Talking about companies and our experiences with them make up a large part of our daily conversations. We ask our friends how the food at a new restaurant was or how our parents enjoyed their stay at a nearby hotel. Their responses influence our own choice on whether we decide to pay that restaurant, hotel, or other business a visit or avoid it.
This illustrates the importance of continually providing good experiences for existing guests and new guests. Conversations sway potential customers’ decisions on whether to visit your business. If the conversations are not in your company’s favor, you may struggle with figuring out how to generate referrals.
Referrals are vital for your company’s success. So, you may wonder how to generate referrals from existing guests or how to generate business referrals in general. Below, we’ve compiled a list of tips for how to generate referrals and create a successful referral program for your business.
How to Generate Referrals
Identify Your Target Audience
To have successful, quality referrals, you need to figure out which guests are the foundation of your business. Identify their industry, demographics, and key problems they want to address. That way you can quickly choose and qualify referrals that match your goals.
Exceed Guests’ Expectations
Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing and can skyrocket your ROI if harnessed correctly. However, it’s dependent on customer loyalty, so you need to earn it! Don’t settle for average guest experiences. Go above and beyond for your guests so they have a reason to recommend you to their friends.
Keep Engaging Existing Guests
Focusing on generating new guests can make you forget the guests that already know and love your business. Continually build each relationship you make in your business by providing them new ways to stay engaged with your brand.
Offer incentives
Incentives are one of the quickest and best ways for how to generate more referrals. Whether it’s 10% off their next meal or a gift card, offer your guests something valuable in return for referring your businesses to their loved ones.
Just Ask
There’s no harm in asking for a referral, especially if you’ve spent time nurturing guest relationships in your business. Make sure each request is friendly and personalized to each guests. Also, ask for a referral at the right time, such as the day after the end of a service.
Adopt a Customer Referral Program
A customer referral program is a great way to increase your reach through your existing client base. A customer referral program encourages your existing guests to recommend your business to friends and colleagues. This is done through a combination of friendly asking, incentives, and word of mouth marketing. Customer referral programs allow you to confidently and comfortably share information about your services and build trust with potential customers.
What Does a Successful Referral Program Look Like?
Successful referral programs look different for each business. While there is no “best” way to get referrals from existing guests, referral generator strategies can help. Best of all, you can customize them to fit your business. Customized referral programs help you better connect with your unique clientele, continue to meet their needs, and encourage them to recommend your business to loved ones. In the end, it all comes down to providing exceptional customer service experiences for your guests. That’s what gets them talking!
For example, say a hair salon wanted to encourage their existing client base to refer new business to their salon. To accomplish this, they set up some of the marketing efforts we listed previously to engage their clientele better.
- First, in their salon referral program, they emphasize the importance of having a consultation with clients. This helps their hairdressers better understand clients’ needs and understand what goals the client is working towards.
- Next, the salon introduces incentives for their client to make a referral. This includes either a discount on their next haircut or a gift bag full of complementary products.
- Finally, they promote their salon referral program by thanking clients, asking them for referrals, and explaining the incentives included in the program. To streamline their referral process, the salon uses a referral software program like Check This Out to automate referral requests and incentives through text messaging and emails.
Each of these factors takes the salon to the next level of business growth and establishes its reputation in the community.
Generate Referrals with Check This Out
If you run a restaurant or small business and want to increase your ability to generate referrals, we can help. Check This Out’s referral software streamlines the referral generation process by automating asking for requests, setting custom incentives, and tracking your client base. We take the hassle of referral marketing off your schedule and let our software and your guests’ conversations carry the load. For a demo, contact us today.