Client Data + Unique Gifting

= Incremental Revenue

Rod needed an activation point in his business cycle to create connection and a client for life, extending the relationship beyond the first transaction. As a lender gaining ~100 clients each year, he was too busy to handle client appreciation, service existing clients, prospect, stay top of mind with past clients, and grow referral partners.

Partnering with The Retention Experts created the following:

• 322% increase in referrals
• Increased future pipeline by 30%
• 4.37x ROI
• Has his past clients reaching out to him on their own
• A done for him strategic retention strategy, encompassing all relationships that drive revenue

“We’ve closed almost 50% of our referrals, and our clients are calling us instead of us reaching out to them.

I was skeptical to invest more into my retention and referral strategy with business gifts…but our investment into an annual retention strategy generated profits after only four months!”

Rod Kinney, Loan Officer

Challenges

Before Rod partnered with The Retention Experts, he knew client appreciation could correlate to more referrals and increased lifetime value when past clients use his services for re-finances or future home loans. However, he was missing several structures to stay top of mind, keep past clients engaged with his brand, and create raving fans. Rod was skeptical of investing more money in the retention and appreciation process – he had a budget for marketing and new client acquisition but spent very little on client retention and appreciation. We see this often, with no expert on staff focused on relationship retention.

Rod’s timing in giving the gifts at closing was ill timed with all of the emotions and stress involved with purchasing a home. Additionally, he was giving “the same old gifts”, similar to his competitors. As a result, his client appreciation wasn’t creating the emotional connection and longevity that he hoped appreciating his clients would bring! Most importantly, trying to create strategy, source gifts, deliver gifts, and follow up with past clients was costing him time and energy instead of doing what he does best, lending! In a fragmented industry (such as lending), Rod knew that appreciating his people and creating deeper emotional connections is key to repeat business and referrals.

Results and Return on Investment 

At publication time of this four-month case study, Rod experienced a 322% increase in referrals. Of those referrals, 70% either closed or are filling his future pipeline while in credit repair. Rod now has a system in place to appreciate his referral partners twice a year during times when no one else is. His retention strategy is stacking past client referrals, retaining old referral partner relationships, and helping him grow new referral partner relationships. Rod’s team’s time is now extremely leveraged, investing only about 30 minutes a month sending The Retention Experts a system-generated report of closed files.

Rod is currently experiencing a 4.37x ROI. Talk about a growth asset – especially when most businesses consider their client appreciation, business gifts, and corporate gifting a line-item expense, right?!

How The Retention Experts’ Service Helped

Rod gains about 100 clients each year, and as much as he understands appreciation is important, he was unsuccessful in building an appreciation system that could support his current clients, keep him top of mind with past clients, create referral partners, source gifts, send them, and track it all!

Partnering with a gifting company, such as The Retention Experts’ concierge service, allowed Rod to outsource to an expert and leverage his time doing what he does best. He was able to maximize his referrals in key moments with emotional highs as well as other key moments in the business cycle. Rod now has additional reasons to connect, add value, and follow up with clients and referral sources after closing, outside of just his business services. In addition to optimal timing, Rod also relied on The Retention Experts to source business gift ideas that keep his name and number in front of his clients 4+ times each week.  This made sense to Rod, because the personalized business gifts are also used in a referral setting where his clients could be entertaining friends, family, or co-workers and casually bring him up!

Click here to learn more about our done for you services and corporate gift ideas that Rod utilized

To download a PDF of this case study, click here