4 Effective Ways to Get High-Quality Referrals From Your Customers
August 14, 2024
Categories:
Marketing 101
Referrals help your insurance agency grow and if many of your customers are happy with your agency, you may be wondering why they aren’t referring more people.
Contrary to popular belief, people don’t recommend their insurance agent because of these reasons:
- Insurance agent directly asked them for a referral.
- Their insurance agent said something like, “don’t keep us secret” or “a referral is the best form of compliment.”
- The agent included a “refer me” button or hyperlink in their email signature block.
- The agent offered an incentive for a referral, like a $20 gift card.
Most people don’t know which of their friends are currently shopping for insurance, so asking directly for a referral is unlikely to lead to new business. Additionally, people rarely look at email signatures unless they’re scanning for a phone number so don’t rely on your email signature to generate referrals. And while gift cards are effective at showing appreciation after clients refer others to you, they should never be used as the incentive for someone to send a client your way.
Instead, here are four tips to help get more referrals.
1) Find your promoters. Many of your clients are willing to recommend you, but you need to identify which ones. Send a simple survey, such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS®) survey, to see which clients are most likely to recommend your insurance agency to a friend or colleague. Once you know which clients are your biggest promoters, you can ask them to leave a review and continue to remind them you’re there for their friends and family.
2) Thank your referral sources. Send a thank you card to customers who bring you new clients. This significantly increases the chances they will keep referring people to you because they feel seen and appreciated. If you don’t thank your referral sources, it makes it seem like you didn’t notice or care, and they won’t be as likely to recommend you again.
Additionally, when a prospect requests a quote, be sure to ask who referred them and let them know you want to send that person a thank you card. This immediately shows you appreciate referrals and take care of your promoters.
3) Send handwritten cards throughout the year. How would you feel if a business you frequent sent you a handwritten, personalized card? We bet it would make you smile and you’d visit that business again. You’d probably also show that card off to a friend or two.
Clients who receive a welcome card are much more likely to refer you to family, friends and colleagues. We’ve found that sending welcome cards to new clients makes them nine times more likely to leave a Google review.
And when it comes to birthdays, for those clients who already love you, a birthday card is another great reminder you’re thinking about them on their special day. Something they might just mention to family and friends next time someone is looking for help with insurance.
Don’t forget special occasions other than birthdays where a handwritten card has the same effect—anniversaries, graduations, and other important milestones you know your clients hold dear.
Holidays are also one of the biggest opportunities to impress your clients and create a memorable experience they’ll want to tell others about. As their email inbox is flooded with promotional holiday emails, their actual mailbox is your opportunity to stand out.
Further, loyalty cards are the cards you send to your most loyal clients—people who have the most products, have been with you the longest or those who have referred new business to your agency. Your top clients have likely been with you for a while already and a handwritten loyalty card also encourages them to continue telling others about your incredible service.
4) Make it easy for prospects to get in touch
Everyone is different and has their own communication style but not having an easy way to get in contact you can create an unnecessary barrier to writing new business.
Make yourself available on a variety of platforms, including email, phone, texting, web chat, Google messages and Facebook messenger. The more convenient the onboarding process is for someone, the more likely they are to purchase a policy and refer others to you.
