When you are lost in the sea of other homes in your location and despair of ever getting seen, a referral from a past guest, a friend, or even another homeowner could be your lifeline to increasing occupancy. Rather than asking for referrals, today’s guest Matt Ward says we simply need to create the environment that will make it a natural progression for people to talk about you positively to others.

Matt made his mark at the Vacation Rental Success Summit in Toronto in 2016 giving the highly rated closing keynote and has since gone on to close his website business and devote all his time to public speaking where he shares his creative thoughts on word-of-mouth marketing to small businesses around the country.

He’s also the owner of a property in Fort Myers, FL, as he explained in VRS Episode 110 where he talked of starting out in the business and even then told stories about how he created a referral machine.

In his book, “MORE…: Word of Mouth Referrals, Lifelong Customers & Raving Fans” Matt provides 40 different ways to connect with contacts, each of which will result in more referrals.

In this episode, we hear some of these tactics and how they can be applied to all parts of our business whether we are looking for more guests or owners for a management program.

Matt references a Maya Angelou quote that should be front and center in all our workspaces:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

In this episode Matt shares:

• How to over-deliver naturally
• Why you should listen more and pay attention to every communication
• When to be a lurker
• How adding a $5 sports channel and having a $20 cutting board created earned him a raving fan
• The value of a surprise, however small
• How the NWVRP gift basket almost rendered him speechless (well not quite!)
• What a non-self-serving act looks like and why you need to incorporate them into your workflow

Don’t forget to take the ‘Caring Assessment’ on Matt’s website.

MORE..: Word of Mouth Referrals, Lifelong Customers & Raving Fans

Episode 110 – Getting Off To A Great Start

Breakthrough Champion Caring Assessment