According to Review42, 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. These statistics speak to the importance of building referrals as a valuable source of business. We have written several articles to help build your referral network. Growing your business through referrals reduces Follow Up Fatigue and helps you gain a stronger customer base who are more likely to be repeat customers.
In this article, we want to explore 3 ways to strengthen to strengthen the referral initiatives that you already have in place.
- Your website and social media are assets for referral building Your website is more than a digital brochure, and your social media is more than brand awareness. Both are valuable assets in a prospect’s decision making during their buyer’s journey.When someone refers your business, prospects will reach out to you, but they usually check out your website or social media first. They might still have doubts and want to poke around your online presences first. There are things you can do with your website and social media to help the person referred feel confident contacting you.You can regularly post customer testimonials to show how customers are satisfied with your service. Although a friend or family referral is mostly likely enough, they will feel more confident when you they see others saying the same thing.You can also share content that will help a customer or prospect improve their quality of life in a specific area. For example, an HVAC company can share practical tips to extend the life of a heating unit. People who are referred to you will more likely seek your business when they know you value their quality of life.
- Use your CRM to automate referral communication Many CRMs have automation features to nurture prospects and customers. Automation can also be used to build a referral network. When a customer refers a friend to your business, you can track that referral in your CRM and send emails to guide the referred prospect through the buyer’s journey.In X2CRM, we created a specific referral module for our customers. This module lets our customers create a referral program within X2CRM. The module gives them the tools to send automated emails to both the referrer and the referred. It also lets out customers put a monetary value to each referral prospect that is added into the CRM. Contact us if you would like to learn more.
- Remember that referral building is a two-way relationship It is easy to look at referral building as a one-way street. What we mean by this is it is easy to leave the responsibility to your customers to refer you to others. A two-way relationship means that you are a part of the referral process and showing gratitude throughout the process. There are several ways to be involved and to show gratitude:
- Spend time with customers who are making referrals. Take them to lunch and learn from them.
- Spotlight customers who make referrals on your website and social media as a valued customer.
- Set up your CRM to automate incentives and “thank you” messages when customers make a referral.
Conclusion
If your goal for 2022 is to grow your referral, we hope our articles are helpful. If you are not using a CRM and would like to implement a CRM this year, contact us to schedule a demo of X2CRM. Learn how X2CRM can be used to help you build your referral network and achieve your business goals.
