How to show appreciation for your . . .
For many businesses referrals generate a significant amount of new contacts. And businesses that actively seek out recommendations usually gain a higher benefit than those who just leave it to chance.
Think about it – even if you have provided the greatest service or product your happy customer may not think about telling other people or giving you information about other business people who are looking for what you offer. And it’s not because he doesn’t want to help you. . . it is purely because he is busy and it doesn’t occur to him.
That’s why it is up to you to have a structured, almost automated, referral generation system in your business.
When to ask?
The best time to ask for recommendations is when your customer has just experienced your product, or service. If you have a quality-check follow-through during which you make sure your customer got exactly (or perhaps more) than he was expecting then asking him who else is looking for the same good result is a natural step.
If you send out products you can include referral cards for your customer to complete and send back.
Offering an incentive
Depending upon your business it may be appropriate to offer an incentive – or as I prefer to think of it – a ‘Thank You’ gift. I’m sure you’ve seen companies who offer gift vouchers to you and to the person you recommend or a discount on future purchases.
Personally, I prefer to give a ‘Thank You’ gift that is linked with the service or product I supply – rather than something that is not related to my business and, therefore, may not be of interest to my customer or contact.
For example, if you decide to invite 3 people you know to visit this blog (using the link in the right hand panel) I show my appreciation of your support by gifting you an MP3 audio recording.
In the MP3 audio gift I describe some of the techniques high-performing direct response copywriters use to craft irresistible sales letters so they enjoy the highest profitable mailing possible.
It reveals:
- 4 Sales Letter Writing Rules That Persuade People to Buy
- How Answering This Critical Question Turns A Mediocre Sales Letter Into A Results-Generating Dynamo
- 8 Design Secrets To Compel Your Prospect To Continue Reading
- How Powerful Headlines Gain Massive Sales Increases: 10 Proven Examples for You to Adopt
As you can see the recording is closely connected with my products and services; writing for business sales and marketing.
Automating your gift
Now I’m sure you’ve already realised that delivering my gift is automated. With the web page being open 24/7 it is completely impractical for me to respond personally whenever a visitor decides to recommend this website. And besides, if you make a recommendation you want to get your promised gift of appreciation straight away, don’t you? How to automate?
You have a huge choice of tools you can use to automate delivery of electronic gifts like this. It can be rather bewildering which is the best option for you. I looked at quite a few before deciding upon the tool I use: TAF Pro (Tell A Friend Pro).
I chose it because of the easy implementation and facilities it gave me – including checking that the email address is entered correctly; you know how easy it is to mistype an email address especially the more obscure ones (my brother’s is xzavyaw@ – you can’t get more obscure than that!)
Stunning Service
What I hadn’t realised when I bought the product was that in addition to all the features (I’ve only used a third of them so far) there was also stunning service from the vendor, Paul Galloway. And I do mean stunning!
Let me explain. I bought the product last July to use on another website. About 3 or 4 days after I downloaded the program (and successfully followed the set up instructions) I got a phone call from the US. It was Paul Galloway.
He said “I’m going on holiday in a couple of days and I just wanted to be sure you were OK with the TAF Pro program before I left. Have you got any questions you need answering?”
Now that is service.
And on top of that… the service continues.
One of my blog visitors contacted me a few days ago to say that a couple of emails (which were valid) were being rejected by the TAF form. So I popped an email over to Paul asking if he had any ideas why that might be happening. He tested the email addresses on his internal system and came back to me with suggestions within a couple of hours. That’s impressive bearing in mind he is in a time zone that is at least 5 hours behind us.
So what’s my conclusion from all this?
- Create a formal system for getting referrals & recommendations.
- Decide when is the best time to ask for referrals and don’t let the opportunity slip.
- Consider giving Thank You gifts or incentives to encourage recommendations.
- Automate your gift delivery wherever possible – especially if you have a web site you want people to visit.
- Choose the delivery tool carefully; ease of use, reliability and support when there is a problem is vital.
Do you have referral systems that work well for you? Are you willing to share? Use the comments link below to tell me and my other visitors about it . When you add your comment your name has a live link to the website address you enter. You never know, if what you share is valuable you may get some new visitors 
~ Carol Bentley
13th June 2011 at 7:21 am
Thanks a lot Carol for the most appreciated advice.
12th June 2011 at 5:56 pm
Hi Maya,
a lot of businesses use a discount voucher as a thank you – either for repeat business or for a referral. Some companies offer a voucher for the referrer and the new customer that was referred once a sale is made. The only consideration I would suggest is to make sure you don’t undervalue your product / srvice by offering a discount voucher.
10th June 2011 at 5:51 am
What about discount coupons? Is it advisable?