In the referral marketing space, many people think of ‘the customer’ as the end consumer of the product or the service that you provide.

If you sell skincare, it’s the man or woman who buys a bottle and enjoys your product.

If you sell online education, it’s the student that enrolls in your course.

If you sell fantastic nutrition products, it’s the client who purchases and consumes your nutrition.

We’ve all heard sayings like “the customer is always right”. A powerful reminder that success long-term in any business is attached at some point to creating satisfied customers.

A valueable switch is flipped in every executive’s mind when you ‘expand’ your view of the customer to everyone that participates in your referral marketing company.

“In our work with direct selling companies over the last 20 years, the key I’ve found is expanding your vision of creating a customer experience, to treat all stakeholders in your organization as the customer”

– Ben Dixon

The Raving Fan Progression

At NaXum, we’ve shared the concept of the Raving Fan Progression to highlight the path people travel within your ecosystem to virally grow your company through referral marketing:

1) People start as prospects.

2) As they become ‘fans’ they purchase your products or services and are now categorized as ‘retail customers’.

3) Some retail customers enjoy your product or service so much that they grow to be ‘bigger fans’ and choose to participate in your customer rewards programs, claiming rewards and taking action in your ecosystem. You might categorize the passionate fans that participate in your rewards program as ‘sharers’.

4) As your ‘sharers’ grow to be even greater fans of your organization, some will choose to enroll as a promoter or micro-influencer in your referral marketing program to earn actual financial rewards as an independent contractor and now will be categorized as ‘promoters’.

So which person is your customer?

By taking the perspective that all four categories will be viewed as the ‘customer’ in your strategy you can ask the right questions to optimize your business.

You can unpack the user experience of each category of member and examine different areas that are causing friction.

You can measure the actions that move people from one category to another, and where you are losing people from your ecosystem.

You can guide your investment strategy with questions like, “does this investment in technology or resources create the experience we’re seeking for all four kinds of customers we have”?

Insights Tools

Many companies are constricted when it comes to executing a strategy as we discussed above because they lack the actual tools and tracking to even know what activities are making a difference in the experience of their members.

Back in 2018, NaXum developed the Predictive Action Platform, which is a rules-based engine wrapped in a native mobile app, that allows companies to replicate the experience of a ‘top leader’ sitting next to the newest person on the team, suggesting what they do next.

By loading in suggested content for their members to share, companies can track all kinds of insights to optimize the experience of the different categories of people you have in your ecosystem.

To learn more about Predictive Actions: Schedule a discovery session here.