Referrer followup – say what???
Interesting topic, don’t you think? We all want our friends, associates and clients to refer other people to us and of course we’re grateful when they do, but then what? Oh sure, we may have some kind of rewards plan that hopefully makes it worth their while, like providing cash, gifts, gift certificates or some other incentive, but is that enough?
It may be for some but having been both the giver and receiver of referrals over the years I’ve come to see that in many cases it’s not. There’s another ingredient that when added to the ‘getting more referrals’ recipe produces even better and more consistent results, and that is to simply keep the person who did the referring informed of what’s happening.
We’ll get into the ‘how’ of this in a future post but in a nutshell it simply means expressing immediate verbal or written (preferably both) appreciation for the referral and then keeping the referrer informed of how the process is developing until it comes to some form of conclusion.
Think about it. Have you ever referred a friend or associate to someone and then heard nothing more about how it all went? How did that feel? Did you feel your referral was appreciated? Did you wonder if the person you referred was actually being well looked after? Did you feel inspired to go out of your way to refer someone else? Hmmm.
Based on my experience, here are a few important reasons to follow up with referrers by keeping them informed:
- Demonstrates you value their referral gift.
- Validates their confidence in you.
- Suggests that the person they referred is being well looked after.
- Solidifies your relationship.
- Sets you apart from the vast majority of your competition.
- Inspires them to continue referring others.
As I mentioned earlier, in a future post we’ll discuss some specific methods for keeping the referrer informed in a meaningful way … so watch for it. In the meantime, please contribute to this discussion by posting your questions, comments and suggestions.