the power of referrals 030714

The Power of Referrals

How You Can Help Your Company Grow Revenue

Copyright 2014 Insights From Analytics

Customer Experience

• While word of mouth is the end goal, the marketing strategy has to start with customer experience.

• Create a fantastic customer experience and measure to make sure you're staying fantastic.

• Only by delivering an outstanding customer experience will you motivate customers to want to tell their friends and neighbors about you, your product and the outstanding service you delivered.


Referral Marketing

• Here’s a simple idea to get the phone ringing and help fill in the appointment book over the next few months. In today’s world of Facebook and Twitter, this is an old-fashioned – but never out of fashion – marketing ploy: Start asking your satisfied customers for referrals


Just Ask• A few days after you provide a product or service,

call or email a customer and ask if they were satisfied with your service.

• If they respond in the affirmative, ask if they would be willing to recommend you to friends or neighbors.

• If they answer yes, offer to send them business cards or brochures to distribute as the need arises.

• Make it as easy as possible for satisfied customers to spread the word about your good work.


Reminders

• Remind customers that their business is very important to you and you want to ensure they are happy.

• Let them know you're working to build your business with referrals and you would appreciate it if they would tell their friends and neighbors about what they like about your products and services.


Feedback on Your Website

• Ask them to post reviews or testimonials on your website.

• If they’re not sure where to go or how to do that, show them or send them an email that shows them.


Facebook + Other Social Media

• Ask customers to become Facebook fans and to post something on Facebook about their experience with your company.

• If they prefer to share their thoughts on Yelp, Foursquare, Pinterest or Instagram that’s great too!

• Address any negative feedback immediately and publicly and resolve any differences offline.


Feedback

• Ask them to fill out a customer comment card or a customer satisfaction survey. – Once they do, let them know how much you

appreciate their feedback.

• Remember, if a customer fails to complain, you won’t know what needs to be fixed to keep that customer, and others like them, coming back.


Video

• Have a Flip camera or smart phone and ask your customer to provide a 30-second endorsement about your company that you can add to your website and You Tube.– You Tube is the #2 search engine next to Google.– People are seven times more likely to click on a video

than an article.

• Video can communicate a level of emotion and confidence that a simple quote in print cannot.


Help Your Customers Help You

• Customers, especially "raving fans," want to see the businesses they support survive and thrive.

• Don't be afraid to let your customers know how they can help you, but not until after you've confirmed that you've helped them.


Greater Frequency

• Aim at customers who've only given you a few referrals.

• The most active referrers don't need an incentive to do what they're already doing. It's like offering a coupon to a customer who was going to buy the product already without the coupon.

• There's better ROI in asking sometime referrers to suggest you to others more often.


Referral Marketing is Different

• Keep referral marketing separate from product/service promotions.

• Don't mix the message with appeals for customers to make purchases for themselves.

• If you just send out mass marketing to all customers, they'll stop listening to everything you say.

• This is especially important because your customers who buy the most from you are not usually the customers who create the most value from referrals.

• This makes it imperative to target the right customer with the right marketing message.


Thank People by Name

• You can never say “thank you” enough– Thank you for the business– Thank you for your feedback– Thank you for the referrals

• To quote Dale Carnegie, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”


5 Things Any Employee Can Do

1. Provide an outstanding customer experience2. Ask for referrals3. Remind customers that you are attempting

to build your business via referrals4. Help your customers understand how to

provide referrals5. Thank them for everything – especially for

referrals


the power of referrals 030714

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