The Art of Winning Referrals and Generating More Business

Referrals are something that every business craves for, they could help your business and make you jump with joy. This is so because all of us usually rely on someone or the other for advice about a product or service instead of relying completely on online recommendations. We trust referrals more as they come from someone we trust. What could be better than that for a business? According to a study by Nielsen, 90% of the participants believed in referrals by known and trusted sources above everything else.

So how do you get these valuable references? More so, let us understand what drives people to become a fan of your product or service. Here are a couple of things you could do in order to convert a consumer to a fan.

1. Quick Response: Quickly responding to customer queries is one of the key points in gaining sustainable referrals. Good customer support ensures a quick flow of information and nullifies confusion in the minds of customers, making them happier and more likely to recommend your business.

2. Hassle-Free Customer Service: In a competitive market, strong customer loyalty is a blessing, which can only be built with good customer service. Make sure your team is pays enough attention to your customers, as customer are kings. They should receive an easy experience while using your product, without any hassles.

3. Competitive Pricing: Everybody loves a good price. Customers are no different. No matter how great your product is, you must know what other companies in your industry charge for the same products or service. Competitive pricing coupled with amazing customer service can often tilt the scales in your favour as opposed to the others.

4. Omni-channel Presence: The more accessible you are in the age of the internet, the better. Apart from online channels, having adequate physical presence often works in a brand’s favour since it promotes referrals due to easy access.

5. Nature of Product or Service: Easy to access products that answer basic problems often gain easy referrals. Carefully list the nature and type of a product or service and explain how it can help consumers. If there is a feature that cannot be duplicated, highlight it through referrals, which can help get steady growth.

6. Emotional Connect: If your product or service answers an emotional need, highlight it. Emotional triggers often bring more spontaneity into purchases than practical thinking.

7. Stay Focused: If you need favourable referrals, the key is to stay focused. Keep working on your product or service to make it the absolute best in the industry and watch the referrals pour!

8. Personalize: Every customer likes to feel wanted. Personalize experiences by remembering names, dates, share conversations about daily lives, leading to a deeper relationship with customers, who in turn will recommend your business to whoever is listening.

9. Aim to Exceed: Whatever may be your offering, try to exceed it in tangible and intangible ways. Everyone remembers a business that went an extra mile to ensure everything was smooth and comfortable for its patrons and remember to tell their friends and families about it.

10. Process Driven Approach: Murphy’s Law states that in any given situation, whatever can go wrong, will. Set up processes so that you can quality check at every level of service. Ensure that your customers don’t have a reason to complain and that they know the pains you take to give them the best user experience.

11. Proactively Seek Testimonials and Referrals: The easiest way to get referrals is to ask for them. If your customer is happy with your service, request them to leave positive messages online. Research from Texas Tech indicates that 83% of satisfied customers are happy to write referrals but only 29% actually do, mostly because they were never asked for it.

12. Easy Sharing: Tap into the power of social media. LinkedIn is singularly the best source of B2B marketing. Apart from that, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Foursquare and other photo/video sharing sites help spread the word like wildfire if you have enough positive reviews.

13. Ensure Process Sanctity: No matter how good your product/ service is, if it doesn’t reach a customer on time, you have lost the battle. In a world of insta-fixes, turnaround time must be as low as possible to ensure speedy delivery and great reviews.

Designing an effective referral program

A good referral program should have certain attributes, making it easier for you to implement and for your customers to be a part of, certain key attributes are listed below:

1. Easy Membership: 

Memberships often come with an aura of exclusivity. Ensure that you have something of value to give to your customers so that they will be tempted to get a membership with you and recommend you to their friends and family.

2. Level or spend wise benefits

Give benefits to your customers based on their level of spending with you. This will help you gain a lot of word of mouth publicity.

3. Incentives for referrals, transaction value, transaction frequency

A good way to ensure positive referrals is by incentivizing customers to spread the word. Incentives may include free credit every time somebody uses the customer’s referral code, gift coupons; free services etc. incentivizing customers can help build a strong referral program.

4. Brand or product linkage

Exciting brand partnerships can help induce more referrals. Creating an incentive to spend more on obtaining more credit or referring more people to earn free credit help gain referrals.

5. Reward high value or high potential customers

Freebies for customers who spend more and give good referrals help satisfy current customers and excite potential customers.

There are a number of software solutions available online to help set up your referral program. Referrals nearly cost nothing but have consistently proven to be the best kind of marketing for a product/ service. Referral marketing programs have the power to take your business to the next level, working as an engine that brings new customers directly to your door. It’s in your best interest as a small business owner, marketer, or customer engagement specialist to give them a try.