Customers are most likely to share their experiences immediately after they have made a purchase if they are directly asked to do so. Their adrenaline is high and they’re usually excited, which is the perfect time to introduce your referral program to them.
Not only is this a great time to give them the opportunity to become an affiliate, but it’s often a good time to ask for feedback on their overall buying experience.
Note that a customer who just purchased a product won’t be able to provide feedback about that product, however they will be able to provide information about their overall buying experience.
Are you encouraging reviews and feedback for your product that you can then use as social proof for your sales pages and referral program?
You might be surprised to know how often businesses fail to reach out and ask for feedback from existing customers. Don’t be one of those people!
By connecting to your customers and asking them for information about their experiences using your product, you’ll be able to generate testimonials that you can use within your marketing campaigns. So, don’t be afraid to ask!
Quite often, you’ll be able to win someone over just by reaching out and asking for their feedback. This makes them feel important and demonstrates that you value them as a customer and that you’re committed to ensuring they have a positive interaction and buying experience.
When it comes to collecting this information, you can use automation tools to cut down your workload and streamline the process.
Here are a few ideas:
Use Surveys
Create a survey that asks for pertinent information associated with their buying experience. Keep the survey simple, short and focused. Don’t bog customers down by requiring that they complete multiple pages to get through the process.
Focus only on the questions that are most important in helping you identify potential issues and improve your products and services.
Use Autoresponders
Hopefully you’ve already incorporated a newsletter or mailing list into your sales system so that you’re collecting customers’ information and following up with them.
You can extend the value of your mailing list by loading autoresponders with a sequence of emails that work towards building relationships with your customers.
At some point during this sequence, you can set an email to go out that asks for feedback. You’ll likely want to incorporate this somewhat early in the sequence, but not the initial email.
Give your customer some time to use your product or service so that they can provide in-depth feedback and insight that will help you improve their experience.
Incorporate an Affiliate Program
Introduce and inform existing customers about the benefits of your referral program, such as receiving a discount on their next purchase and of course, earning money from sales generated because of their marketing.
Have you ever heard of the Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
It’s a ranking system built on surveys. The higher your NPS score, the more likely you are to attract new customers through referral marketing because it ultimately helps you gauge the loyalty of your customer base.
You can find out more here: https://www.checkmarket.com/blog/net-promoter-score/
When you’re ready to start calculating your NPS, you can build your own survey simply by using a tool like Survey Monkey.
The key is to simply ask them, “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our services to friends or family?”
You can then categorize responses according to the level in which they are likely to refer your business to others. With NPS, a score of 0-6 is considered detractors, 7-8 are passives and 9-10 are promotors.
A great way to use the power of NPS is to take things one step further. After someone completes your survey, you can segment responses so that those who submitted a score of 7+ are then redirected to your affiliate program where they are given an invitation to sign up to promote your products.
You can also have customer service representatives promote your referral program at the end of positive phone calls.
When you initially rollout your referral program, it’s important to notify your most loyal customers first. These are the people who would appreciate a reward for their loyalty, and they’ll be more likely to refer you to friends and family when there’s money to be saved.
In addition to the above ways you can educate customers on your referral program, make sure that you regularly remind them about it. Reminders can come in the form of emails, the bottom of receipts, and links and ads on your website.
