Do referrals really work in your business?

This is one thing that all businesses strive for, I think.

You may wonder why I state that. I write that because last week a friend of mine referred me to a lawn care company. He had a good relationship with them and thought they could help me out. I called them to get an idea of what type of service they could provide for me. After hearing the description of their service I agreed that they could help. I asked the receptionist to send one of the staff to my address to give me a quote on the work to be done. She stated that a staff member would come to my home in the evening and drop a quote in my mail box.

The next morning I looked in my mail box – no quotation. At noon hour I called the company and asked for the person I had spoken to. I was told that she was out and would return my call.

Another day goes by and no response or quotation. Later that day another person called and left a message telling me that the work would be done in the next couple of days. I was surprised that I still had no price quotation, so I called back and left my name and number. I waited 18 hours and still no response from my message. I called and spoke to the receptionist about why they had already booked the service and had not given me the quotation. She didn’t have an answer. I told them not to do the work.

So what good did a referral do for this business?

I hope you and your business take care of referrals better than this company. Do you have a plan to follow with all of your referrals? If not, when will your next referral fall through the cracks?