It is almost universal in business to set goals and seek to grow revenues year over year. We stop at nothing to innovate and test new ideas to generate profits and show continued growth. Everything from expanded marketing budgets, new product lines, and existing product improvements come up when discussing strategy to generate more sales and drive growth.
Fortunately, there is an incredibly simple strategy that does not get enough discussion when it comes to expanding your business and creating unprecedented success in the process: referrals.
The process of generating referrals can be intimidating at first, but if you position yourself correctly, it will occur naturally and with ease.
Reciprocity
People like people who do nice things for each other. Make them smile. If they can't smile, make them draw a smile on a post-it note
The laws of reciprocation are crucial in establishing record sales numbers by leveraging a referral network. Let’s be straight, we are not talking about gimmicky, one and done referral networks. We are instead using our existing customer base to consistently grow our companies.
By providing a remarkable customer experience to our existing customers, it will feel natural to eventually lean on them for referral business. After all, our businesses exist to solve the problems of others and consequently get paid in the process. Adoption of this mindset is essential.
Provide your existing customers with a world-class experience, and watch your business grow rapidly.
Incentivize
"If you let me shake your hand, you can touch my beard." "Deal."
To directly relate the idea of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back,” incentivizing existing customers to extend referrals can be a very effective strategy. The incentive does not need to be some sort of monumental discount or outrageous giveaway. Something as simple as a t-shirt or coffee mug for a customer referral can do the trick.
Another method of incentivizing existing customers is by following up. Let’s say you have already provided an amazing buying experience, the sale has been finalized, and the product or service has been delivered without issue. Why not give the customer a courtesy call either thanking them for their business (service-based industries) or asking their thoughts on the product they have purchased.
Simplicity is key. Humans like other humans, and humans really like other humans that legitimately care about them.
Request Customer Testimonial
Could you please tell everyone you know about how great my business is and how great the flowers in my hair smell?
In regards to incentivization, if there is a customer who expresses their happiness with your product or service, ask them if they would be interested in providing a brief testimonial. There are two ways you can play this game, and both are equally effective.
One method would be to email your existing and past customers that have expressed satisfaction with your product or service and provide a link to either Yelp, Google, or any other online review site (link). This will not only create more web/internet visibility, it will provide a trusted source of social proof to your business. If you consider that most of us use Google or Bing to do research on a company before making a purchase, this method has massive power in simplicity.
The second method of retrieving customer testimonial is to ask for feedback and customer permission to use that feedback on a website, sales flyer, press release, etc. When a prospective customer visits your website and sees other reputable businesses endorse your products or services, it will create a security blanket for hesitant buyers.
Again, this is very simple stuff. Identify the customers that are thoroughly happy with your business offerings, and ask them to provide some brief feedback. It can be shocking how drastically this can elevate your business.
Survey
How did we do? Pick one only please.
The dreaded customer survey. They make us cringe. Our cable provider calls us bi-weekly asking for a survey that we promptly hang up on. This is different though. If you can create an online survey, or email request for feedback, you can heighten your chances of receiving useful feedback. The most essential questions for a survey like this would be
- Would you recommend this product or service to your friends, family, or colleagues?
- What was the best part of your experience with XYZ company (your company)?
- What could we improve on to make your customer experience better?
Classic survey questions. Why do we continue to use the same survey questions as in the 1960s? Because they work, that’s why. This data is crucial to continuously improving the customer experience and increasing your chances of landing referrals. By continuously improving your customer experience, the odds of increased customer referrals will grow rapidly.
Conclusions
There are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to secure customer referrals. The silver bullet in this advice is those customer referrals are the easiest and most surefire way of marketing you have at your disposal.
The best part? Customer referral business comes at an extremely low acquisition cost, if not completely free.
If 2018 is the year you are looking to scale and grow your business to new levels, taking advantage of your pre-existing customer network is a growth tool that is underutilized and has been proven time and time again to take businesses to the next level with minimal effort.
