Take Referrals Personally

For just a minute, think about the last time you referred a company or service provider.

Did you tell your BFF about the salon or the stylist?

Did you tell your buddy about the mechanic or the shop?

Now the million dollar question ... Did you refer because of a $10 or $20 incentive?

Heck no!  You probably made the referral to help your friend out ... because you had a positive experience and wanted your friend to have the same.  Because good service is darn hard to find nowadays and you feel it should be rewarded.

We believe referrals are an emotional decision and that a person refers a “person” more than a “place.”  Your institution has thousands of personal interactions with customers every year … that's thousands of opportunities to EARN a referral.  Rather than a “would you like fries with that” approach that commoditizes the referral “ask”, we recommend a personal referral strategy.  This approach makes the referral a highly valued process from “one person of trust” to another and ties the emotion of satisfaction and expertise into the “ask.”

10 Tenets of an Effective Referral Program:

• Don't focus on new customers who don't know how great you are yet, focus on seasoned customers who have been "wow"ed.
• Take advantage of EVERY "wow moment": account openings, loan closings, after you've solved a problem.
• You should REWARD for positive behavior, not use an incentive as a carrot to refer.
• To simply hand out a flyer or coupon and hope for a referral is passive ...  To use a referral program to generate leads for your staff to actively follow-up on is effective.
• Make the referral as easy as possible - Consider an electronic or web-based driver to collect leads.
• Don't ask for too much information from the referee.  
• Consider your story ... WHY should people refer your institution.  Make sure your customers know the story and why to refer.
• Ask for the referral multiple times ... at point of sale, a few days later a week later.
• Build your referral strategy around a measurable metric ... then track and tweak where necessary.
• Assign accountabilities for referral follow-up and track close ratios ... incent where appropriate.

From an ROI standpoint, referrals should be one of your best producing strategies.  If you've been taking a "set it and forget it" approach to referrals, it may be time to relook at your plan.

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