Comments on: Friday Q&A: The Best Customer Referral Strategies For SaaS Companies

By: Lisa Abbott

Lisa Abbott — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 01:17:39 +0000

You are so right about asking for referrals right after someone identifies themselves as a Promoter via an NPS survey. Those folks are GOLD. A post-survey “thank you” screen can link out to a referral program, prompt social share, whatever you need, too.

I’m Marketing Director at Wootric, an in-app NPS Platform. Our customers do this all the time. Great for SaaS. Works like a charm.

Thanks for another great article, Alex!

By: Jeff Epstein

Jeff Epstein — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 22:32:38 +0000

Thanks for the shout out Alex, appreciate it!

Your commentary is spot on, I would add a few items to consider from a B2B perspective, specifically:

1) B2B Referrals should extend beyond customers. I bet many readers of this blog would refer Groove even though they may not be a customer themselves.

You can cast a wider net by offering a referral program to consultants or partners. In these cases, a recurring revenue share is the ideal incentive.

2) B2B Referrals are opportunistic, keeping the referral program top-of-mind is key.

Even your biggest B2B referrers aren’t likely to sing your praises daily. A B2B referral requires the right person at the right time. Sometimes this may be weeks or months after they join the program.

3) Less friction = More referrals.

Making a referral should be easy. The more seamless the experience (including notifications & payouts) the more likely people are to continue. This is probably as important as the actual incentive…

Thanks again, we’re all big fans of your blog here at Ambassador HQ 🙂

By: Sudhesh Suresh

Sudhesh Suresh — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 21:56:05 +0000

Great tips Alex. Thanks!

By: James McBryan

James McBryan — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 19:58:32 +0000

Thanks for answering this! I’ve implemented a referral strategy recently and it’s basically being ignored because there is no timing involved. So I experimented last week and asked for a review from 2 people that I really wow’ed with support, and they did right away, I was impressed! Also thanks for those company links, I never heard of them but will check it out.

I’ve been keeping a list of referral “asks” after the WOW factor and how well they have worked so far:
* Write a review on capterra — always works
* Customer Interview — usually works
* Ask for a warm introduction — only works if they know someone
* Offering money for referral — hasn’t worked yet

Should I just focus on reviews and interviews since they are working? or should I focus on the salesy ones (i.e. warm intro / referral fee) and try to perfect them? I wish I could do them all, but how should I approach choosing the one to invest in?

By: jlogic

jlogic — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 16:48:33 +0000

Long time reader. Love your articles and I’m glad I can finally contribute to one.

I totally agree, right after the “WOW” moment is a great time to ask. In addition to that we also recommend, passively “sprinkling” links to your referral program around, so they can be found when needed. i.e. bottom of invoices. footer of your website, bottom of weekly emails…

Also using a system like ours, Ambassador or Saasquatch not only makes it easy for you and your customers but also promotes trust and transparency where the customer can see the referrals and their statuses.

Full disclosure: I am the founder of Referral Rock, an up and coming referral marketing SaaS.

Plenty of other tips on our blog!