Why advocacy concentrates in a few customers rather than spreading

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

If you list every referral your business has received and note who sent each one, the distribution is almost never even. A handful of names appear repeatedly and everybody else appears once or not at all. This holds across trades and it holds regardless of how satisfied the wider customer base is.

The implication changes how effort should be allocated. A programme aimed at all customers spreads attention thinly across people who will never refer anybody, while the few who actually produce the referrals receive no more attention than anyone else.

Concentration is the normal state, and it is worth understanding why it happens.

1. Why advocacy concentrates in a few customers is partly circumstance

The first cause.

Some people simply encounter more of the relevant conversations, through work, community or social position. Opportunity is unevenly distributed. This has nothing to do with how they feel about you. A hairdresser hears more requests in a week than most people do in a year.

2. Some people enjoy recommending

The disposition factor.

For a certain sort of person, connecting people is genuinely satisfying and they do it habitually. They will refer with very little prompting. Recognising them is most of the task. They are usually the ones who introduce themselves to everyone.

3. Recommending has a reputational return for some

The incentive difference.

An adviser, a landlord or a committee member gains standing by having good suppliers to suggest. The act serves them as well as you. That changes the calculation entirely. Their reputation improves along with yours.

4. Repeated need creates repeated occasions

The volume factor.

Customers whose work brings them into contact with the same problem repeatedly will mention you repeatedly. Frequency of exposure produces frequency of referral. This is why certain roles dominate the list. Estate agents, accountants and property managers recur constantly.

5. Strong stories travel further

The experience factor.

A customer with a memorable experience, often a problem handled well, has something worth telling. That story gets repeated on multiple occasions. One recovery can generate several referrals. Handle problems well and the telling looks after itself.

6. This means identification beats broadcasting

The strategic conclusion.

Effort spent finding and supporting a few people outperforms any general scheme. The list is short enough to manage personally. That is the practical value of the observation. Five or six names is typical.

7. Look at who has already sent work

The method.

Your enquiry records, if you have been asking, name them directly. If you have not been asking, start now and the list appears within months. Nothing else is required. Three months of answers is usually enough.

8. Treat those relationships deliberately

The follow-through.

Regular contact, quick responses, telling them how their referrals went. Small and consistent rather than elaborate. These are the highest-value relationships in the business. Put a note in the calendar to stay in touch.

9. Look for the ones you have missed

The extension.

Some people are recommending you and have never been identified, particularly where enquiries were not asked about their source. A single question to recent customers usually surfaces one or two. It is the cheapest growth available.

Be careful about neglecting everybody else. A concentrated distribution does not mean other customers are worthless; it means they are worth different attention, and today's ordinary customer occasionally becomes tomorrow's principal advocate.

Conclusion

Find the few people who actually refer rather than running a scheme for everybody.

Accept that opportunity, disposition and professional position explain most of the concentration, that some people gain standing by having good suppliers to recommend, and that customers meeting the same problem repeatedly will mention you repeatedly. Use your enquiry records to name your existing advocates, treat those relationships with deliberate regular contact, tell them how their referrals went, and ask recent customers directly to surface the advocates you have not yet identified.