Customer Referral Program

jlomama

We finally developed a customer referral program and just emailed it out to past customers. For those of you that have these programs, how long did it take before you started getting leads from it? Also, how do you give this information out to customers. For now we just emailed to everyone but in the future I think we will include it with every piece of information that we give them - invoices, contracts, change orders etc. Any suggestions?

How much of your business do you get from this type of program?

One more thing, we just did a flat dollar bonus amount per certain sales dollar amounts? Clear as mud, example you get $400 for referring a job that ranges between $25,000 - $50,000. How does your program work.

Sorry for the rambling but I've got 3 overactive kids running amuck!

gofrugal

Sounds like a good plan. Let us know the success story.

porkchop

I am curious to see how succesful that program is... currently our program give a $50 to the person who refers us and a $50 credit to the person that needs the work done. We try to make it super simple for people to understand. Currently all of our jobs are under 10K.

__________________
- Chris
My construction company- Chicago Painting Contractor, Chicago Handyman, Chicago Remodeling. Chicago Internet Marketing by LSB.

Patrick

I have been experimenting on a program of a $100 gift certificate to your choice of local restaurants or $100 cash for every FULL house siding job you bring us that we successfully complete. Granted I have only been handing out the program here and there, we just signed a job from a referral program customer, and the new customer says he cant wait to get "his referral bonus" as he already has found 3 people that he works with that are looking to have their house sided.

MattCoops

Referral programs work.

It is so much easier to market to customers whom you already have built a repore with and gained trust than it is to scavenge out new customers.

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

ultimatetouch

I always tell people we have a referral progam but I never handed one out. What do you guys do just type it out on your letterhead?

__________________
Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

BreyerConstruct

We're building ours into a note on our monthly newsletter...

$25 to Olive Garden/ Red lobster...

~Matt

__________________
Custom Deck Builder Deck Designer Lancaster Deck Builder Berks Deck Cleaning
Breyer Construction & Landscape, LLC Facebook Page
www.BreyerConstruction.com

vinylguy

$25.00 for red lobster or olive garden! wheres the insentive there? give me a $20,000.00 siding job and i'll pay for your drink and snack! heck it cost that much to eat a sampler at them placeas at least at mickey d's they can get thier kids happy meals with that much. sorry but does that $25 thing work for you?

BreyerConstruct

So far it has.

We've done it on a less formal basis, and have had several clients refers multiple times.

Honestly, it's not the $$ that makes it work, but the gentle reminder to mention us, and it's a "feels good".

BTW, if a client was able to put me in touch with a HO assoc. that needed say, 250 decks replaced over the next 2 years... I'd more than compensate them. (Kinda like I would if a company salesman sold a contract like that).


~Matt

__________________
Custom Deck Builder Deck Designer Lancaster Deck Builder Berks Deck Cleaning
Breyer Construction & Landscape, LLC Facebook Page
www.BreyerConstruction.com

BreyerConstruct

BTW, nice website. It's got a lot of info on it, and it looks like it'd do well with search engines as well!

FWIW,
I'd be glad to put together a more rewarding referral system, but I haven't come up with a good way to properly reward, and yet keep it simple enough to be usable for our small staff.

~Matt

__________________
Custom Deck Builder Deck Designer Lancaster Deck Builder Berks Deck Cleaning
Breyer Construction & Landscape, LLC Facebook Page
www.BreyerConstruction.com

MattCoops

We just landed a $18,000.00 bath remodel job off of our holiday mailer reminding past customers of our referral program that pays $50 PER REFERRAL.
So it does work.

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

jlomama

Just to give you an idea of what we are paying, for an 18k job we would pay $300. To us that is a fairly cheap and definitely headache free way of advertising.

Gabuilder

I have been toying with the idea of a referral program also. I was thinking of a $50.00 Visa gift card that they could use anywhere. Haven't tried it yet, just an idea.