Psst...
Know a Good
Contractor?
Contractor referral services grow
by Leland Stone
ord-of-mouth advertising can be elusive:
You can't get it unless you have it,
and you can't have it unless you get it. In
the construction industry, there haven't been
many ways to break this frustrating Catch-22.
Lately, however, contractors have begun taking a
second look at using referral services.
Referral services have long been used to hawk the
skills of everyone from lawyers to auto mechanics.
Radio, television, or print media ads (and more
recently, Web pages) encourage consumers to call a
toll-free number from which they're referred to
local professionals. This marketing technique is
now being offered to contractors.
The most basic type of referral service