Yesterday, I had a plumber come to my house to unclog a drain. My landlord 
explicitly said that he’d like it to cost under $100, and if was going to cost more to call him. Understandable.
When the plumber came, it took him less than thirty minutes to determine the problem, figure out a solution and be on his way. I was impressed. The cost — $75.
All was well — It was quick, relatively cheap, and a minor inconvenience.
After the plumber cleaned up his tools, we chatted for a little about ourselves to one another and developed a meaningless relationship — for me. To be honest, I didn’t really care how long he’d been a plumber, if he had plans for the weekend, or what he thought about the Vikings this season. My only objective in the whole interaction was to get the drain fixed and be on my way as fast possible.
However, he could have leveraged my situation (recent graduate, renter, my network of other current students/recent graduates that are renting, soon to be homeowner) to build referrals for his business.
However, he left without leaving behind any marketing collateral.
You may be wandering, what is the point?
The Big Deal: Referrals. They are a large part of marketing. Businesses incur extra customer service costs to keep customers happy so they’ll use their service and tell their friends to do so as well. Talk and conversation play a very important role in deciding which businesses get called and which ones don’t. The next time you’re in a situation where you’ve met the customer’s expectations (trial and error detection), ask them to tell their friends, or leave them information to make it easier to tell their friends.
