Getting your clients on the phone can often be a bit hit and miss, so when you do, and you’ve got their attention, you need to take full advantage of the business opportunity.

Here’s how:

Consider ending each call by saying ‘Oh, just one last thing before you go….’

1. Find out if they’re likely to refer you - or leave you

   Once the main business of your call has been concluded, ask if they’ve got a minute to give you some feedback on how you could improve your customer service value to clients.

   • If their answers suggest that they’re ‘advocate promoters’ then thank them for being a great client, and talk about how you might help them to give more referrals.
   • If their response defines them as ‘passive and disinterested’ then maybe try to understand how you could build a better relationship with them (in order to make sure that you hold onto their business in the future).
   • If they are clearly ‘detractors and likely-to-leave’ then find out the cause of their problem, what can be done about it and what, if anything you can do to rebuild the relationship.
     
     
2. Find out if your main marketing message is working

   Check the visitor bounce rate away from your homepage. Typically around 50% of visitors leave a B2B website within a few seconds of arriving; often because the proposition in the headline isn’t clear or seems irrelevant to their needs. If your bounce rate is more than 30% then your customer value message may be equally obscure.

   To answer this conundrum, ask your customers what they like about you and why they keep using your services. If most answers are different to what you thought, then change your headline.
   
   

3. Subtly launch your new referral programme

   Here’s another opportunity to ask for their advice. Explain that you have two incentive options in your soon-to-be-launched referral programme and that you’d value their opinion on which to use.

   Just by involving them in this decision process, your client will feel that they’ve got a personal connection with your referral programme; and as a result are much more likely to remember to recommend you in the future.
   
   

4. Cross-sell by getting customers to self-select additional services to buy from you

   Here again you should ask their advice rather than attempt to sell. Explain that you’re looking to expand the range of services you provide. Run through those products that you currently offer and ask what others they’d value from a given list. Agree which they think might be most relevant to them.
   
   

People love to give advice and to solve other people’s problems; when their opinion is asked for, it makes them feel respected. So consider testing these ideas to see just how profitably you can exploit this characteristic.