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We Want More Referrals. What Can We Do?

 


Ask. For a two-hour period every Tuesday, Daniel Cronin, one of the four partners of Chorus Communications, in King of Prussia, Pa., has all 70 salespeople and 8 telemarketers at the telecommunications company calling customers. The goal: to make sure that customers are happy and to ask for referrals.

Dubbed "R& R Tuesday" (standing for "Referral and Retention"), the program yields roughly four prospects referred for every 10 customers called, Cronin says. Those referrals, in turn, account for 40% of new business at the company, which had almost $7 million in 1996 revenues. "It's a lot easier to mass-manage when you have everyone calling at once," Cronin explains. "And it motivates people to see a guy two desks away having success."

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