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Check out a few of Brittany’s most recently published blogs and kickstart your superfan strategy!
Four Rules to Maximize Customer Referrals
When your customers become superfans, they don’t just come back; they advocate on your behalf and encourage their friends and family members to become customers, too. These referrals aren’t just a bonus; they’re necessary for sustained growth. Did you know that referred clients are 36 times more valuable than cold calls and four times more valuable than web leads? According to Inside Sales, they’re also twice as likely to come back for more. You have more competition now than ever before. You’re not just competing with all the new players in your industry, but also with all the things taking your prospects’ and customers’ attention. That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is so important. According to Neilsen, 88% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over any other form of traditional advertising. If you had to estimate, what percentage of your business in 2024 came from referrals? Last month, I spoke to a group of entrepreneurs across all industries and challenged them to track their customers using these four categories: Four Types of Customers Where do your customers come from? If you look at your 2024 numbers, what does the distribution across these buckets look like? And more importantly, what do you hope it will look like in 2025? Having a balanced approach is great, but the more you can tilt the scales toward repeat and referral customers, the stronger your business will be. So, how do you earn more referrals? Obviously, the first step is to create an experience worth sharing — that’s the barrier to entry. But we can’t just create a WOW moment and pray for the referral. Four rules to follow for maximizing referrals 1. You can earn referrals long before the deal closes Creating a referral-worthy experience starts the moment a prospect first learns about you. Set the tone early with stellar communication, helpful resources, and genuine connection. In my keynote, I tell the story about the first time I ordered something from Chewy.com. I was so impressed with my checkout experience that I was already telling my friends about them before I ever got my first shipment of dog food. 2. The deal closes, but the experience continues The work doesn’t end once the contract is signed or the home is sold. Keep the momentum going by exceeding expectations post-sale. Follow up, check-in, and ensure every interaction is as amazing as the first. When you stay top-of-mind with your customers, you’ll significantly increase your chances of being remembered and referred. I like to send small treats and cards throughout the year to remind my clients that I care about them! What can you do to share relevant and helpful information or stay in contact with your customers? 3. Ask, and you will (often) receive Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals! Your superfans are more than happy to share your business with others, especially if they know you’re looking to grow your community. You can say something like, “If you have any friends or colleagues who would benefit from our [product/service], I would really appreciate an introduction—especially if they’re as great as you! I’ll make sure any friend you send this way gets white-glove treatment.” You can also offer a referral bonus to incentivize them further. 4. If you want to earn more referrals, give more referrals Relationships are a two-way street. The more you support and recommend others, the more likely they will do the same for you. Often times after I speak at an event, I’ll reach out to the planner and ask them if they’d like recommendations for the following year’s conference. It gives me the opportunity to be helpful to my client AND my speaking colleagues — the ultimate win-win! In today’s competitive landscape, referrals are more than just a nice-to-have; they’re an essential component of sustainable growth. By creating memorable experiences, staying connected beyond the sale, and actively encouraging referrals, you can build a loyal customer base eager to advocate on your behalf. Remember, referrals aren’t just luck — they’re a result of consistent effort and intentional relationship-building. So, take the steps to turn your best customers into superfans who can’t wait to share your business with others.
Creating Superfans Podcast Episode 313: Brittany Hodak
SUBSCRIBE: If you’ve listened to this podcast before, you know that I constantly say “If your customers aren’t telling their friends about you, you’re in trouble.” So in today’s episode, let’s actually talk about HOW to get your customers to refer you to their friends. It’s not enough to create an exceptional experience worth sharing – that’s the barrier to entry. In this episode, I’m going to outline the four main buckets that your customers fall into: paid, reputation, repeat, and referral. I’m also going to share with you a special offer on a course ALL about referrals from my late friend, John Ruhlin. Sign up for the Referral Partner Transformation course here Listen to the Episode Transcription Brittany Hodak [00:00:02]:Hello, and welcome to the Creating Superfans podcast. I’m Brittany Hodak. And if you’ve listened to this show before, you know that I start every episode by saying if your customers aren’t telling their friends about you, you’re in trouble, And that’s because referrals are the most important ingredient for success in every single business. Did you know that a referred customer is 36 times more valuable than a cold call and more than 4 times as valuable than a web lead. And according to inside sales, they are also twice as likely to come back and see you again. Here’s the deal. You have more competition now than you ever have at any point. That’s because your customers aren’t just comparing you to your direct competitors. Brittany Hodak [00:00:47]:They’re weighing their decisions for how they spend their money and their time against your indirect competitors as well. So it’s not just all of the new players in your industry, but also all of the things that are taking your prospects and your customers’ attention. And that is why word-of-mouth marketing and referrals are so important. In fact, according to Nielsen, 88% of customers trust recommendations from people that they trust, so friends and family members, over any other form of advertising. Think about it. Are you more likely to take action if somebody you trust tells you that you should? Probably. Right? So a question that I’ve been asking to customers and prospects and clients this year is, okay, if you were gonna estimate what percentage of your business this year came from referrals? And what I found is that a lot of people aren’t tracking this metric, or at least they aren’t tracking it closely. They may be able to tell me, well, I feel like more than half my business is coming from referrals, or I feel like I’m getting even more referrals this year than I did last year. Brittany Hodak [00:01:57]:So I started to think about what it would look like to formalize this process. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been talking to groups and challenging them to track their customers using 4 buckets. So think about all of the customers that you’ve worked with this year, whether you’ve got a b to b business or a b to c business or you’re b to b to c. Think about all of the customers that have come into your company through your pipeline. They come from 1 of 4 places. The first bucket is the paid bucket. These are customers that you’re acquiring through your marketing campaigns, through ads, through promotions. Somehow, you paid for them to see your message. Brittany Hodak [00:02:40]:It was very likely interruptive marketing. Right? Like, you served them an ad. You met them where they were at and said, hey. Pay attention to me. So those are your paid customers. Those are the customers that cost the most for you to acquire. The second bucket is the reputation bucket. Now some of these customers you pay for, but a lot of them you don’t. Brittany Hodak [00:03:03]:These are people who find you because of your reputation online. So maybe it’s Google. Maybe it’s social media reviews. They also could find you from your reputation offline. So PR, maybe they read an article about you, maybe you got an award, they saw something about you in community in the community. Your reputation is what made them choose you over one of your competitors. So that bucket is part paid, part earned. Now the next 2 buckets are all earned. Brittany Hodak [00:03:35]:The third one is referrals. Those are customers who were created by existing customers. If you’ve heard me talk about creating super fans, that’s the big idea. These are customers who are so delighted by their experience that they tell their friends. We love referrals. This entire podcast is gonna be about why they matter and how to get more of them. And then that 4th bucket is repeat customers, so somebody who’s coming back to you again. As you think about your business from this year, where have your customers come from? What would the distribution of those buckets look like? Go ahead and pause this episode right now if you wanna look at it or think about it to decide not just where you think those buckets fall this year, but what you want them to look like over the next 3, 6, or 12 months. Brittany Hodak [00:04:28]:The more you can tilt the scale toward having those customers come in through those 3rd 4th buckets, the stronger your business will be. The lower your customer acquisition cost will be and the higher the amount of time that you’ll get to spend taking care of customers rather than trying to attract new strangers into your business will be. Here’s a really, really cool stat about referrals. I’ve seen a couple of different versions of this, and the exact number is gonna vary based on your business anyway. I’ve seen it quoted as anywhere from 3 and a half x to 5 x, but somebody who is referred to you is several times more likely to refer somebody else. And it makes sense if you think about
Creating Superfans Podcast Episode 312: Rhea Lana Riner
SUBSCRIBE: I’m excited to share a conversation with a truly inspiring entrepreneur. Joining us this week is Rhea Lana Riner, the founder and CEO of Rhea Lana’s Children’s Consignment—an award-winning franchise with over 125 locations in 26 states. Rhea Lana’s journey began with a simple consignment event in her living room, aimed at helping local families. We’ll explore how she took those humble beginnings and grew them into a thriving business, including the many challenges along the way. You’ll hear us discuss how Rhea Lana equips her franchisees to recreate the magic in each new location, including the technology that allows owners to focus on the most impactful human interactions. If you’re interested in what it takes to build a customer-centric business that scales, you’re in for a great episode. Learn more about Rhea Lana’s here. Listen to the Episode Transcription Brittany Hodak [00:00:01]:Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Creating Super Fans podcast. Here’s the deal. If your customers aren’t telling their friends how awesome you are, you’re in trouble. But don’t worry. By the end of this episode, you’ll have some brand new tips for how to turn more of your customers into super fans. I’m excited to share a conversation with a truly inspiring entrepreneur today. Joining us is Rhea Lana Riner, the founder and CEO of Rhea Lana’s Children’s Consignment, an award winning franchise with over a 125 locations in 26 states. Rhea Lana’s journey began with a simple consignment event in her living room aimed at helping local families. Brittany Hodak [00:00:37]:Today, we’ll explore how she took those humble beginnings and grew them into a thriving nationwide business. We’ll discuss how Rhea Lana equips her franchisees to recreate the magic in each new location, including the technology that allows the owners to focus on the most impactful human interactions. If you’re interested in what it takes to build a customer centric business that scales, you’re gonna find tons of gems in today’s episode. Let’s get into it. Rhea Lana, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s so great to see you again. I would love to start by you giving a little bit of overview of the business for anybody who’s unfamiliar with all the great work that you’re doing. Rhea Lana Riner [00:01:14]:Well, hi, Brittany. It is such an honor to be here today. Yes. I do children’s consignment events. And so we do these pop up events, and we create a beautiful marketplace for families filled with secondhand gently used children’s items. So that’s it in a nutshell. Brittany Hodak [00:01:33]:Preloved clothes that that people can have a blast acquiring. How how did you have this idea to start this company? What inspired the the creation of this brand? Rhea Lana Riner [00:01:45]:I was a young mom. It was about 25 years ago. I had 3 small children, and our money was tight. Like many families, we lived paycheck to paycheck, and I was trying to figure out how to have really nice things for my children while also staying within the budget. And I loved secondhand shopping, but in that time, there weren’t a lot of great secondhand shopping opportunities, to be quite honest. And so, I wanted to create just something special that because I I was a mom. I knew all the challenges that moms face, you know, to balance family and all the things. And so I just really did wanna have create this special shopping experience for moms. Rhea Lana Riner [00:02:25]:So the first one was in my living room, though. So, really, that was my only dream was just just have it into my living room with a few friends. Brittany Hodak [00:02:33]:And how quickly after you had that first event did you know that you were on to something and schedule that second event? Rhea Lana Riner [00:02:40]:Well, I have to admit the first one failed. I wasn’t very good at marketing, to be honest. My natural personality is an introvert, and I thought if I made it perfect, people will come. And so the problem was I had to learn to get out and invite people. And so the first one, that was in my home, not that many people came, and so I I had 11 consignors, 3 racks of clothes in my living room, that very first sale. And so I actually had to call all 11 consignors. These are the moms that were selling their gently used things and said, will you please give me another shot? Can I do it? What can I keep them and do it one more time? And so I did another sale, and I had to learn to get out there and put myself out, invite people, learn a little more about marketing. But then, really, within, a year or so, it just it would just took over another room of my house, took all over my whole house until then we had to move, find places outside of my home. Rhea Lana Riner [00:03:34]:So it it I could tell that moms loved what we did. There just wasn’t anything out there like what we were doing. Brittany Hodak [00:03:40]:Well and what a great lesson to not have sort of hung your head between your tail, whatever the expression is, inside. I I failed. This this didn’t work. It was a good idea, but it didn’t work because so often, I think people try something once, get discouraged, and walk away. So for you to have had the perseverance even back then to say, let me look at this objectively, see where I could do something a little differently, and try again. Rhea Lana Riner [00:04:08]:Well, I didn’t wanna give up yet, but I I agree. It is easy to give up, especially you know, I think as women, we want to be accepted, and we want people to you know? But I I did have to learn that
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