That Referral Yellow copy

14/2/08

Have you ever wondered why you get to keep the yellow copy of the Referral set?

I expect that at your Member Success training you were told that it was so that you could keep track of your referrals and, like a great deal of the information you were given that evening, the importance of it was lost on you.

Well, if like a great many members you just tuck it away somewhere and never look at it again, I want you from today to consider its real value.

If you ask the Membership Co-ordinator, they can tell you (from the PALMS report) how many referrals you have given in, say, the last month, last six months, in fact ever since you became a member. But, at least without a great deal of effort, that’s about it.

However, if you make a record of those yellow slips you can see who you are giving referrals to and who you aren’t. You can see how many referrals you are giving to each member and how often.

But the most crucial thing you can do in my mind is to use the yellow copy to follow up on every referral you give! And the best way that I have found to do this is by sending a quick email to the person I given the referral to (two of three days later) saying something like ‘.. I was just wondering how you got on with my referral...' Then, if for some reason, your referral has been overlooked the person is straight on the phone and putting it right.

The result: your contact gets a better service, the person you gave the referral to increases their chance of winning the business and you get to give more referrals.

I’ll explain that last comment next time.