Step 1. Understand what Referral Trak is and what it can do

Referral Trak is designed to track the development and retention of several key sales-centric concepts and behaviors within your organization: * improve the customer retention * deepen the amount of business retained by the bank per household * educate employees about the products and services that the bank sells so they all employees and identify new business opportunities  

Step 2. Determine what kind of sales culture exists at your organization

Installing Referral Trak at your organization will not create a sales culture on its own; the development of a sales culture that meshes with the goals of your organization's leadership is something that must take place along with the Referral Trak implementation. All organizations have unique requirements and unique goals for enhancing and tracking the development of a stronger sales culture. You should identify these goals up front and then work with Richweb to configure Referral Trak so that it can be customized to fit into your organization. If you already have a paper or Excel-based Referral Tracking system then Referral Trak can be plugged in to streamline this process .If you do not have an excel or paper based referral tracking system already in place then the process of formalizing the program's design should take place at the same time you are learning about the features and capabilities of Referral Trak. Do not attempt to roll out Referral Trak organization wide without a plan in place that is blessed by senior management.  

Step 3. Get senior management buy-in if you plan to change the current culture.

A successful Referral Trak implementation requires that senders of referrals and receivers work together. Select a strong leader(s) to head up the initial roll out and communicate the new expectations with the employees clearly and frequently. You can have a negative situation develop where plenty of referrals are being generated, but if the processors (receivers) of referrals are not updating the system then the feedback loop is not complete. The senders will not be incentivized to send referrals and the program will not be effective.  

Step 4. Give your incentive program teeth

Figure out what kinds of incentives work for your employees. Make sure that incentive requirements are clearly communicated and that in turn employee expectations are met. If employees are paid incentives on a quarterly basis for example, make sure they understand this and are not expecting to get credit for referrals that are not entered or processed until after the quarter ends. When will employees get their incentives ? Monthly ? Quarterly ? Will you incent based on teams or on an individual basis ? Will you use a points program or cash incentives ?

Step 5. Ensure that your lead Program Administrator has time reserved to run the program.

A PA is not just a clerical person that is in charge of resetting passwords. The ideal Referral Trak PA is involved in the decision making process of the organization, has the communication skills to interface with both employees and managers and the computer skills to help managers understand what the Referral Trak reports can tell them. Referral Trak reports depend on the quality of the data input into the system so that the reports can answer business questions such as: who is my most consistent source of referrals ? who is my most valuable source of high dollar referrals ? who is best at cross selling new products ? who should I incentivize and how much ? When ? Same questions - at the Branch/Department level  

Step 6. Insist on using an ongoing training model; Position Referral Trak as a program that benefits the employees directly as part of this training and culture growth.

Make sure management understands Referral Trak is not "fire and forget". Its an ongoing process. New employees must be integrated into the new cultures that are developed. Getting accurate answers to these questions from step 5 depends on training employees to take ownership in "their Referral Trak system". Employees need to properly identify new business opportunities and classify the new referrals accordingly and the recipients of the referrals need to process these referrals properly so that the senders get their rewards. If employees view this as "my system" that generates benefits for me the program will run much better than if the system is viewed as just another task or responsibility that "takes time out of my day".

Step 7. Monitor your organization's progress and stay updated on Referral Trak new features and new capabilities.

Ongoing success with Referral Trak depends upon on ongoing commitment from the Program Administrator and Managers to review reports, and address issues that may pop up such as: * New Employees that are not trained (problematic at organizations with higher levels of employee turn-over) * Existing employees that are not retaining behaviors (such as updating and closing out referrals) Richweb is constantly working on new tools, new reports, and new techniques to improve the Referral Trak software. Attend the winter user group meeting, ask questions, and if you are having a problem, contact Richweb ! We want to hear what is working for you and what is not working. In many instances an issue or problem that one organization is struggling with has already been seen an addressed with another organization and a software feature or option switch is available to help. In other cases a configuration change or methodology adjustment is all that is needed so again, don't be afraid to ask questions – that’s what will make your Referral Trak program work better over the long haul. © 2011 Richweb.com All Rights Reserved