As an established business, you need all the help you can get when it comes to referrals. Your customers are your best advocates and advertisers, so it’s essential to make sure that they’re being vocal.
Studies have shown that approximately 92 percent of people say they trust referrals from those they know personally. Furthermore, 83 percent of satisfied customers are more than willing to refer their friends and family. With the right tools and methods, you can really use this to your advantage.
Below are five easy ways to encourage your customers to make referrals to your business.
1. Social Media
If you’re not already leveraging social media to secure referrals for your practice, you ought to start right now. Surely you already know the importance of social media to promote your practice. The fact is, it works. And you don’t have to be super-innovative or come up with groundbreaking social media campaign ideas. Simplicity and authenticity go a long way on their own.
For example, you can create a basic post that reminds your patients that you’re “currently accepting new referrals.” That type of post and/or tweet implies that you want it to be shared, and your most loyal patients will be glad to do so.
2. Discounts
First-time visit discounts are always a great way to promote your practice. This is something you can easily promote on social media. If you make it a permanent offer, your current patients will be aware of it and mention it to their friends and family when making recommendations.
Additionally, discount offers are something you can promote and reinforce with your office’s digital signage—a super useful tool we’ll cover below.
3. Incentives
Offering incentives to your current customers for referrals is one of the oldest tricks in the book—and one of the most effective. Referral incentives are certainly nothing new. They’ve been around for decades. And that’s because they work. It’s a situation where everyone wins. Your current customers can earn discounts or even free visits for each confirmed referral, new patients can get discounts for coming in, and you end up adding to your list of patients.
This is a self-sustaining system that will only serve to grow your practice when done right. So be sure to adequately incentivize while making sure the offer makes sense for your business as well.
4. Verbally Asking
This is the least-favorite method for many, but it can still be very effective. Asking directly for referrals can seem a little awkward, but it is without a doubt still appropriate and totally worthwhile. Your regular customers come to your business because they like your establishment. They wouldn’t be regular customers if this weren’t true. So why not make use of it?
Don’t be afraid to mention to your customers during or after your visit that you’d love some new referrals if they know of anyone in need. Mentioning it in passing on their way out is a great way to slip it into their visit.
5. Digital Signage
Perhaps the easiest and most effective way to boost referrals is to let digital signage do the work for you. With digital signage’s eye-catching nature, you’ll be sure to get through to your patients. Well-crafted digital signage content can mix in messages and reminders about referral discounts and incentives between patient education and localized content. This is a highly-engaging and effective way to reach your customers that is entirely hands-off on your end.
Go•chiro•tv builds alluring, customized referral videos that can easily be implemented into your digital signage programming in your office or waiting area. Our system is engineered to encourage referrals, inform guests and patients about the many benefits of chiropractic care, and promote specific products & services for your practice.
We design our content specifically to be engaging and easy-to-digest. We do all the work for you! All you need is an internet connection, a television and our Go•wellness•tv device.
Try it out for yourself and see your referrals and regular patients grow in just a matter of months. Click here to get a free 30-day trial of Go•wellness•tv! The results will speak for themselves.