Discounts for referals

[BLUECAR202]

I was just wondering what kind of discounts if any you all give to those customers who convince their neighbors to hire you.

[fireball]

15.00 per month per referal. Be careful the customers realize that it is 15.00 per month max. Some of these old bitties are great salespeople if they realize they could elinmate their lawn bill by picking up the phone. Be aware "birds of a feather stick together" A picky customer will always refer another picky customer to you. You have actually stumbled upon the Holy Grail. The only way to grow your business is by referrals. Forget advertising, yellow pages, or flyers. Larry Stone has an interesting concept using property transfers though.

[Guido]

I posted this a while back when someone was asking about new ways of advertising: Paying $15 a month for only a referal is a little much don't you think. I know enough people I can &quot;refer&quot; you to to make $15 a month off you for the rest of my life. A referal is only pointing you in a direction......its not a contract. <p><br>Make up a letter to mail to all your existing customers telling them you will give them one free cut for every lawn they get you ( a contract for, not just a referral) or any jobs over $200- .That will come up the next time the neighbors or relatives are over the house admiring your work, as long as they show off your quality, your almost guranteed any of her friends or family thats looking for someone will hire you.<p><p>----------<br>&quot;guido&quot;<br>David M. Famiglietti

[Mowman]

Blue, starting this year I'm offering a free cut for every refferal. Residential only. I think it will get these old ladys to really start talking and sending business my way if they can get their lawn cut for free. Well good luck. Mowman

[slagerlawncare]

fireball..<br>i don't know if i would go as far as saying that's the only way of advertising...but it is the best way. remember starting out ,you really don't have the referals yet. just my opionion.<br>also what is stone's property transfer concept?<br>

[yardsmith]

I have had a policy for the last 4 years that referrals earn a customer free mowings.<br>My stipulations are that if a cust. gives me a ref. & they sign on, then I will give them 1 free mowing after I have mowed the referral 3 times- Eliminates those who'd refer people & then they'd quit after they got a free mowing.<br>Works out in a # of ways. A friends referral will always outweigh someone picking you out of the yell. pgs. <br>Second, alot of times they'll refer neighbors, which means more lawns right where you're already at. No driving across town for 1 lawn. If people like your work enough, it can snowball. My first year I ended up with 5 lawns on the same cul-de-sac.<br>Plus, once they figure it out, they can work towards free mowings all the time- who wouldn't want that?<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[lawrence stone]

Fireball wrote:<p>&gt;Larry Stone has an interesting concept using property transfers though. <br> <br>I just pick up the &quot;list&quot; a few days ago (one of my customers is a small realitor and had something to do with the multi-list)and<br>today I start entering the addys manual into<br>office 97 acess databases. This list goes back 2 full years plus and is every residential transfers (200k+)in my PRESENT residential service area.<p>I just print the names on labels then stick<br>to some postcards I had printed (commercially)<br>I was going to send them out this weekend if the warming trend continues.<p>You need to send out three more mailings<br>April, May, June with a different theme for<br>max effect.

[slagerlawncare]

what other way of getting property transfers is there?

[thelawnguy]

In the past, I used to give $50 credit to customers who provided a seasonal mowing referral, then I stopped when I figured Id get the referral anyway since Im one of the few co's in my area which does a good job without raping the customers checkbook.<p>Bill

[fireball]

you could also get the list from the deed transfer at county offices. The transfer tax rolls would probably do it but I don't know if you could access the information via computer. My county really keeps a tight lid on &quot;public&quot;records, they don't freely hand out anything, and don't mind making you hop over several hurdles before they divuluge. What they are doing is protecting the lawyers who charge you for the free information. The lawyers in the know drop by with Xmas presents in July.<p>In response to my 15.00 giveway per month. Since my minuim charge would be 50.00 per month. A free cutting would amount to 3 months referrals. If you saw my costing sheet you would see that I have this already covered. in addition, my costing sheet also allows the costing of 3% of the profit, if an employee refers the job under his incentive program. And since I insist on 3 year contracts, I usually don't attract the customer who is motivated by trying to save 15.00 off a 800.00 per month bill. What I am extending to the customer is professional courtesy and an acknowledgement on my part that he did something for me.

[mountain man]

Fireball: <br>You mentioned that your minimum is $50 per month. That seems incredibly low. What exactly are you doing for $50? I expect to get at least $30-$35 PER WEEK on our accounts. <p>I agree that it is good to reward a customer that gives you a referral. I have never quantified it, but I figure if you add labor, follow up time, marketing, advertising exp, etc then each new account probably (costs) $100 plus to get. That referral therefore has saved you most of those expenses. I have even gone so far as to give a free month of service for someone that refers me a neighbor. I can make that up in a month or so by the increased productivity and decreased windsheild time. (We have annual agreements and &lt;10% attrition so I don't worry about the referral fee since I know this person is more than likely be a long term customer.)<p>Has anybody figured a way to actually calculate what each new account costs? It has to be significantly more than the $15-20 range that has been discussed.

[fireball]

my mistake. I meant 50.00 per cut. But this is only one service of many that i offer. The object is to sell the whole pie. As long as you offerto &quot;just cut grass&quot;you will earn what grasscutters get.

[jeffclc]

Here's another thought. If you offer a variety of services, try offering your refering customer a service that they have not purchased from you in the past. If you have never trimmer their bushes, fertilized the lawn, ect... Try offering some of that type of servise to them for giving you the referal. <p>This can be more meaningful than a credit on the bill, some have more money than they can spend, and it will also introduce your other servicces to them. You may even get the job doing the bushes, fertilizing for the season, ans seasons to come.

[fireball]

jeffclc: good point. I just have a problem with giving a service away free. If you put into the customer mind that it is free or you don't consider it valuable how do you convince them it is worth something the next time