So, what is consistently regarded as the most valuable source of new customers in just about any business?
Everyone wants referrals. Everyone like, “Referrals, referrals. referrals.”
However, one of my pet hates… is when I see someone bragging about them having an “only referral” based practice.
Of course, we want lots of referrals, but it’s an “and” conversation. Why not have a ton of referrals and Facebook clients? Why not have a ton of referrals and screening clients?
Everything is an “and” conversation. No one is saying that referrals are not amazing. They are amazing!
So, here’s the problem. Client referrals are, without a doubt, one of the most effective ways to grow any business.
In fact, honestly, if we really could choose just one source of clients and magically have as many as you can handle… you would choose referrals all day long.
Mostly because it costs about 8-10 times more to acquire a new customer as opposed to referrals or reactivation clients.
Having worked with hundreds of chiropractors, I can honestly say that the busiest chiropractors get a very regular stream of referrals. Most of the time when we look at the numbers of one of my associates who’s struggling, and they will normally at some point lay blame on the fact that they’re not getting enough new clients.
Client referrals are, without a doubt, one of the most effective ways to grow any business.
When you break down the statistics, on average, every chiropractor in our company gets at least five new clients a week. Across a year, that’s our average. Then you look at a few of them and for whatever reason, their average is literally double.
So, everyone else is averaging five and there’ll be one or two outlines that have doubled.
When you break down the statistics, we are generating the same number of new clients for them. They’re getting the same number of new clients from Facebook, they’re getting the same number of new clients from talks, you name it. The big difference is that they will turn a client into another client. So, that’s almost double.
It’s definitely got something to do with abundance.
The biggest thing I can say is that necessity drives away opportunity. When you need new clients, there are no new clients. When you’re busy and don’t “need” new patients, that’s normally when they’re queuing up to see you.
When I see with my top docs is they turn a client into another client
So, there is no doubt that the most experienced chiropractors will always have more new clients than everyone else because they’re really good at generating internal referrals.
I can’t tell you where I’ve got this figure from but it’s a nice solid number to aim for and that is having about 50% of your clients coming from internal referrals is a great goal. My busiest docs are around there. The weaker docs are nowhere near there. It’s just what we see.
And it’s got nothing to do with their sources. A lot of people will say, “Yes, but if I’m generating so many new clients online, then obviously my ratio is going to be down.” That’s just not what we see. It’s because what I see with my top docs is they turn a client into another client.
Another point to mention now is the often unmeasured effect that a referral has on your ROI statistics. So, with your return on investment, we are working out the lifetime value of a client without considering that, let’s say, every three of ten clients refer you to someone. How do you measure that? It can be difficult.
But it’s just worth considering that when you’re working out what you can spend on marketing based on your lifetime value, its actually higher than that.
