We are having a patio put into our backyard this week. Being new to the area, I don’t like doing these kind of things. You never know if you are getting a good price, if the contractor is a quality contractor or if you will be happy. So most people quickly turn to references. In our case, a neighbour three down from our home had a great patio in place, so we introduced ourselves and he referred us to his contractor.

Now, it has been demonstrated over and over that our propensity to buy from this contractor goes up with the referral and a relationship. After all, people are 2X as likely to buy from someone they know and like. But what struck me through this process was how important the referral was to both parties. They were getting the business, but we were counting on it to deliver a good experience and result. The process went something like this:

• I called the owner of the company, introduced myself and explained that I had been referred to him by my neighbour.
• He sent over a landscape designer to look at the backyard within 24 hours, delivering a design super fast.
• It then went a bit off the rails.We didn’t hear anything for a week, so we took action:
• We called in and were forwarded to a salesperson.
• The salesperson provided an over the phone quote (he didn’t really know us, looked at the design but did not inquire about who was helping us (the owner)). He provided a quote and said they might be able to get to us in October (maybe).
• Learning my lesson on quotes, and as the rep didn’t actually come to the house, I called in four other contractors to estimate.
• Two of the four showed up. We received our quotes and through the process I learned a lot about what was to be done, specifically that the original contractor did a special finish and one of the contractors talked about the great work they did. He had worked with them before.
• I called the President back (took 3 calls to get him to return the call), and I refreshed his memory – noting my neighbour’s reference. It turns out that he does a lot of business with my neighbour, and he kicked into high great after I said that I had additional quotes, his price was high, we had not heard from his salesperson but I still wanted his team to do the work.

A week later they are in the backyard, putting in the patio at a price point that is 23% lower than the original quote (we didn’t even haggle – he just changed the quote). Now we wait ….

In this case, both the buyer and the seller valued the relationship. Interesting to reflect on.