Question

Topic: Strategy

How To Use Happy Customers To Build Referrals

Posted bychoughon11/26/2007 at 3:23 PM ET 500 Points
We are working with a company who are sucessfully expanding their business through generating new business, often dealing with large, multinational companies. So far, so good. We have idenfitied that once they are "in" with a company, they are not optimizing their contacts – their services are used on a department by department basis – and we have the potential for turning this into company wide, national and international business. What strategies can we use to how can we recognise, appreciate and reward these satisfied customers, and get them to "spread the news" of the product benefits (cost, time AND enviromental benefits) to other descision makers within their organisation? A simple reward for referrals seems a bit of a "blunt instrument" All ideas gratefully appreciated!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted byJay Hamilton-Rothon11/26/2007 at 3:50 PM Accepted
    Simply ask your satisfied contacts for contact information for 3-5 other names in other departments who would benefit from your business. Ideally, have them send an email to their contacts (you can write it for them). If you email the contacts, refer to your contact (and cc: them to show it's a serious email).
  • Posted bySteveByrneMarketingon11/26/2007 at 4:21 PM Accepted
    Shoot video of your satisfied customers talking about their satisfying experiences - who, what, where, why. Edit, produce and upload videos to social media sites such as youtube.com and myspaceTV. Post links on your site and use the common viral methods to gain as many views as possible from your target audience.

    best of luck,

    Steve
  • Posted on11/26/2007 at 4:59 PM Accepted
    Offering a cooperative marketing discount may work. This could be in the form of adding a line at the bottom of brochures or websites, depending on what your services include. Offer a price discount for companies who allow you to add your information on their marketing pieces.

    I would also ask for information for other department heads or a higher up manager who makes decisions. If companies are pleased with your services they should be more willing to provide this information. It can't hurt to ask as long as you do it tactfully.

    You may still need to treat every department like a hard sell but since you have worked with the company you should be able to understand their needs and have easier time getting through to other departments.
  • Posted byCarolBlahaon11/26/2007 at 5:21 PM Accepted
    How about hosting "lunch and learns" at the client offices-- inviting others to learn how the successes attained can be repeated to their own departments. I do these regularly. Circulate an invite, take RSVP's, schedule the conference room and cater the lunch.

    Carol
    Sell Well and Prosper tm
  • Posted on11/27/2007 at 12:43 AM Accepted
    Your client company is performing it's services thro' it's people ,who in turn must be interacting with their customers' key employees. First plan and arrange a good satisfactory incentive scheme for these service providers in your client company to get 1) Timely recommendations and 2) List of names and departments needing similar services.
  • Posted on11/27/2007 at 1:39 AM Accepted
    hi,

    all what the others here had said is very nice,
    I believe when you have a satisfied customer you have a a very active powerful marketing media, so you will have to just orient him to get the best of him:

    1) keep him amazed all the time by exceeding his expectations.

    2) employee a customer loyalty program (get your company some magnetic discount card which has your data on it nicely printed) , every time some one see this card will ask about you and this will let your loving customer speak and tell the best about you.

    3) Invest in other viral marketing techniques see the following link :https://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/viral/viral.pdf

    please don't hesitate contacting me any time through my profile, I'm welcoming any email, and looking forward to help.

    Best of luck for you and your business,

    Mohammad Aboali
    SW Business Analyst
    Strategy and Marketing Adviser



  • Posted bychoughon11/27/2007 at 4:37 AM Author
    Thank you all your insights and comments, I don't think there is a single response here that doesn't add to my understanding of the task. To just pick a few responses that resonated: Charleen, I love your idea of the online community, we were thinking of something similar, but you have helped crystalise our thoughts… Head Coach, I think you've nailed one of the hurdles we are facing, and WMMA such simple but really useful advice – I'm sure you're right – we need to ask! Maybe we're getting too hung up about not 'obviously' fishing for referral – but after all we are dealing with intelligent, decision making people here – and a more honest approach would be to tell people exactly what we need to grow the business. I'm very happy with the responses so far, but will keep the question open at the moment in the hope of more of the same! Thank you.
  • Posted on11/28/2007 at 3:52 PM Accepted
    hi,

    I have something to add here, some of the very interesting approaches that may help is that when growing a Business to Business relation, one of the following may help:

    1) you may provide your customers with some tools that will help him to succeed in his job, may be through differentiating himself from his competition, through

    - technical advantage of a product that's hard to be introduced by competitors , or help him provide granted QoS .
    - reduce his COGS .

    2) you may find how to provide your customers a value that will charge their brains and help them refer you
    read the following 2 articles
    -//www.369da.com/6/hellenbeck2.asp
    -//www.369da.com/3/lasalle1.asp

    3)使用直接centive to the customers who refer you to 3 other customers.

    4) there are lots of other viral marketing approaches that may help you refer to the following link,
    https://www.hpl.hp.com/research/idl/papers/viral/viral.pdf


    more over I think any customer of yours will need a centralized, ERP or may be SCM (Supply Chain Management software).

    I think this will help you very much.

    Best of luck for you and your business,

    Mohammad Aboali
    SW Business Analyst
    Strategy and Marketing Consultant

  • Posted bychoughon12/7/2007 at 12:25 PM Author
    Just a quick note to thank you all for your input (I really didn't have time to do that properly when I closed the question, there was a bit of a 'charette' on), and to post what we actually presented to the client: we broke it down and recommended the following four steps; 1. Be Remarkable, 2. Just Ask, 3. Recognise and Reward, 4. Build and Exclusive Community.

    Be Remarkable
    Do stuff that gets spoken about, outstanding customer care…
    Go the extra mile!
    https://www.zazlamarr.com/blog/?p=240
    You can’t buy PR like this!

    Just ask!
    Be up front straightforward and honest –
    you’re dealing with intelligent business people
    who will recognise that helping you grow your business within their organisation
    will in turn help them.

    Recognise & Reward
    每一个接触,即使他们不变成customers.
    Appropriate, industry related rewards. Rewards don’t have to be costly – mere recognition and a personalised thank you can be a great motivator.

    Build an Exclusive Community
    Give referring customers access to exclusive content, articles and insider information that they would actually pay for…for free.
    Build a network of like-minded individuals across different companies
    and run “Webinars” (online seminars) with respected industry figures…
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