To get ahead of the competition, every business must grow, and that includes fitness or wellness businesses. Your business needs to retain the customers it has while still attracting new clients to be profitable. Even if you already have a loyal customer base, the market can change at any time, and you may lose a few customers.
If your clients are satisfied with the results you provide them, they should be motivated to refer their friends to your business. But having a profitable referral program on hand may help a great deal in your marketing strategy to help increase business referrals.
What Are Business Referrals?
According to Hubspot, a business referral is when an existing customer refers your business to a new customer, which may happen in a passing conversation. It could come from your referral marketing efforts. Often, referrals are made on a whim, but companies can increase business referrals by putting customer service first and then using referral marketing platforms to help keep track of referrals.
Customer Experience
If you want your fitness and wellness business to grow, give your customers something to talk about before you start asking for customer referrals. As you and your employees go about your daily classes and sessions, you must always think about people’s needs. To be able to keep their attention, you need not only to thrill them, but also to delight them.
Give people results
Your customers are already walking billboards for your business. If your current customers are pleased with the results of taking your fitness classes or getting spa treatments, they will tell friends and family about you.
When they see how much healthier and fitter your clients are, they will reach out to you and start to come into your business. This is one inexpensive way to gain referrals because you know that these are quality referrals who are coming in to fulfill a need, rather than using traditional marketing such as paid advertising.
Present the benefits that can help them achieve their goals
It might be worthwhile for you to find out what a customer’s goals are when they visit your gym or wellness shop in order to attract customers who respect your knowledge. Once you know their goals, you go above and beyond to provide them with the right solutions that can help them in their daily lives.
For instance, in your fitness boutique, you can teach them more than just what exercises to do, how to do them, and when to do them. Help them understand why doing a particular exercise will help them achieve their goals.
Your goal when seeing a frequent customer is to make the most of your time with them. Even when you are not with them, you want them to be efficient at their other workouts and daily life activities.
Take care of your customers
When delivering one-time spa sessions or classes, always offer high points throughout the customer experience and even afterward. This means you should continue to invest in your customer relationships and provide strategies so your customers will remember your business.
For instance, offering a challenging workout is one thing, but making them sore or injured in the process is another. You don’t want your customers saying things like, “That class I took a few days ago left me with sore muscles.”
Whenever possible, make sure you ask your customers if they have any pain or previous injuries before a class. Always give adjustments if you notice a new member joining your class.
In a spa, customers must feel comfortable enough to tell massage therapists about previous injuries or pain so that they are able to massage any problem areas on the body accordingly.
Establish customer loyalty by providing excellent customer service, and maintaining tight after sales service standards.
In today’s world of faceless customer service messaging and texts, customer service is highly valued. You will have a strong base from which to build a referral marketing program if all of these are handled correctly.
Customer Experience
No matter how hard you try, even your most loyal customers may not know about your referral program. Don’t assume that customers stopping by your business are aware of your referral program. Customers have already praised your excellent customer service to their friends and families, so use their loyalty and trust in your business by informing them of your referral program.
Ask for referrals by word-of-mouth and online
Word-of-mouth marketing requires promotion. Have your instructors talk about the referral programs before or after class to help spread the word with customers. You can provide your current customers with free gym or spa pass cards, which they can hand out to friends and family.
Your website can include a referral form for members. Set up a social media campaign centered on referrals, encouraging followers to refer friends. Adding social media integration to popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can assist with sharing content, linking to unique content, and promoting special offers.
Offer a double-incentive referral program
For a customer to refer their friends and family, provide both existing clients and potential new customers with a double-incentive referral program. Referral programs that reward both the customers and the potential customers receive that same incentive or a different one from each other.
For example, if a customer refers to a friend who buys a class package, they both receive a free small group training session. The customer can also receive points or credit for the referral.
It’s worth noting that the incentives may need to change depending on your customer base and marketing efforts. Depending on your situation, you may want to create referral programs for potential customers as well as for local social media influencers.
A tier system may also be an option, where your customers get more benefits with each referral including branded merchandise or membership in a community of brand ambassadors.
Make your referral program easier for sharing
Most businesses make the mistake of thinking their customers know how to share a referral link when they join a referral program. In fact, your customers will ask the question, “How do I share my referral link?”
With the right referral marketing platform, customers can share their referral link easily via text or email. For example, they can share their referral link via a text message with a friend for a free workout and then they can earn $50. The friend comes in to redeem a free workout, and the existing customer receives the credit along with a thank you note.
Increase Your Business Referrals With These Steps
To be successful with a referral campaign, get to know your customers. Ask them about where their friends train and seek their input on what they would like to see more of that’s going to motivate them to bring friends and family.
In the day and age of social media, consumer referrals go beyond the face-to-face, conversational methods of the past. You can make it easier for your customers to refer their friends and family with a referral marketing platform, so you can keep track of business referrals and give them their due incentives.
If done correctly, a referral campaign can significantly increase the number of increased business referrals your company receives. Once you have established it, be sure to monitor its success and track where the greatest impact is being felt.
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