Most of you who use Whistler are small businesses that offer some sort of service. Some of you are building contractors, professional cleaners, consultants and many more service professionals. You have no doubt recognized that you require a fairly large customer base to keep busy. The majority of businesses grow their customer base through referral of your current customers. Studies have shown that referrals account for as much as 80% of new customers for small business.
The power of the referral. Simply your future customers are far more likely to trust the opinion of the friend, business associate or co-worker. Studies show 1-2% of possible customers will respond to your advertisement through newspaper, flyers, or mailers. You would need to contact 100 people looking for your services to generate one or two customers. It is more likely that three referrals would generate two customers. Referrals are very effective! But how can you grow the number of people referring your business?
Try Angie’s List.What is Angie’s List? Angie's List was created by Angie Hicks back in 1995. When she moved to Columbus, Ohio that year, she was frustrated with the difficulty of finding contractors to use for home repairs and improvements. Angie decided to go door-to-door within her neighborhood and among friends to collect consumer reviews. Eventually, this list of consumer reviews grew and gained popularity. During her first year, Angie had 1,000 members throughout Columbus. Today, Angie's List serves cities and communities all over the US and their list of service categories and memberships just keeps on growing. Now there are millions of customers using Angie’s List to find service professionals.
Once you become a member of Angie’s List you will start to receive reviews from your customers. Once you build a bit of a reputation you will find it works the same way as your current customer referrals.
Does Angie’s List Cost Anything? It does. Seems like everything costs money these days! However Angie’s List is a great deal at $7.99 a month with a $10 signup fee. That’s very inexpensive compared to your typical advertising costs.
Bottom Line? As a service based business it’s critical that you get your good reputation in front of people that are looking for your services. Angie’s List is one of the most cost effective ways to grow your business and improve your reputation. Do any of you currently use Angie’s List? What are your thoughts? Let us know! Visit http://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/
