Does anyone offer a referral program? If so, what is your system?

[classonepc]

I currently offer a referral program as thus:

Refer a friend or co-worker to us and YOU receive $10 off your next service and so do they!

Refer 2 get $20 off your next service!

3 - $30

You get the idea. Tell your friends today!

I even went as far as to have my new business cards printed on back with a place for the customer to write in thier name, then hand it to a friend...blah blah blah. I then started giving each of my clients 5 cards each, letting them know they could simply hand them out and have the potential to get $50 off thier next service.

I just began this 2 weeks ago and so far no takers...

Do you have a program in place? What is it and is it working?

 

[RichmondTech]

I didn't have a structured program per se, but I too had the back of my business card talk to a discount on the first job for new clients. You know what that brought me? Less sales. I currently don't have anything on the back of my cards and I get just as many referrals. People will refer you because you're awesome at what you do, not because there's a discount involved.

Now there are some clients that have either given me a few referrals this year or have spent big bucks with me and for those clients I would like to get then an Amazon.com gift card as a token of my appreciation.

 

[classonepc]

My newest cards that I am still waiting to arrive do not have anything on the back either. I can't say I have lost anything thru the program I suppose but gained nothing either. I get referrals from clients and even from clients I gave the cards to but the new client mentioned nothing about the program and I even had to ask them where they heard of me from.

I have always tried to do something for my loyal clients. In one case a client asked me to look over thier childs laptop as they were getting ready to head to college. I did and when they asked how much they owed I simply toled them "Nothing, my gift to your son, wish him my best"

That went a long way.

 

[Jeffreynya]

I honestly don't know how this would work because I have not tried it, but to me cash is king. I am thinking about offering 10 bucks for every paying referral. So if they send me 5 people who buy my service's then they get 50 bucks.

 

[ljtechservices]

I used to issue a credit memo to clients when someone they referred did $500 worth of business with me. I only ever issued 3 of them.
Then I had one client refuse with the explanation that he didn't want to be seen as selling his referrals.
I thought about it some more then realized what he was saying then dropped the program.
After that I started giving clients that had referred others to me $5/hr off my regular rate. I didn't notify them, i just did it.
Referrals increased after that. don't know if it was a result of the change or not but go figure.

 

[AdamP]

i pay cash for referrals - it works well, if someone sends me a paying customer for a service of $50 or more i give them $10. to me thats cheaper then paying for advertising and all that other stuff that may be hit or miss. I figure on a $50 repair I'm still making $40, and word of mouth is way better then any pretty ad for driving in business. i ran an ad for over a month, it brought me 3 customers and cost me $80. the referral program in the same month brought me 16 and cost me 160, if you ask me it was a way better return on my investment.