It’s not easy for small and mid-sized businesses to get the word out about their offerings and attract leads. So when one business refers their valued clients, customers, or patients to another business — it’s critical to both businesses that the person referred has a positive experience. Since referrals are some of the hottest leads out there, a stellar customer experience starts with the very first phone call.
Estimates suggest small and mid-sized businesses miss as many as 62% of their calls, while 60% of customers will leave after a single negative experience. The margin for error is so small and competition so fierce, that if a business misses a single call, both they and the company who referred them may suffer damage to their reputation.
This is where CallRail can help. CallRail ensures small and mid-sized businesses never miss a lead again, thus increasing call answer rates, improving the customer experience (CX), and transforming companies’ bottom lines.
Keep reading to see how it works.
Identify and prioritize referral leads
Call Tracking, one of CallRail’s products, allows any business to identify and prioritize referral leads. Businesses using Call Tracking, like an orthodontics practice for example, can provide a business card with a tracked phone number that a partner dental practice can circulate to inquiring patients. The resulting incoming calls will be automatically tagged as a “referral” and the business can handle the call accordingly.
Referrals are hot leads. In fact, Forbes says referrals are the most valuable form of marketing — so businesses must prioritize inbound calls that arise from referrals. With CallRail’s Call Flow Builder, you can create a call flow that forwards all referrals to a specific representative (i.e. the best sales person).
This automatically puts your business in the best possible position to manage referrals. Instead of customers calling and connecting with someone in the back office, who then asks them to hold while they find the suitable person to speak to, they’ll go straight through to the most qualified team member to take their call. Your business will exude competency — and you’ll provide a stellar customer experience from the first very touchpoint.
Some businesses delay responding to their calls until the end of the day. If all five members of your roofing company, for example, are out on site, the last thing you want is for someone to be juggling hot referral leads on the phone while they should be focused on a high-stakes job.
For these businesses, the tag feature comes in handy. CallRail automatically applies the “referral” tag to all inbound referrals so your team can get back to them at the end of the day. When you do this, you ensure that even when your people are busy — you still keep any hot leads from falling through the cracks.
When businesses can properly manage incoming referral leads, they facilitate the partnership with referring business. Smooth intake shows that all parties can count on one another — and the referrals are likely to keep flowing.
Discover where your referrals are coming from
Conversation Intelligence helps businesses pinpoint where their referrals are coming from without much manual labor. For example, companies can set up partner businesses as keywords using Conversation Intelligence by CallRail.
For instance, Jerry’s Auto might set up a keyword that flags whenever a caller mentions their partner, Quick Automotive Loans. Callers who mention this keyword could be automatically segmented into the workflow you designate and forwarded to your salesperson that specializes in closing referral leads or high-value prospects.
But what if you receive referral leads from businesses you haven’t yet identified as partners?
CallRail’s Call Highlights feature automatically picks up on commonly occurring keywords and phrases, even if you haven’t decided to track them yet. These insights will help fuel your referral strategy moving forward. You can spot fellow small businesses that are actively referring customers to you, then reach out and offer to do the same for them — building a long-lasting referral partnership.
Imagine an orthodontist. Conversation Intelligence identifies the words “Henry Family Dental” again and again, in phrases like “Referred by Henry Family Dental”, “Heard about you guys from Henry Family Dental”, “Henry Family Dental recommended I look into Invisalign with your practice,” and so on.
You can create a custom workflow that tags all such mentions as “URGENT” and redirects these callers to your best available agent. Plus, you can reach out to thank Henry Family Dental and discuss a reciprocal arrangement.
Understand which referral sources bring in the most business
Tracked numbers allow you to identify, at a glance, how much business you generate via referrals by diving into CallRail’s Call Analytics. Simply generate a Calls by source attribution report to see which percent of your source mix comes directly from referrals. You can go a step further by using different tracked numbers for each partner to see how many leads each respective partner is driving — particularly valuable if you have an active and growing referral network.
Legal practices, for instance, often recommend other firms that handle different practice areas to their clients. Therefore, law firms should consider having a different tracking number for referrals that come from their family law practice partner versus estate planning and so on.
Make referrals work for you and your partners
CallRail helps businesses understand where referrals are coming from, identify and prioritize them efficiently, and capitalize on their most valuable referral sources. A rising tide lifts all boats, and a strong referral network means more business for everyone.
With CallRail, you can level up your referral strategy and help partner businesses do the same.
Sign up for our Refer a friend program today, and both you and the partner business you refer will receive $100.
