04/03/17

How To Double The Number Of Referrals You Get In 30 Days Or Less

Hi,

Thanks for joining me! In this post, you will discover how to double the amount of referrals you get this month. I know that to some of you this may sound far-fetched. I get it. I would have thought the same until I did it and now my clients do it as well. It’s a simple 3 step process that works.

I’m David Brownlee. CEO of Pure Customer Service and creator of the Pure Customer Service Training Program. I’ve been privileged to train over half a million businesses and individuals now from all over the world. Customer service is my passion and I’m truly blessed to get to share my passion with you today.

Have you ever had these frustrations before?

You are not getting the number of referrals from current clients that you know you should.
You are spending a ton of money on marketing and advertising and are not retaining as many new clients as you would like.
You know that you can increase your revenues this year but you are looking for new ways to do it that are faster, easier and get you better results.

Me too! When I started my entertainment company several years ago, in Beverly Hills, CA, I was not getting the referrals I so desperately needed. We provided bands, entertainers, sound and production for live special events for corporate clients and the movie studios. This was a very tight knit community and referrals were crucial to surviving in that niche.

I struggled with trying to figure out how to crack that code. I wasted time, money and emotion trying to figure it out. Then it all changed. After hundreds of hours of researching companies that deliver excellent customer service, reading books and attending seminars, I noticed the patterns of what was working. I went from virtually no referrals to a growing business that was built off of more than 80% referral business. Not only did my business grow, I enjoyed my business more by delivering excellent customer experiences. We were always coming up with new ways to deepen the relationships with our clients. Many of them are still dear friends of mine today. In this video I will show you how simple it is for you to do the same.

Current customer referrals are one of the fastest and easiest ways to increase your revenues and expand your client base. And the best part is that it is virtually FREE.

There’s 3 simple steps to double the number of referrals you get this month.

Step 1, you need to asses where you are with the number of referrals you are getting now. You need to know where you are, where you want to go and then we can fill in how to get there. I like to use the metaphor of going on a road trip. We need to know where we are departing from and where we are going. For example, let’s say your favorite band is playing a concert in Miami. We are starting our journey from San Diego. Our GPS will fill in the roadmap for us on how to get there. This is similar to what we are doing here.

Go back through your leads that came in from the last 3 months. Make a list in a spreadsheet of how many of them were referrals. The best way is to add up the numbers from all 3 months, take that number and then divide by 3 to get an average. If you prefer, you can choose a number from one of the months. Once you have that number, move on to secret number 2. This is the number you will start with.

Secret number 2, take the number of referrals you have and multiply it by 2. That is your target number of referrals for the next month. For example, if you are getting an average of 10 referrals a month then your goal number is 20. It’s pretty simple right? Then why do we need to write down the target goal that you want to achieve? Because when you write down your goals you are 400 times more likely to hit that goal than if you don’t. Pretty powerful. The most successful businesses and individuals have specific, written goals that they are pursuing. You must as well.

Secret number 3, pull up a spreadsheet, report or CRM with your entire database. Include current clients, past clients and prospects. Make sure that they are displayed with their email and phone numbers for easy access.

Then, select team members that will make contact with these clients. Or if you are a solopreneur, you will be reaching out to them yourself. You or your team will be making what I call CUSTOMER CARE CALLS and sending CUSTOMER CARE EMAILS. The objective of these calls are to follow up with your customers and prospective customers and ensure that they are Happy with your company, your product, your service or you. Start with current clients first, then past clients and then prospects. Even if the prospect said no, a large percentage of them will still refer you business if you provided them with world-class service. More on that shortly. You may be wondering how many calls to make and emails to send? It all depends on the amount of resources you have to make the calls, how many customers you have in your database and how much time you a lot for the activity.

For example:

If you have a very small business, with only a handful of clients, you may dedicate an hour a week. Simple. If you have a bigger business you may decide to dedicate an hour a day. If you have a large company, you may dedicate a team to customer care calls where that is their full time job.

So David, what do I say on the call? When you make the call, it may go something like this:

“Hi, this is David calling from Pure Customer Service, is Jennifer there? Hi Jennifer, how are you? I am calling to make sure that you are happy with your Pure Customer Service Training Program. If happy, “Great I’m so glad that you are enjoying your customer service training. If you ever need anything just let us know and we promise to continue to take excellent care of you.” If not happy, “I’m sorry to hear that. So that I can make this right for you, can you tell me what happened?” (Then solve the problem)

“Can I ask you a question? Who else do you know right now that will benefit from our customer service training – a friend, co-worker, vendor? I promise to take great care them.”

Boom! If you have delivered world-class service to this client, they will most likely will recommend someone to you that they know that will also benefit from your product or service. Some of your clients will give you 3 or 4 referrals because they love you so much.

You may be thinking, “David, that’s so uncomfortable. How do I know they even want to give me a referral?”

Here’s how you know that they do:

Has anyone ever recommended a movie to you? And they were adimate that you had to see it? Or maybe you recommended a movie or tv series to someone else. And you told them “You HAVE to watch it!” If so, why? Why did you insist on having them watch it? Probably because YOU got so much joy out of watching or it was so interesting or captivating you really wanted that other person to experience the positive emotion that YOU felt. I would guess that’s true? It’s the same when referring a company, product or service! If they truly had a positive experience, they will be excited to share with their friends!

But sometimes they won’t share or refer you to a friend or family member on their own. Why? Because they either don’t think about it, or don’t want to inconvenience you, they may think you are too busy already – it may sound silly but it’s true! Once you show them that you care; by reaching out to them; and that you actually would like to serve other people that they know, they will be excited to share your company with their friends, family and co-workers. But, there is a big BUT coming in just a moment that I will share with you in a few moments. Some of your customers will be so impressed with the relationship they have with you they will refer you on their own! That’s when you really know you are doing this right.

Next, track the number of referrals that you get this month by keeping the goal number in front of you and write down in a log or notes the referrals you are getting. Just know, when you are making customer care phone calls, you will miss approximately 50-75% of them. That’s okay. Don’t panic. They won’t be available or you will get their voicemail. Leave a voicemail that you are checking in with them to make sure that they are happy with your product or service. Then, send them an email stating the same thing! With the emails, do a P.S. at the bottom of the email that says, “Who else do you know right now that will benefit from (your product or service)? We promise to take great care of them. Thank you so much!” – People read the PS because it stands out to them.

Some companies offer their clients coupons, discounts or items of value in exchange for referrals. You can absolutely do that; but then you do not know if that referral is truly coming to you because you offer world-class service; or because they want the item of value. Plus that is added cost that you do not necessarily want to incur. Take what is in this video and adapt it to how it will work best with your situation.

So let’s re-cap the 3 Secrets To Double The number Of Referrals You Get This Month:

Step 1 – Asses where you are and set a goal based on the number of referrals you’re getting already

Step 2 – Assemble an efficient way to view your database of current clients, past clients and prospects

Step 3 – Conduct your customer service calls and emails and ask for referrals– start with current clients and then move to past clients and then to prospects - track and measure your results

That’s it. It's that simple. This is one of the fastest, easiest and most powerful ways to dramatically attain new clients and increase revenue without a huge marketing budget. This strategy works with big companies and small companies alike.

Don't take my word for it, try it! The most important word in business is CONSISTENCY. Implement this strategy consistently and reap the rewards. And have fun with this. Taking excellent care of your customers is a truly enjoyable experience. Continue to build relationships with them and they will continue to refer client after client, customer after customer and be more than happy to do it. These are true raving fan clients!

So, here’s the big but we were talking about earlier. And I’m not talking about Sir Mix-A-Lot.

The next natural question is, How do I build raving fan clients that will refer me business and never want to leave me? It’s a great question, because in order to EARN the right to ask your clients for referrals, you need to have delivered a world-class customer experience to them first! You may be wondering, What is a world-class customer experience and how do I deliver it? To find out, I have shot a follow-up video to this one. It’s called, How to Build Raving Fan Clients (That Will Never Leave You)

Look for the link on my YouTube Channel – Coach David Brownlee, Facebook, or shoot us an email at [email protected] And we’ll get the video over to you right away.

Question:

Would you like to have a tool that made tracking, measuring and getting referrals even easier?

Would you like a done for you, proven, phone script and email template to get referrals even faster?

If you answered yes, I have a special gift for you watching today. I have prepared a sexy, downloadable PDF, called, “Your 30 Day Referral Tracker.” This blueprint will help you to get even better results with referrals this month. Visit us at PureCustomerService.com/FREE. You can download your blueprint and it will assist in keeping you consistent in tracking your progress and getting real results. Please comment below and let me know any questions you may have at all. Also, share your successes or any challenges you’re having below.

If you found great value from this post, we would love for you to help share our message of kindness and caring with others you think would get great value from it - via Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or your favorite social media. Thanks for being a part of the Pure Customer Service family and the opportunity to be YOUR customer service training coach. We’ll see you in the next post.

David Brownlee