Many plumbing business owners love to tell me they get much of their business from referrals. And that warms my heart, because it shows they’ve done a stellar job and happy customers are happy to tell a friend about their plumbing experience.

Who can deny that referrals are an integral part of organically growing a successful service company. But have you thought about the “dark side” of customer referrals? What I mean is, how do these referrals come your way? If you’re actively asking for names/ numbers of your customers’ friends at the end of a job, you may actually be hurting your chances for a referral.

Marketer Michael Katz likens this whole situation to asking to be fixed up with your best-friend’s sister: “I know you, and I know her, and if I thought it was a good match, I would have made it already,” he says at his e-newsletter marketing site Blue Penguin. “Simply asking me to make an introduction – without her also expressing an interest – doesn't open the door.”

Katz also calls asking clients for referrals “presumptuous, imposing, awkward, and even a little bit creepy.” He explains this with many good reasons, which you can read here. But his bottom line is to not focus on hitting up your clients for referral work, but to impress your customers with your knowledgeable, friendly demeanor and expert work that they naturally “jump at the chance to pass your name along”.