Consider the customer referral as the true money question; it’s the final frontier of loyalty. If your customers are willing to stick their neck out vouching for you, they have become your marketers.
A customer referral means that you’re firing on two important cylinders.
First, you’ve done enough things right that they meld together into an experience that’s more than the sum of the parts of your organization. Your products, services, people, locations, and contacts present themselves beyond the ho-hum of our daily lives as consumers. You’ve gone beyond the execution of actions and tactics. You create memories customers want to have – again and again.
Second, the connection you’ve created with customers through the delivery of this experience compels them to tell others about it. Your customers become your marketing department, relating their experiences and convincing others to try you.
If you can track the rate of referrals in general and by customer group, you’ll know the strength of your ongoing revenue stream before you even spend another dollar on marketing. Companies completely focused on customer profitability will learn how referral rates differ by customer group and reasons for not referring. They will rigorously apply this learning to constantly adjust and improve their customer experience.
You need to use all of this information to dig into the reasons behind the numbers and drive change as a result of what you learn.
