It starts with trust.
Referred clients have higher Net Promoter Scores than a firms’ average client.
Why is this? A key driver in successful client-professional relationships is the all important trust factor. It takes time and effort to build trust. Trust in your expertise, trust that you are focused on their needs and trust that you will always act in their best interests.
Of course even with referred clients, trust remains crucial - it’s just that the client arrives with a healthy dose of it when they walk through the front door.
In fact, at Client Culture we not only see that referred clients have higher satisfaction than average, but when they talk about why they are satisfied, they actually talk less about trust than average. They are often more impressed with other aspects of a firm’s service.
Perhaps by beginning the relationship with a foundation of trust their minds are open to see everything the firm has to offer.
Client Culture research shows that the lifetime value of referred clients is typically 20% higher than new clients.
What do we mean?
Well the lifetime value of a client takes into account factors like – Will they stay a client a long time? Will they use services from other areas of your firm? Will they fit with your culture? Will your people like working with them? Will they refer other clients themselves?
Given referred clients are more valuable, it is important to focus on getting more of them.
But how?
Investing in service excellence with your existing clients is a proven path to growth. Invest in relationships and think more proactively about identifying which of your clients might be satisfied enough to consider a referral and how you might make that happen.
The starting point is always better listening. Establish a systematic way to measure and track your client loyalty and everything else becomes possible.
