Studies show that two-thirds of all economic activity is influenced by customer recommendations, proving that referrals from friends and associates are the most trusted source of information for those considering buying products or services.
Lear Capital, a Los Angeles-based precious metals company, can attest to the benefits of word of mouth. The company's most recent referral campaign, a $50,000 Refer-A-Friend Sweepstakes, resulted in 26,000 prospects and customers being added to their data base within six months.
Until a few years ago, Lear Capital did not enjoy such successful referral campaigns, according to Kevin DeMeritt, president. "The company had a rewards referral program in place for years but, as the data base of customers and prospects grew, the program was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Regularly developing and distributing new incentive materials; and tracking, managing, and reporting the resulting referrals was time consuming and costly."
Realizing the importance both communicating with customers and managing the results, Lear Capital began using ReferNow.com, an online referral service,
to help streamline the process. ReferNow provides the tools and technology platform to create customized referral campaigns, track the results and distribute awards.
Further, ReferNow reports on the referral conversion rates, putting the return on investment of referral business into measurable results. "Since we started using ReferNow five years ago business has increased by 9% through referral sales translating into a $6,000,000.00 increase in annual revenue."
By accelerating the natural referral process, ReferNow.com has proven to be a cost-effective means of increasing our client base, DeMeritt noted. "Our continued use of the ReferNow technology will enable Lear Capital to maintain a direct and ongoing dialog with customers and prospects about special promotions, offers and company updates, thereby ensuring customer loyalty and increasing business."
Credit Information
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Client: Lear Capital
Agency: ReferNow
Budget: Not Disclosed
Date of Campaign: 6/2007
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