referrals and the gamble

[leofry@1966]

Advertising is such a gamble and its very hard to figure out... i have been thinking of doing a referral program... send me a new client and i send you $20 ... now i know some of you will say $20 thats a lot... well i think for the program to work you have be aggressive.

so i have had 49 referrals in the past year if i was running the program that would be $980 so if it does not change much you are just losing money .. if it double its worth it...

98 jobs avg job $125 = $12250
98 x $20 = 1960
$10290 ...

[rlord]

I'm certainly not an expert concerning referrals. But I think you have to look at it from what you gain instead of what you pay. Gaining a customer is huge
as that customer now becomes a referral source and on and on. I personally know of a situation where one cleaner is extremely successful with his referral program and looks at it the way I described. He set it up for a new guy to use in a different area, this guy kept looking at what he was giving up and kept saying I don't think I need to do this anymore, he's out of business now.
Most successful residential cleaners I know have a formal referral program.
In commercial (which is all I do) I've never had to offer an type of referral program I've just asked and they are happy to refer you when the opportunity presents itself. If you do a good job, are extremely dependable, and go out of your way for them.
Most programs I've seen offer something off the next cleaning

[encapman]

Advertising is such a gamble and its very hard to figure out... i have been thinking of doing a referral program... send me a new client and i send you $20 ... now i know some of you will say $20 thats a lot... well i think for the program to work you have be aggressive.

Twenty dollars invested to gain a new customer is nothing. In fact I used to offer exactly that... Twenty dollars as a referral for new customers. It's peanuts compared to the lifetime value of a customer.


Rick Gelinas
The Encapman

[leofry@1966]

true... i get it but then then i again i don't lol... like i said i have had 49 referrals when where gladdening giving to me... which if today i decided to give them all $20 then i would be sending $980 out... now if you told me well twice as many will refer you if you do this.. then no doubt no argument no brainier i would, but if you give $20 to someone who was going to refer you anyway .. mmm dang...

[ebarnett]

This one is a tough call. I think 95% of people will refer you whether they get money or not. People love giving advice. So if asked whether they know a good carpet cleaner, they are usually more than willing to share a good experience.

[leofry@1966]

i agree Eric... i hate to get the same amount of referrals and just pay out.. when i would have gotten the referral anyway

[JuddBowers]

What about telling the customer who referred you that you'll lay down some Soileze free of charge next time.

I've taken off 15% of the invoice for referrals in a residential setting.