Part of running great referral programs is getting the whole team involved. The best way to do that is to also offer referral rewards to your employees.
Part of running great referral programs is getting the whole team involved. The best way to do that is to also offer referral rewards to your employees. Your employees are really the front lines when it comes to referring your business and allowing them to benefit from referrals may be just what it takes to bump up your referred customer numbers.
Employee referral programs, or ERPs, continue to be a great approach to collecting referrals for your business. The best way to create and manage a great ERP is to develop your own personalized program that looks beyond the mediocre and attracts the attention you desire. Try to keep a few basics in mind when it comes to what a ERPs features should include.
Employee Referral Programs
There are some great practices that will help to make significant impact on your referrals volume and quality.
Create Targeted Pools of Your Most Likely Referrers
Instead of spamming all of your employees with referral request, develop a more targeted pool of referrers that can be proactively searched to help identify the exact number of employees that have the highest likelihood of knowing individuals with the required tastes to become one of your newest referrers.
Give Your Employees Referral Cards
Supply your employees with referral cards. Make sure the cards provide some type of praise for the person receiving the card. Let them know you have decided that they would be an exceptional fit for your business. If you prefer, use electronic referral cards that include a tracking code to make sure your employee is given proper credit for the referral.
Be Proactive
Proactively approach your employees and ask if they believe they know others who would be a good match for your business's referral system. Allow your hiring managers to seek out specific employees from other desirable firms or businesses. Do not hesitate to approach past employees who left your firm on good terms. Those employees already know your work and business ethic and may be the source of some of your greatest business referrals.
Have Referral Events
Make sure your business hosts, sponsors or supports open houses, video conferences, ice cream socials, and other lunchtime events that will aid in highlighting your program, business and the current needs of both. Be sure any recruiters are present at these events to provide any training, assessments or even to accept on-the-spot referrals.
Expand Eligibility
If you have plenty of non-employees who know your business well, ask them if they are willing to provide referrals. Consider including anything from retirees, vendors, spouses, strategic partners, corporate alumni, or even your customers.
Having a tried-and-true system of generating new customers through strategic employee referral programs is an excellent method for growing your business.
What Type of Marketing Referral Program is Best for Your Business
To understand what type of marketing referral program is best for your business, it may be vital to first understand where referrals can come from in the first place.
When Your Referral Rewards Program Goes Wrong
The horror stories are enough to scare any small business owner into inactivity. That one business that was doing great with an excess of capital decided to enact a new referral program and the next news you heard was how they overextended their offer and were swept up and down the creek into bankruptcy. It can and does happen. When your referral rewards program goes wrong there can be a few good reasons why.
4 Tips for Preparing Your Business for Referrals Programs
If you have established your business, set up some marketing efforts and branded your company's name, it may be time to prepare your business for referrals programs.
