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The Art of Gleaning Customer Referrals By Heartfelt Charity Cards Is there anything you can do to increase the number of referrals you receive from customers? Should you even bother to incorporate this “sales channel’ into your overall marketing plan? The answer is an absolute, “Yes!” Unfortunately, the art of gleaning customer referrals is not as simple as asking customers to go out and tell the world how great you and your company is – you need to work actively and strategically to achieve these results. Use the following six-step process to develop and execute a customer referral program guaranteed to achieve results.
Before setting the course to achieve more customer referrals, it is important to first understand the four stages of the customer lifecycle. The first stage, building awareness, is the costliest and most time consuming within the cycle. It requires the most amount of sales and marketing dollars just to generate name recognition, and interest potential clients in your product or service. Too often, business professionals spend their time, money and effort here, without regard for the return on investment. Attending networking meetings, purchasing direct mail lists, and spending money on advertising…just to meet, let alone “sell” the prospect your product or service is a necessary, but expensive proposition. After all that marketing, the prospect finally decides to make their initial contact with you (the second stage). This can be in the form of an inquiry on your website, a phone call to your customer service department, or a direct communication with a sales representative. When these prospects begin to generate one or more transactions (the third stage), they become customers. Going forward, your cost per sale with these individuals should now diminish.. Studies have shown the more customers buy, the more profitable they become. Consistent, repeat customers are entering the fourth stage of the customer lifecycle – advocacy and loyalty. Remember… the top 20% of your customers will undoubtedly provide 80% of your revenue. Therefore, it is these relationships that should become the core of your referral business. 2. Get Customer Focused As you know, delivering results goes without saying; it’s critical to provide great service, all the time. But to ultimately get customer referrals, you need to exceed customer expectations. To do so, it’s important to understand your customers, through and through. The best way to achieve this level of understanding is to talk with them – ask them about their needs, concerns, likes, dislikes, etc. Once a level of trust has been established, they will open up and tell you everything – even allowing you to learn from their past experiences with your competitors. Unfortunately, hard as you may strive for perfection, it is possible that you might fail a given customer, letting down yourself and your customer. If this should happen, it should not be viewed as a failure, but as your big chance to make things right. Your ability to “undo” the problem and create satisfaction will build vast amounts of trust and loyalty between the two of you. When handled properly, these situations often create your most loyal customers. 3. Create a Vision of the Relationship To foster relationships of loyalty, create a vision of what these relationships should look like. From your point of view, you want repeat business and customer referrals – in other words, fast and consistent sales. From a customer’s perspective, they want fast delivery, great product and value. Learn what their vision of the relationship is by communicating and interacting with them regularly. To understand how well you are performing, assess and reassess your performance. This can be done informally, by asking your clients directly; or formally, by conducting surveys. Regardless of the method, the evaluation process should be ongoing and confirm that you are delivering the intended results for your client. It takes a great deal of energy to amass all the information, but in time, you will impress your clients by your “ability to read their mind”, predicting what, when and how they need your help. By treating customers well, they will want to treat you well in return. People have an inherent desire to tell others about something great that they have; it comes naturally. We do it all the time by referring our favorite restaurants, stores, auto repair shops, movies, etc. We call clients who refer your company to others “advocates” or “cheerleaders”. They want to tell everyone they know how great you are, how well you take care of them. With cheerleaders in “your back pocket”, you are now in a position to ask for and receive customer referrals. 4. Show Your Customers You Care Treat your customers as assets - things of great value. Show your customers that you care by rewarding them for their loyalty and referrals. It isn’t necessary to eat away at your profits by “paying them off” through price cuts; they can see your value through all the other things you do, such as superior responsiveness, quality of product or service, and consistency. Acknowledge their actions by thanking them through phone calls, gifts, and “thank you” cards. These acknowledgements should be consistent activities laid out in your marketing plan. 5. Create a Referral Marketing Plan There is a simple business axiom that says “What gets measured is what gets done.” With this in mind, create a specific section within your business and/or marketing plan called the referral revenue plan. Use this section to lay out how much revenue you expect to earn through client referrals and how you plan to achieve this goal. In his book, The Referral of a Lifetime, Tim Templeton suggests developing a 12-month “Keep-In-Touch” program that is systematic, personal, and consistent. Doing so, especially for your most loyal customers, helps to cultivate the personal relationships needed to provide value to your customers – which ultimately lead to additional referrals for you. After all your marketing activities have been carried out, perform a variance analysis on a periodic basis. Compare expected results (referrals) with actual referral rates. Don’t forget to investigate the cause(s) for the variance between expected and actual referral rates – good or bad. From this information, you will be able to determine where things went well and what areas you need to improve upon for the next quarter. 6. Execute Flawlessly Maintaining a consistent and impactful presence with your customers should be achieved with an integrated marketing communication plan that includes several ‘touchpoints’ throughout the year. Now make sure it gets done! Many marketing efforts are subverted with inconsistent programs. Find unique ways to stay in contact with your customers-define it and stick to it. Many of the services can be outsourced to other providers as an extension of your marketing team. Heartfelt’s Relate with Impact service can help you execute your referral marketing plan. Our cards can be used to increase your repeat and referral business by helping you to keep in touch with your clients – simply and easily. Stay on the top of your customer’s mind with a friendly or humorous greeting card. They can be used to thank customers for referrals or sales, to maintain consistent contact with your client base, and to ask for new referrals. Best of all, it is an ongoing program that we manage for you. So you don’t have to worry about inconsistently staying in touch based on your schedule. It is a proven program for generating repeat and referral business as your business card and name will always be front and center! Read More Articles Here |
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