Lost for ever!

15/2/08

You get a referral and for some reason you don’t follow up on it.

It may be that you are just too busy, it’s not really your type of work, it’s only a small job and you don’t really want it, you lose the details, any one of a hundred reasons. But whatever you do, whatever it takes, you must follow up on every referral that you are given!

If you are too busy, let the person know. If it’s not really your type of work or too small a job, let them know – maybe you could even recommend someone else. If you lose the details call the Membership Co-ordinator and ask for them. Call the MC rather than the member who gave you the referral, as by calling the member and telling them that you lost the referral they gave (that they may have worked hard for), you are showing them that you didn’t really value their referral.

But why should we do this? Well, there are two really important reasons – one impacts on the Giver and the other on the Receiver.

The way it affects the Receiver is easy. If that person gains a reputation as a person who doesn’t follow up on referrals, what do you think will happen? The referrals stop coming!

But how it affects the Giver is almost undetectable but can have an unbelievable effect on the whole chapter – not just one person. And this I learnt the hard way!

I gave a referral to my next door neighbour and didn’t follow it up. Three weeks later I bumped into them and asked how they had got on, only to find out that they had not even been contacted. Embarrassed, I got on to the member concerned and asked what had happened – they had been too busy. Anyway, they promised to call immediately. I checked with my neighbour the next day and sure enough the member concerned had rung, apologised and made an appointment.

But they failed to turn up!

A few months later my neighbour was having some more work done and I recommended someone else from my chapter, their reply ‘… what like that last one?!’ Since then my neighbour has had the following jobs done: new bathroom, garden cleared, house decorated, plans for an extension drawn, building work, loan and who knows what else. All lost because a referral was not followed up and now my recommendations cannot be trusted!

So please, whatever it takes, follow up on every single referral that you are ever given.