TIP: Referral - Marketing Process

[JCADan]

My report for Referral-Marketing is very incomplete. I run this report monthly to see who I need to thank for a recent referral. I've noticed that at least 3 of my largest referral shops are not showing up anywhere in the report. I double-checked one of my customers that was just recently referred to us from a shop and it didn't show the referral source, so I put it in again and "saved" it. I opened up her customer info account again and it wasn't there.

These referral reports are a HUGE part of our business growth (transmission shop). I need these to work! Any idea why it won't save?

Also, is it possible to run reports for a time-period instead of just the complete report since Day 1?

Dan

[JCADan]

I'm working with 2 active ROs that haven't been posted yet. I put in the referral source as I'm creating the R.O. and then go to put in vehicle info, etc. The referral info doesn't save. I'll go back into an active R.O. and put in the referral source but they won't save, it stays blank.

I"ve learned that it has to do with character count of the referral source. I don't see where it gives a limit on length of referral source, but the longer-named shops do not save.

[ricmorin]

Interesting. In the short term, could you abbreviate those long named shops and get things working? This may be something that needs tweaking in the program.

[JCADan]

Yup, I've been abbreviating them in the meantime.

I'd still like to be able to run this referral report for a time period instead of overall , like a monthly basis report.

[ricmorin]

Yes, I agree. It's been mentioned here before I think. Need a date rangeable report for this. Absolutely.

[ricmorin]

I think I have a short term solution for getting a list of customers who referred a new customer for the first time with a date range. This is an absolute necessity IMO. We need a way to create a list and do a mailing on a regular basis to these customers who refer others.

First, run the Referral-Customer Report. This will give you ALL the referred customer activity for a given date range. (this is NOT what we want - we need only the first time referred customers) Print this off and retain. Now, create a list of first time customers with the same date range. You can do this by clicking on any follow up reports and just do a search under the New/Inactive tab. Now check off any names on the referral report that also appear on the new customer list. Now you have a list of customers that have referred NEW customers. From here, we'll need to manually enter these names into the Referral report. To do that, run the Referral follow-up report. Go to the Customer tab, click on the Name button and enter the names, click Add each time. Now click on the View List tab and now you can print your letters.

Wow, that was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. This is an essential report and I've been trying to get this on my monthly list of marketing to-do's. It would be great to get a Mitchell report to automate this for us.

[steven kiser]

I agree that referrals are an important part of our business and the referring people should be well take care of. I would like to know how you reward people without it getting out of hand. I don't want it to effect my overall company value by lessening my income by giving free services. i want the numbers to show actual to keep the value of my business true as a sell point for possible sale if for some reason i decide to get out of this lucrative business . I give financial rewards out of my advertisement funding and from time to time make my condo in the White Mountains available to a good customer or Referrer. I am very tight and selective of who and how many times because i want it as a thank you not an expectation. I will give gift certificates to restaurants and on occasion take them out to dinner just to give a personal twist to it. I don't want a head hunter out there pushing my services, i want a satisfied customer doing it because i feel they're less likely to refer a bottom feeder to me. Sometimes i get a call from a customer to let me know that they mentioned my name to a person and could care less if i worked on that persons car or not and didn't want to harm our relationship.

Speaking for myself, if i recommend someone that i use to someone, i'm comfortable with it because i don't open my mouth unless i'm convinced the person is decent. A long time ago i got a call from a provider i was very comfortable with complaining me out because a referral of mine became a nightmare. I called that person and quickly ended any issues. Again i'm starting to banter and since there are other posts still open i'll leave this one and find another............

[ricmorin]

I think I found an easier way to do this. As most would agree, my method is kind of drawn out. It works, but....

So I've added the Customer Referral report to my daily reports list. Now the list is much smaller and it's easy to see who has been in for the first time. Simply look for a 1 in both visits columns. These are your first-timers. Now make a hand-written thank you note with any extras you may like to include. It's quick, simple and personal.

[timbre4]

NOTE: The Referral Marketing report now has a date-range option.