Putting your customers to work for you

Almost a year ago, we began having the visitors to our bridal boutique fill out a "bridal registration" form, giving us their names, e-mails, wedding dates, and how they found our store.

This last peice of information has certainly helped me know where to put our advertising energy and dollars. Nearly 90% of brides who visit our store for the first time have heard about us from another customer!

So, we started both formal and informal "Referral Plans", to thank our customers who send someone our way. I still do some paid advertising, but I also enjoy finding ways to "pay" our customers for advertising for us, too.

Although we do not track this information at the dry cleaners currently, we will often reward a customer who refers someone to that business, too.

Remember, if your budget or business does not allow you to formally compensate your customers, an old-fashioned hand-written "thank you" note is always appreciated!

Will this work for you? Should you track this information? Should your referral program be formal or informal? perhaps a combination of both?