I am constantly surprised that many businesses do not have set processes for gaining referrals from existing customers.
Paul Hunt is a marketing consultant
Lead generation and new customer acquisition are common issues facing IFAs and mortgage brokers.
Lets face it, with the purchase market showing no signs of growth, those businesses reliant on leads from estate agencies especially need to generate leads organically and quick!
However, I am constantly surprised that many businesses do not have set processes for gaining referrals from existing customers and this really should be the gift that keeps on giving.
Customer advocacy is the best form of marketing there is, trust me.
It's not by accident that many big financial services providers have a referral scheme in place and a recent email from American Express offering thousands of points if I referred someone demonstrates the value such schemes generate.
Therefore, if it's so valuable to them, it can be for you too.
If I refer back to a previous blog that I did on ensuring customers post good reviews online about you, then these customers are perfect to give them the opportunity to refer friends and family.
Using a referral code can help you track which customers are linked to that initial customer and some simple reward mechanisms like vouchers for both the referrer and the referred will suffice.
There are some off the shelf solutions that can help put this in place very easily too.
My general piece of advice though if you do seek to set this up yourself is – don't overcomplicate or over-engineer it!
