References??

dkillianjr

Hey guys, I am usually very rarely asked for references, actually almost never. Most of my work is all word of mouth. But I do have the ocasional customer who wants references. I just had a customer ask me yesterday for some. Now how do you guys go about your references? I have a few regular customers that incourage me to give their number to anyone who needs references, so normaly I will call them a head of time and make sure they don't mind me giving their number, then to give the numbers to the new customer to call. Who do you guys handle references, letters, calls etc.?


Thanks, Dave

Patrick

I think it was Ed that gave me this advice a while ago. We do mainly exterior work so its pretty easy for us, harder for guys that only work inside, but heres my answer to the customer.

"We have lots of very satisfied cutomers many of them right in your neighborhood. I used to give out refferences all the time, however I felt that it was a burden on our customers. We do on average 10 estimates a week, So Ill ask you, how would you feel about me giving your number out to 40 complete strangers every month?, So. here is a list of the names and addresses of the last 30 homes we have completed, feel free to drive by, and if you must, feel free to knock on the door, they would all be more than happy to brag about their home to you"

50% will say, wow, be impressed, and not even ask for the list
25% will take the list, and never talk to anyone
20% will take the list, drive by, maybe knock on the door
5% will take the list, drive by, knock on the door, and harass your previous customers to the point that your previous customers will call and say "ummm I would suggest you not take this person as a customer, they just asked us how much free stuff we were able to squeeze out of you, and if we were able to negotiate on the price after the job was done"

I guess its a win win!

__________________
Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

BMAN

I have been known to say that "anyone can give you a list of good customers, how about I give you the numbers of our bad experiences" Then I tell them we never had any. But really I give them a drive by list and also invite them to look at the pics on our website.

dougchips

The good ones are boring. I had a client in December that I failed to make happy the first time around and it cost me $700 in product and 1/2 of a day of labor to put a smile on his face. At my request, he is writing a testimonial about my service and how I made him happy in the end. I can't wait to see how new clients react to it.

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A W Smith

I think after all these years i was asked for references maybe five times. Most of my jobs are referrals anyway so it would be redundant. I don't even have a current list of references. I would have to call and ask my recent clients first before I would make a list and use them. if you bought a new car would you want your phone to ring every time the car salesman signed a new contract? with most husband's and wives working these days I really don't think they want to be bothered with nuisance cold calls. I think what would be a better idea would be if the client is really happy with your work and are enthusiastic. Collect a few referral sites that link to your site and ask them to write favorable review or score for you.

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Al Smith
http://www.awsmith.com

dkillianjr

Thanks guys, Well I guess there is nothing new and inovative for references I like the driveby idea for outside projects, it does seem like a win win situation. Doug, I think that will work out good for ya. Cause everybody knows you can't please everybody. That is a very "real life" reference and at the end it turned out great. I had to do the same thing the other day, call a couple of my usual clients and ask if they minded if I gave a guy their number, they didn't mind, but I know I wouldn't want someone calling me I didn't know. I do like the site idea, maybe have pictures of the customers project with a link to the referral. Now all I have to do is learn html code and get started on my site


Dave

A W Smith

I have been using an early version of cutehtml for many years now, When you type the code or let it auto complete correctly it turns blue. Unfortunately it is no longer supported by globalscape. But heres a brief description with a link to a screen shot
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.m.scott/Cute/Cute.htm

of course you could just use the WYSIWYG editor like Microsoft's front page

Afterward you can validate your HTML code so you don't cause the spiders havoc and help make it viewable to many browsers
http://validator.w3.org/

__________________
Al Smith
http://www.awsmith.com

AtlanticWBConst

That's a really intelligent approach to take on this.

Smart.

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- Build Well -

AtlanticWBConst

We have a similar situation as AW Smith, all our work is by word of mouth as well. We did have one client (an engineer) that we did an addition for. He asked for references, and he looked them up. We ended up doing the job, because as an enginner, he was all about details and quality, and we try hard to consistently do both.

References:
Whenever we finish up on a job. We ask the Client, if we could use them as a reference? We explain that it may involve a simple phone call, or even a person coming by to look at the work we did. They all have eagerly said yes.

So, I have a written list with the names and addresses of the past happy clients. Along with that information, is a brief description of the work that was done. This way, a prospective client can contact references that had similar work, as the proposed new work.

Lastly, the past several years, I have tried to take more pictoral records of jobs. Before the job, key phases of the job, and the final finished (painted/carpets, etc) portion of the job. I keep some pictures in my on-road file case. I will say that these pictures get alot of people very interested in us, because they see visible finished work, over just talk.

Side Point: In our contracts, we also have print that says: By signing this document, you agree to the release and use, by this corporation, of any on-site pictorial documentation for record keeping and advertising purposes.
(I don't know how legally binding this is, but we wanted to have something to "release" any pictures taken)

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DavidC

We will conduct a closing interview with each client after receiving the final check. During that each is asked if we can use them for a reference. We will add their name and phone number with a brief description of what we did for them to our current list.

On that list is one customer that we had a serious problem develope and we had to go back repeatedly to find the cause. In the end it cost more to resolve than we made in profit, but whenever anyone decides to call this guy we get such a glowing report that we always get the job.

Every new prospect gets the reference list, very few actually use it. More than not the are so impressed that we offered they consider it enough.

Good Luck
Dave

d-rez

The thing about the 'drive-bys' is that it is really not a reference. It's an example of your work. The work may be great but a phone call may tell the customer if your subs were smoking in the house, did you try to up-charge with a hundred change orders, ect. Don't get me wrong here, I as well have a list of past projects that I encourage potential clients to drive by, but ask that they do not disturb the HO's privacy by knocking. I then give out a few select numbers of clients who have said they were more than willing to reccomend me. Oddly enough, hardly anyone actually seems to call the references....

dkillianjr

Thanks guys for the replies, AW , that Microsoft frontpage looks like something I could handle


Atlantic, i have been trying to do almost the same thing. I picked up one of those picture binders a little while ago I just gotta get off my butt and work on putting it together somemore. I never really thought of putting something in the contract about pictures, but that is deffinetly a good idea


Like you guys are saying I notice the same thing, even if you give people refferences there is a good chance they wouldn't even call them.



Thanks, Dave

BigLou

I keep a list of references handy in case someone asks - it happens a couple of times a year.

I add my customers to the list if:
1) they offer to be on it
2) I'm very happy with the work, I ask them if I can use them as a reference.

I also call all of my references once a year to see if they're still ok with being on my list.

Punch List D

I do not give references anymore cause anyone in business for several years have been seen around town. I do however along with pics. offer portfolio which includes insurances and letters of recommendation. Works great.

Ed the Roofer

Upon completion of each job, I have a "Final End Of Job Evaluation For Customer Satisfaction" form, which I entice them to fill out while I am sitting there, yet prior to going over all of the details regarding any of the previously signed change orders and submitting the final invoice.

In that form there is a paragraph sized section for them to write down there own comments and provide a testimonial as to the cleanliness, timliness and quality of the workmanship.

There is also a section which requests 3 friends or acquantances names as a referral of who may be in need of our services in the future.

The evaluation is a quick 10 simple questions. They can either make a comment by each one line or just initial it or sign their name, or even leave it blank for all I care.

The main things are, I want them to sign the bottom of the page, which affirms that they have been notified and agreed to any and all change orders and that they for certain, are satisfied with the resultant finished product installation that they contracted for.

If they take the additional time out to fill in the testimonial section, the Great!!!

Now, for each new prospect that I desire to supply a proposal to, they not only get a comprehensive one page 75 name list of recent customers and addresses to view our work, they also get the bonus of NOT having to call up any of my old customers, because thay have about 40-50 written testimonials to review. Who else that I compete with does that? Nada!

Now, if they ask for phone numbers, I tell them that I respect my customers privacy and would do the same for them, by not handing out their private home number to the next 100-200 customers I am providing an estimate for. I ask them if they would really like it if I allowed so many strangers to distrupt their privacy at home. Never, have I had an objection to not supplying phone numbers for them.

I also have several testimonials were things initially did not work out as planned, but the important thing, was that the end result, those customers were completely satisfied in the end. That takes care of the good and the bad. I have had some potential clients ask, prior to reading through the testimonials, that they wouldn't expect to see any negative remarks or bad jobs listed. That is when I show them these particular individuals satisfied results. I am very proud of our customer satisfaction, especially when one goes South for a little while, but am able to turn it around.

By the way, the other reason I have them sign the Customer Satisfaction form, is to head off any potential excuses as to why they will not pay the final balance in full now due. This heads that off at the pass. Once they agreed that everything was acceptable and satisfactory, they can not go back on that, because I have that in writing.

Ed

Norrrrrrrrrrrrm

Ed,
Is there any way you could share a copy of this questionaire? This sounds like a great idea.

__________________
Norman Sharp
http://www.sharpimprovements.com

dkillianjr

Yes ,very good idea Ed



Dave

donb1959

I ask all my customers if they would mind being put ona reference lsit, most say no not at all. I then add them to me list, when I give estimates I hand the potential customer a service info packet, included in that packet are 3 references.

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