It's no secret that happy, satisfied customers make for a successful and thriving green industry business. By tending to your customers and doing great work for them, you in turn are creating a pool of loyal consumers that are likely to recommend you to their peers.
Getting referrals is such a powerful tactic in growing a business because consumers rely heavily on word-of-mouth for purchasing decisions. This means that one happy customer can soon turn into multiple. What many businesses don't understand is that you have to put work in to get great referrals. Just because a customer is happy with you does not mean they will necessarily go out of their way for you at the drop of a hat.
In order to get a steady flow of referrals, you must have an effective referral program in place. Here are 5 tips to get you started in the right direction.
1. Have a Plan
Anything worth executing is worth planning. The best football teams always have the best coaches who put in countless hours putting together a game plan for a game that lasts three hours. The initial plan should be written and revised as many times and by as many people as is necessary for a near seamless execution. This will be the guts so don’t be lazy creating this plan. There are a few things that need to be mapped-out and organized effectively in order to have a referral program that actually works. Some things to focus on are your target market, promotions and organizing your referrals.
2. Incentivize
Of course the main pull for getting a customer to refer you is by doing great work for them. However, if your goal is to significantly grow your business you'll need to offer something in return. There are few ways to offer an incentive in return for a referral. Below are just a few suggestions.
- Discounts
Retail giant Modcloth offers a “refer a friend” gift card of $15 off next purchase. This is a good way to gain new customers and retain the others.
- Recognition
Give a customer credit for referring another. The means of thanking could range from a bulletin, an email blast, publicly thank them on your website or the like.
- Customer Appreciation Days
This doesn’t have to be an actual physical party, although it very well could be. A way to incentivize for referrals is to create a sort of VIP sale day on your services for those who have referred a new customer to you.
3. Time it Right
Timing is crucial to most marketing initiatives but especially when you are directly asking your customers for help acquiring new customers. The reason your customers love you is because you think about their needs and wants. This is no different. In fact, it might be more important when asking them for a favor.
4. Set Goals
Before starting any sort of new marketing tactic, you need to be extremely clear on what your goal is first. Especially if this is the first time you’re implementing a customer referral program, decide what you want the results to be before moving forward.
Be clear with your team and take their opinions on how it should play out into consideration. Have your team review the referrals you are getting organically as well. The better informed and prepared you are before implementing any plan, the more successful it will be.
5. Stay Organized
The way I suggest keeping organized and tracking the progress of this initiative along with any other you might be considering, is with software. Choose software that allows you to access surveys and reports.
This way, you can have all of your promotional material in one place and the headache of searching for who-referred-who will be virtually eliminated.
Use monthly or weekly reports to track the leads you got, who gave them to you and what their sales status is. You can also use these reports to track your ROI by calculating how much your discount or incentive is costing you and comparing it to your new sale.
