Being in Real Estate, I often find myself being asked to recommend a painter or electrician or heat and air company or other such services. Brian Buffini recommends keeping a directory of service providers and making it available, which is a pretty good idea. So, when I started my first networking group, those in the group became my "go to" people. But then, after I had made a recommendation to one of the members, they dropped the ball. This upset the client and made me look bad.
The lesson I learned (after that happened a couple of times) was to keep a recommendation directory, but to be very careful who you recommend. Today, I only recommend people who I know are reliable. For example, when I recommend the insurance guy, I know that not only will he make the call, but he will take excellent care of the client. He does this time and again.
So the question becomes, "How do I know if someone is recommendation ready?" Here's my criteria for adding someone to the Bob Haywood recommendation list...
1. I like to know the person for a while. I have known a painter who I recently have begun to recommend, since he was in Junior High school. Today he is a small business owner. He's just getting his feet on the ground. But he is honest, has fair prices and does a great job. I knew that he would be a great recommendation because I have known him for so long.
2. I usually will make one recommendation once I've decided to give someone a "test run." This follows getting to know the person and observing their work ethic. After they do the job I always follow up to make sure the client was pleased with the work. I also want to be sure that the vendor felt like they had a good experience too. Did I do well giving them the information? Do they have a comfort level working with me? Is this a good fit?
3. I listen and/or ask others about the person whom I want to recommend. In our small town, your reputation is easily known. This is not so much true in Tulsa, so you have to learn about people. Obviously, you can Google the person's business. But word of mouth is often the best way to find out a general opinion of those of us in the business world.
4. If a recommended vendor has an issue with one of my clients, I inform the vendor of what I know and ask them to follow up. How they handle the situation tells me a whole lot about their character, maturity and business practices.
There are those who say that we should never recommend any business providers because there is too much liability. Maybe that is true, but I find that being able to provide good recommendations to my clients helps me to be a trusted resouce and a good friend. Futher, I find that as I seek to provide good service to my clients, that I become the recommended resource for others in business. Knowing who to recommend and being able to be recommended makes good business sense, especially in a tough economy.
Picture from Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/niosh/2492840800/
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