Ask any small-to-medium abroad agent business where most of their work comes from and most of them will point to client referral. Recommendations from others, referrals remain one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to grow your Abroad Agent business. This trend seems timeless and unlikely to go away anytime soon!
People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.
– Mark Zuckerberg
To prove this theory right, let’s assume,
When you see an advertisement in a television commercial you don’t purchase the product instantly, in fact, you tend to forget about the product. But, when a friend of yours recommends the same product you have a faith that the product will turn out to fulfill your satisfaction.
While it is true that clients who are happy with the work of your abroad agent may refer your services to others, but to keep it consistent, you will need a process in place. We have put together five easy steps that can help boost your agency’s client referral:
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Develop Client Referral Programs
Referrals these days come in many shapes and sizes. Although word of mouth is great. For the sake of consistent abroad agent business, you need to start a formal program as well. A well-organized referral program can get you loyal customers at a very low cost.
These client referral programs incentivize happy customers to share their feelings in exchange for gifts, which could be monetary or non-monetary. It also brings loyal customers to your abroad agent, as proven by the Harvard Business Review. You can develop a client referral program in the following ways:
- First, be realistic about what your abroad agent can offer as incentives, monetary or otherwise.
- Take advice from your managerial staff, partners, and other stakeholders about the kind of incentives you should offer.
- Analyze each incentive with its pros and cons, including the cost to the company and your return on investment.
- Be aware of your window of opportunity and its duration. It is the period when clients feel fresh about the solution your agency provides, and have seen positive results. This could be from the time they get to know about your services until 75 percent of their application is complete.
- Set a timeline to begin and end the client referral program. This will let clients know the program is a limited offer and make them more proactive.
- Once the program is ready, share it on your abroad agent’ business website, social media, as well as email existing clients and others in your network.
2. Provide Exceptional Service
Before you make the client referral program public, this is the most crucial step you will need to consider as abroad agent. To get referrals, you have to ensure that the services you provide are exceptional. No one will recommend an abroad agent who provides mediocre service, regardless of how good the incentives are.
Whether you prefer to use word of mouth referrals or a client referral program to attract clients, it will only work if your services as abroad agent are top notch. Remember, clients will be recommending the services of your abroad agent to their friends and family, who will trust their advice.
For instance, let us assume that the services of your abroad agent are mediocre, but you create an amazing client referral program with irresistible incentives. In the first phase, when people are only looking at the incentives, the program may work well, but what happens once the recommended clients start using your services?
If they feel that the services of your abroad agent do not match the offers, then not only will they lose trust in the person who recommended them, but will also decline to refer your services to others. This may even create a negative spin-off of word of mouth client referrals, especially if the clients are very angry or feel duped. Here are some quick tips to enhance your services as an agent.
- Make sure that the services your abroad agents consultancy are offering are unique and different from those of your competitors.
- Train your staff extensively to understand how the services of abroad agents work and conduct role-play to assess their level of commitment.
- Give personal attention to every client. Doing so will help build trust and transparency for your abroad agents. Having transparency in your workflow is merely important for any business. How good will a cloud-based application such as AGENTCIS will do to show transparency in your business.
3. Don’t Wait, Ask For It
It sounds clichéd, but the reality is that many abroad agents businesses wait for clients to refer their services to others. They shy away from asking for client referral from the fear of hearing “no” from clients. However, think of how much positive impact it will have on your business as abroad agents when they say “yes”.
If you do not ask for it directly or without a program in place, people will not take out time to refer your services. The clients have no way of knowing beforehand that you as abroad agent, require their references. If you are wondering when the best time to ask for a client referral is, the answer is easy. Do it when your clients are at their most positive frame of mind. You can ask for client referral in plenty of ways:
- I am glad that you are happy with our service. I would really appreciate it if you could refer our services to people you know. May I leave some extra business cards for you?
- I am glad you like our services. We are always on the lookout for referrals and wonder if you know anyone who might be interested in what we have to offer.
- Congratulations for a successful visa application and thank you for the payment! We have some great incentives for referring our services. Please see our client referral program.
4. Use Client Satisfaction Surveys Effectively
Satisfied clients will be more than willing to fill out surveys for your abroad agent consultancy. Use this opportunity to create a client satisfaction survey. The last question on the satisfaction survey should relate to asking for client referral.
You can ask questions like:
- How would you improve our service?
- If you could change one thing about our service, what would it be and why?
- What is your favorite aspect of our service and why?
- Why did you choose our service?
- Please describe our service in a few words.
- Would you be willing to refer our services to others?
Once your clients have completed the survey, take lead from the last question about referrals. If they answer “yes”, provide them with information about your client referral program, incentives, and other details. Extremely satisfied clients might even be willing to give you a personal letter of recommendation. Keep that option open as well.
5. Customize Your Messages
When you create a client referral program, make sure you promote it everywhere, especially on social media. However, when you ask clients to share the message, make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Prepare messages or templates for the clients, so they do not have to spend time coming up with their own.
By doing this, you will encourage clients to share your message quickly and easily. Most people will not take out the time to write their own messages and then share your program as well, even if they really like your service.
There is no better way to grow your abroad agent business than client referral. Agents management CRM should have a client referral program. It has attributes that everyone loves – personal touch, sense of loyalty, and trust! You can also consider agents management application to manage your clients and referrals in your abroad agents business.
