The weekend before last, my wife and I were at the Kent Scouts Winterball, which is a swanky black tie event put on each year to say thank-you to all the volunteers who help make scouting happen.
It was a really fun evening, but I’m sure the dry cleaners must have shrunk my dinner suit, as it seemed a little more snug than last year…
Anyhow… I got talking to a scouting volunteer whose “day job” is at a top market research firm in London and we had a fascinating chat about how the big companies are falling over themselves to get independent reviews.
Then he dropped a bombshell.
A simple YES/NO question that predicts whether a business will grow or eventually wither away and die.
The question… “Would you recommend this business to a friend?”
And although the rest of the evening was… ah, a little hazy now… that question stayed with me.
It makes perfect sense, of course, because I know how essential word-of-mouth is to the survival of any business.
(It’s why independently verified reviews are so powerful too – they act like broadcast word-of-mouth recommendations)
But being able to measure the “health” of your practice in a single question is priceless information you absolutely must have…
… so you’ll be pleased to know that Trusted Practitioner now asks that question on our review collection form, letting your clients give you the ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ as appropriate.
As an added bonus, it means that you’ll be able to confidently and verifiably state that “X% of clients would recommend me to a friend”, and back that up with hard figures if needed.