At the recent Snow Industry Exposition and Conference in Indianapolis, a panel of three snow industry professionals shared their tricks for getting and making the most of client testimonials. As the panelists pointed out from their experiences, these tips can be applied to the lawn and landscape markets.
The testimonial is an inexpensive tool for marketing to potential clients, says John Parker, a former snow contractor, currently with Magic Salt.
|
|
His client base consisted of large corporate campuses, parks districts and shopping. He generally approached the property manager at the site halfway through the first season.
“We’d ask, ‘if you were happy with our work, we want to do an interview with you at the end of season and tape it,” Parker says. “We’d put all the interviews on a disc and send it to prospective customers for the following season.”
His company also blew the prospective clients away by including a list of references and contact information, he says.
Derek Blumberg of Quality Seasons in Savage, Minn., has testimonials that can be read on his Web site (www.qualityseasons.com). “We have a ton of testimonials,” he says. “I think they’re good sellers.” He is considering posting streaming videos of testimonials on the site.
Strategies for Getting Testimonials
Some companies are hesitant to ask clients for testimonials, but the clients say it can pay off. A good place to start is to split clients into two groups, Parker says.
“The first ones I go after are ones we picked up because they had a problem in past,” he says. “Generally, it’s easy to get them to talk.”
Ask these clients to talk about the issues they had prior to coming to your company, he adds.
The others clients can be a little more difficult to approach, he says, but adds that if they’ve been clients for several years, they shouldn’t have a problem with sharing a few good words about your company.
Another way to get clients to spread the word about your company and give feedback about the service at the same time is to start a board of directors. Russ Kimball of Kimball Property Maintenance in Draper, Utah, uses this approach. He invites clients to meet with his staff about four times a year.
“We take them to dinner and let them tell us what we’ve done wrong,” he says. “They’re not afraid to tell you what you need to improve on. It’s amazing the respect you get from them for letting them do that. You also get testimonials from them from then on.”