Twelve months ago, Victor Bogdan from AGY Electrix decided to start using word-of-mouth proactively to promote his electrical services business. We gave him a call this week to see how the things were working out for him and his response was initially surprising…
"Each month I get about 20 calls directly from WOMO – about 1 a day. Of these 5-8 generally become clients – so I'm not complaining."
(Our response: Not complaining? That's got to be the most cost-effective marketing you can do! The return on investment would be out of site – surely you're over the moon?)
Victor agreed it was good but went on to say that the best thing about using word-of-mouth is not the quantity of leads and sales it generate, but the type.
"The biggest problem in business is finding a match between the customer and the business' strengths." Victor went on to explain; "In my field there seems to be two types of customers; one that wants the job done at the lowest possible price, and the other that wants the job done properly. This second type of customer is still concerned with price but if you hit a problem, they understand that its going to take some extra time to get the quality result they're looking for."
Having customer reviews online attracts quality-oriented customers but also helps Victor filter out the enquiries that aren't a good match.
"When I get a call from someone I'll give them a price on their job and then tell them to get online and look at my reviews on WOMO. They can see clearly from my reviews that I'm very focused on quality, so if they are too, we have a match and they'll call back straight away to book in. It's helping me weed out the price-shoppers from the quality customers. This has an enormous effect on the bottom-line."
It's no wonder either as Victor's reviews are incredibly persuasive;
- "Best electrician I've ever had… Great service… Victor and Stan the apprentice arrived early after phoning me… Did a superb job at great price… Victor communicates really well with customers."
- "Victor showed up exactly on time (to the minute). And gave me a full range of options without prompting me to take the pricey option. His work as far as I can tell is top notch, and he was polite, accommodating and hard working."
- "Victor installed 2 new double power points, one in the kitchen and one outside the house. He charged me less than he quoted as the job was done quicker than expected. I couldn't be happier with his work and would highly recommend him to anyone."
A modest Victor says he is sometimes dumbfounded by the gushing praise he is given on WOMO.
"All I can say is that they must have had a very bad experience previously. I just focus on doing the job properly, charging a fair price, and treating people well."
>> Click here for more information on the Happy Customers Program <<
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