The Keys to a Successful Referral Program

Achieving and maintaining high levels of customer acquisition and relationship expansion is a critical objective for financial institutions. Accomplishing this goal requires a properly skilled and qualified sales staff capable of pursuing all valid sales opportunities. Financial institutions can also leverage technology to capture and route referrals through an efficient, automated system. These solutions help identify the right staff to pursue potential sales opportunities, ensure follow-through on opportunities, and provide management with valuable performance insights.

When evaluating solutions, financial institutions should prioritize the following capabilities:

• Generating referrals by identifying consumer (customer or prospect) needs through staff-assisted and digital channels.
• Routing referrals to the appropriate teams or individuals for evaluation, follow-up, and fulfillment.
• Monitoring SLAs and exceptions to ensure timely resolution of opportunities.
• Enabling users to view, classify, act on, manage, reassign, and update referrals.
• Tracking outcomes using key performance indicators to provide management insights and feed into incentive systems.

While customer preferences increasingly shift toward digital interactions, most consumers still place a high value on human touch. Implementing a fully integrated Omni-channel approach blends automation with a reimagined role for branches and contact centers. Alongside customer-initiated acquisition, institution-initiated sales and marketing activities can boost revenue through an automation infrastructure. Although many consumers research and discover financial institutions independently, there is always an opportunity for proactive outreach to acquire new customers. Automation enhances the success of this new Omni-channel business model by:

• Expanding control over goal distribution and management at institutional, regional, branch, and individual levels.
• Increasing accountability through Book of Business and referral management.
• Tracking contacts, events, and workflows to prevent missed opportunities and SLA breaches.
• Providing management with insights for performance optimization.

Lead generation and customer acquisition drive revenue growth by integrating automation with staff-driven efforts. For more information download our interview: Creating Digital Revenue Streams through Customer Acquisition and Relationship Expansion