1. Configuring too many products

Do not over complicate your initial set of product choices to refer especially if your organization has not had an existing formalized referral system. For example, if you offer 5 different types of a product but the average teller or csr is not trained to differentiate or identify a referral for each of those different types then you should create a generic product in Referral Trak to capture all 5 products into 1.

2. Educate referral senders so that they do not use the "toss it all up on the wall and see what sticks" approach.

Referral Trak creates a separate tracked event (referred product or service) for each product that is selected. Employees that click off multiple products in the hopes of getting a greater chance at an incentive payment are doing 2 bad things: cluttering the database and reports, and making more work for the processor of referrals. If the users that are sending referrals are having problems understanding which products to select, or how to identify the customer need and match it with the correct product or product group you have several options that can be used independently or in concert: * use the Quick Referral feature in Referral Trak * provide more training and guidance * make the products more generic

3. Overuse of Incent on Create

Employees may be tempted to put it bogus referrals if they get an incentive that is generated when the referral is created. Referral Trak supports this option as it can be a great way to jump start a new program or new product but for established programs we suggest that incentives be paid upon Qualification or Closing (sale was made).

4. Creating too many Program Administrators

We suggest having one strong leader be the primary PA, with 1 or perhaps 2 at most in backup. If too many people "share" the duties then the housekeeping and re-training that need to happen from time to time will not get done. Reporting accuracy will suffer first, and then ultimately the program will start to lose effectiveness as the users will tend to use the system in different ways when there is no centralize oversight and policy communication.

5. Do not rush your implementation; but at the same time do not lose your momentum with a slow moving roll-out

Referral Trak can be setup in a day or less from a system/it perspective. It is very easy to add products, users, and departments and map them. Typically though a 60 to 90 day process is involved in planning and communicating the roll-out within an organization (scheduling blocks of time for training sessions and getting good attendance is critical). Roll-outs that take longer than this period of time can suffer from a loss of interest and re-training will often be required to re-gain the momentum. If you are having trouble defining your referral program due to lack of experience or confidence in a particular approach consider a pilot program that incorporates the full use of the program at a sub-set of branches. This will allow you to gather data and fact-based evidence needed to design your final program instead of relying upon guesswork and opinions.

6. Ensure that you communication with Richweb; ask questions !

If you are having a problem we need to hear about it. Waiting to discuss a problem for several months may make more work in the end to clean up reports for example. Don t hesitate to call Richweb if you need help ! © 2008 Richweb.com All Rights Reserved