Agreed, not that you are an idiot, but to the topic -
Everyone knows that referrals are the best form of marketing and often the most effective. Here’s the rub: It’s human nature to want to help people we like – but it’s also human nature to not want to be inconvenienced to help. There are three pieces to the Referral Process – The referrer, the referee and the service provider being referred. Let’s address each one as it relates to the empowering tool S.A.F.E. that BusinessBridge built to help streamline the process for service providers.
First the Referrer…
People like to help people they like. How many times have you as a service provider said at the end of the service something like “I’m glad you like our work, you know, we really would appreciate you telling your friends and neighbors about our company”. There might even be an economic/value incentive attached to the opportunity of the introduction. The service is done and the consumer says thanks and closes the door thanking you for your great work, only to run out the door to get the kids, go back to work or whatever they do in their fast paced world. The problem is not you – It’s time! They want to help, but they have no time and the more time that goes by the more they tend to forget about the service. It’s human nature. We are busy people today. The odds that they will remember to tell their neighbors about how great a carpet job you did as they hang out in the cul-de-sac on a Saturday morning is greatly diminished. Too bad.
Then there is the referee…
Sometimes called Digital Mom, busy mom or dad, time-stressed people with work and or kids activities. They know and respect the referrer, but they don’t actually get a chance to see them much between work, kids activities and did I mention work. When 81 percent of the decisions on home services are made by females and females make up 49.5 percent of the work force. They are busy people! (I dare you to ask one if that statement is incorrect!) Maybe they do need their carpets cleaned but just can’t take a call when the referrer calls because they are in a meeting or busy with other issues. Leaving a voice message seems a bit if a stretch to this writer. It’s starting to seem that the stars have to be aligned just right to have a effective referral program that works well consistently.
Then there is the service provider…
He or she leaves the satisfied client with the feeling of encouragement that they might be referred for doing such a nice job on their services. Warranted, but misguided. Sometimes called “china-eggs”, this is a false illusion that they are actually going to be able to complete the very difficult process of telling others successfully. Oh yeah, sometimes it works and might even work better in a smaller town verses a urban area, but ninety-eight percent of the process never comes full circle. So the service provider waits and wonders what he/she said wrong or could have done different. It’s probably not them that is the problem, although most small business service providers do flinch at the prospect of having to ask for help with their business.
The problem is TIME… everyone’s TIME!
What if all the referrer had to do is press one magic button and a referral could be processed from the referrer and sent to ALL potential referees they had in mind – Instantly? What if there was nothing that the service provider had to do to assist in this event? What if there was value in this process for everyone – the referrer, the referee and the service provider?
S.A.F.E. (Save a Friend Effort) could be the answer:
• With one click send a pre-written email offer to up to 10 friends at a time. Consumers can add a personal note or just click send.
• One click and consumers can post the referral offer to their FACEBOOK account that gets pushed out to their friends and followers.
• One click and the offer can be tweeted to their twitter followers.
• Referee gets the service providers offer and books an appointment online – no promo code necessary, they just start booking through FittleBug. Offer value is automatically applied.
• Upon successful booking the referrer get a credit applied to their online account.
• The credit value is controlled by the service provider and can be a fix amount or percentage off of future services with a capped value.
• When original referee is ready for more services, the credits are automatically applied at the time of booking online – no promo code necessary.
• Credit redemption values are totally controlled by the service provider at all times.
Hey - just a thought - that I made reality.
