Your Customer Referral Program

Friends. Flickr user Glennharper.

What customer referral program, you ask?


The one you should have already.

The one you need to start this week. Here's why:

•  90% of customers seek others' opinions before making a purchase - using online customer reviews, Facebook, forums, and other tools to validate their purchasing decision. When we read online reviews and forum posts, we don't know who is putting forward their opinion, and it's sometimes hard to know whether or not to trust those opinions, and...
• People naturally trust the opinions of people they know over people they don't know, and it's vital that you make it easy for your most satisfied customers to tell everyone they know how great you are.

 
Simple enough, right?

How do you get started? Here are some ideas:

• On your web site, add a "tell a friend" button, where your customers can send your home page to others - on email and via social networks. Even better? Go one step further and let people share specific products with one another.
• Once a customer has made their purchase - add a "tell a friend what you just bought" button to the purchase confirmation page. 
• Make sure customers are able to share product reviews - their own or other people's - on email and via social networks.
• Add a page to allow customers to request catalogs for a friend, or a copy of your latest enewsletter.
• Reward referrals with discounts on future purchases. Give customers points or dollars towards their next order when they refer a new customers.

Need help getting it done? Drop me a line.