.

Give 100% Effort All the Time

One of the best ways to help ensure that customers will refer your business to friends and family members is to do the best job possible every single time. Nobody wants to refer a less than satisfactory freelancer to those who they know and love. If you put 100% into all of your work you are sure to get customer referrals out of it as well as the satisfaction in knowing that your work is top notch.

Ask How Things Went or How a Sick Family Member Is

Instead of asking directly for a referral, just be friendly and keep in touch. Ask how the ad you designed is doing with converting their clients to sales. Ask if your customer’s mother is out of the hospital yet. If you are an accountant, check to see if your customer has been remembering to save their receipts. And although it seems strange, do this without any sales pitch. You are calling to show that you care, not that are looking for new business.

Ask Customers to Refer You to Others

Another way to get customer referrals is to ask for them. If you do a good job in your freelancing position, there is no shame in asking others to spread the word for you. This will benefit not only you as a business owner but those who utilize your services as well as they are getting great work which was recommended by someone they know.

Know a Gem When You See One

Some customers should be treated even more special than others. There are certain customers that can generate buzz around your business. If you think that a specific client could generate a lot of new projects coming in, then cater to their every need. Your hard work will pay off and new customers will come rushing in.

Offer Discounts for Referrals

If it is within your budget to do so, offer discounts to those who refer your company to others. For example, offer the referring customer 10% off the next job order if they refer someone to you and that individual uses your services. Offering discounts is a great incentive for many to refer companies to potential clients.

Is it a Business Card or a Coupon Code?

Instead of leaving all of that white space on the back of your business card, why not place a coupon for your services?

Customer of the Month

Award a “Customer of the Month” every month and see how excited each customer gets. Award a certificate or plaque that can be then hung in your customer’s place of business. The award can remind them of your services as well as become an attention getter for visitors of your client’s office.

Take a Silent Approach to Customer Referrals

If you aren’t comfortable asking for referrals, you can ask for a referral in writing. How? You can place “We appreciate referrals” on all of your printed and online materials. You might think that this won’t work but people see it and remember it, even if only subliminally. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to write this on all of your materials, does it?

Make Sure That Your Customers Are Getting Their Moneys Worth

If you want your customers to refer you to their friends and family then you need to make sure that your customers feel as if they are getting enough value from what they pay you. What are your customers getting for their money? Take the time to think this out and then every chance you get convey this value to your customers

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Source and Contributors:

• The Freelancer's Guide to Increasing Referral Business by Steven Snell http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/increasing-referral-business/#more-763
• Ways to Get More Customer Referrals for Your Freelance Business by Allfreelance.com
  http://www.allfreelance.com/freelancing_blog/2008/02/19/ways-to-get-more-customer-referrals-for-your-freelance-business/