Referrals are always very flattering. When a customer has enough confidence in your abilities to tell someone else, you know you’ve done a great job. Referrals validate and reward you for your hard work. Some call it “found business” since it unexpectedly lands in your lap. Indeed, Exigent Technologies IT services business was built on referrals and these referrals remain one of the most significant sources of new customers for us.
But how about former employees as a source of new business? Over the last few years, multiple ex-employees have come back, not as rehired Exigent Technologies employees, but as customers or prospective customers. This is equally or perhaps even more flattering than a customer referral. Why? Well, think about it. If you’re the person that brought in a new IT vendor and things don’t quite work out, at the minimum you have a slight blemish on your record, either formally or informally. This could be especially amplified as a newer, unproven employee. If the IT vendor you invited in is a complete disaster, you may even lose your job.
Fortunately for us, our former employees, now IT managers at various NJ area companies picked up the phone with confidence, becoming valued customers and perpetuating our relationship with them in a new capacity. We owe them a debt of gratitude and realize the responsibility to come through for them, consistently. Thanks, guys! You know who you are.