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Frequent Referral Programs

Guest post by: Terri Levine

Article Overview: Building your business by word of mouth referrals is the easiest and cheapest method to grow your business, but are you rewarding your referees and encouraging them to continue?

Frequent Referral Programs

Once your clients know that you are expecting them to refer people as long as you have presented them great value, I believe in having a frequent referral program in place that will continue to increase referrals from clients.

When designing a program, remember that if clients aren't aware the program exists, then you may as well not have a program. So, be sure you make clients aware that you have such a program.

No matter what you decide as the reward items for such a program, the key is to follow the steps of:

1) Call the referrer and tell them how much you appreciate their confidence in you, and that you will be sure the person they referred receives great service.

2) Send them a thank you gift along with a note saying how much you appreciate the referral and that you consider them a very special friend of your business.

I use various gift programs and each has been effective. I use a ladder for this program where for the first referral the gift may be a $5 to $8 dollar (US) item, the next might be $8 to $10 dollars (US), and then the next would be a very personal gift based upon my knowledge of them.

Some examples of items I have used in the past are: acrylic clocks, calculators, notepads, business card holders, hot/cold thermos, emergency flashlight and car care kit. I always send a thank you note with the gift and have the gift inscribed to say, "With sincere thanks, Name of My Business".

Ways to communicate this program to clients is to include it in their welcome letter, include the program in your envelope with their invoice, and to post it in your office. I also have my clients complete a client data sheet letting them know that I do send referral gifts, and therefore, want to know their favorite hobbies, restaurants, sporting events, beverages to drink, etc.

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Article Tags: business building, referees, referrals, word of mouth



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Re: Win Prizes - The Triple Crown Contest! - Hi GT - if you log into your author account you'll see Referral Program as one of the options on the left side. If you click on that you'll get the link that will tie people to your account.
Any experience with McManus UK Ltd.? - Did anybody already deal with any of the McManus UK Ltd offshore entities? I do have a program, but not enough cash. I have been advised that they can fund investors with access to Private Placement Programs but they don’t want to joint venture with me. They want a fee for the service. This is why I want to find out if anybody has had first hand experience with this group? Patrick Ohara, Financial Consultant
Picking a corporate lawyer - Hi Everyone, I was just curious to know what's the most important criteria a small business owner should look at when choosing a corporate lawyer? -Cost/hr? -Location? -Reputation/Referral? -Experience? -Personality? How did you pick your lawyer? And what's a fair price to pay per hour? Thanks
Re: FREE Toronto Referral Workshop - Hi there, Indeed, I have never heard of a Referral Seminar. What a good idea. I guess being offered for free, there must have been a great deal of people attending. It is another way of saying: Do you want to increase your customers. Come along and we help and teach you. It has been said, that even in downturn of business confidence and consumer's caution, business will not come to a grinding halt. Please Andy, can you let us h ave these 14 ways of getting referrals. Thanks.
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - Everyone has the right idea here. Depending on your business, there are different techniques that you could use. For consultants and sales heavy businesses, there are three tactics that I have found especially useful in my business: 1. Attend Networking Events 2. Cold Calling 3. Referral Program 4. Affiliate Program (most successful) The affiliate program was successful for me, as I hooked up with a franchise consultant, and he gave multiple unit businesses that needed my credit card processing services. I highly suggest you hook up with a sales partner, and give him a cut of the monthly revenue.


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