Marketing drives new business. Advertising wins friends and influences people. Social media is a powerful way to generate interest and build brand loyalty. And SEO makes your website visible to more prospects. All of which is excellent stuff. But loyal admirers – advocates – are probably the most powerful new business machine of all, and the more the merrier.

Advocacy is particularly important if you’re a local business. That’s one of the reasons this site is so popular: it provides a purpose-built framework that openly encourages and promotes advocacy, straight from the horse’s mouth.

How do you get customers to recommend you?

You could simply ask. As long as they’ve enjoyed their involvement with your business, they’ll probably say yes. Whenever you win a new customer, make a habit of asking for a recommendation. We give our BestofBrightonandHove business members smart printed cards to hand out to customers, as well as the ability to send people online to make a recommendation through our site.

Doing the right thing

When you do a fantastic job, people will be pleased to recommend you. But what does a fantastic job look and feel like? It’s simple really. When you treat customers the way you’d like to be treated yourself, you can’t go far wrong:

• Replying to enquiries as quickly as possible with minimum delay – a good way to steal a march on your competitors and make people feel good about you
• Replying to complaints immediately and efficiently – apparently if you solve a problem for someone they’re much more loyal than if they never had an issue in the first place. Every problem is an opportunity
• Apologising when you’re wrong. Sincere apologies can be very disarming  
• Setting out clearly what you’re going to do and when so people know what to expect
• Doing what you promise to do, when you promise to do it, so you don’t irritate people
• Letting people know in advance if there’s going to be a delay, so they can plan ahead
• Being human, treating people with respect and warmth throughout the process: polite, cheerful, considerate and professional
• Keeping people updated at every stage so they’re not left dangling
• Making it easy and pleasant to buy from you, so they’ll remember the experience fondly and share the experience with others
• Being helpful even when it means going out of your way

What about you?

Have you managed to build up a group of advocates? If so, how did you do it? We’d love to hear your stories.