We at EZLynx realize your existing consumers (policy holders) are the best marketers and promoters of your business as they have current experience with using your services. Word-of-mouth marketing is the perfect vehicle for your brand message, and referral programs are one of the best ways to make it happen. A consumer referral program encourages current consumers to recommend a product or service to their peers. 


The role of a successful referral program is to turn happy consumers into your brand advocates. Statistics say 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know, and consumers referred by a friend are 4x more likely to buy. When real people start recommending your agency's brand, you can gain instant trust from new users which could help boost your conversion rates. 


Considering all the valuable benefits of referrals, EZLynx is proud to announce another amazing enhancement to Client Center - The Referral Program! 


If you have a Google Business Account, make sure to check out the Google Reviews Client Center Referral Program feature as well!


TABLE OF CONTENTS



Did you know? - You can make the images in our articles bigger by clicking on them!


What is the Referral Program?


Instead of investing in campaigns that target potential buyers directly, your agency can use the Client Center - Referral Program to let your best customers do the talking, which can be far more effective than spreading the message yourself. 

  • If your consumers are happy, they will be able to refer their friends which will generate opportunities for you to acquire new customers. 
  • If your consumers are dissatisfied with your services, they will be able to explain the reason for their dissatisfaction. The reasons will be visible in EZLynx allowing you the opportunity to take appropriate action. 


This feature will help you understand the overall experience level of your consumers with your agency. We are confident that this will allow you to leverage your relationship with existing consumers to win new business!


How do I setup the Referral Program?


In order for your agency to have access to the Client Center - Referral Program, your agency must have both our Client Center & Sales Center products. 


"Why do I need Sales Center?," you might ask. This is because if a customer refers a friend, a sales opportunity will automatically be created in the Sales Center product! Sales Center is focused on growing your business by streamlining your agency's sales pipeline. By channeling the referrals into Sales Center, you can manage all your new business opportunities in one single place. No more need for cumbersome spreadsheets or multiple systems to manage referrals. To learn more about our Sales Center product, check out our Sales Center - How to Work the Sales Pipeline article!


  • To tell if you have Client Center, check an applicant's account pane. If you have Client Center, you will see the Client Center folder icon under the Account Name.



  • To tell if you have Sales Center, check the left navigation bar. If you have Sales Center, you will see the Sales Center briefcase icon near the bottom.



  • To tell if you have the Client Center - Referral Program, a Client Center Admin can check the Client Center Settings. If your agency has the Client Center - Referral Program, a Client Center Admin will see the Client Center Referral section under General Preferences.



Your agency's Client Center Admin will be able to customize the referral program messages to best suit your agency. We have provided default messages for your convenience, but you can choose the "Customize" option to enter in messages you prefer. 



For an example, let's talk about the text box "Enter referral incentive text". By default this text box is blank, however, you can specify an incentive you want to provide to your consumers for bringing in referrals. If a consumer provides a rating of 4 or 5 stars, they will see the incentive message inciting them to refer someone! 



Best Practices! - Don't forget to scroll to the bottom of Client Center Settings and click the Save Changes button, so you don't lose all your hard work!


How do my consumers see the Referral Program?


Your consumers will see a simple question stating "How would you rate your experience with our agency?" after they complete one of the following actions in Client Center:

  • Download an ID Card
  • Download any Document
  • Download Certificates
  • Request a Certificate 
  • Request a Change
  • Make a Payment
  • Interact with the Connect Cross Sell Offerings


Your consumers will be able to provide a rating of 1 to 5 stars (1, 2, or 3 being dissatisfied and 4 or 5 being satisfied). Once a consumer completes a survey, the survey will not appear for that consumer for 6 months. After 6 months has passed, the survey will appear again the next time the consumer does one of the self-service actions listed above.


Remember, the consumer is coming to Client Center to complete some kind of task. Once that task is completed, their feeling of accomplishment is high making it more likely that they will take the time to fill out the survey. If the survey was just a button that was always visible, the consumer might simply ignore it. Hence, why the survey shows up after a task is completed!


What happens if they rate 1-3 stars?


If your consumer provides a rating of 1, 2, or 3 stars, a comment box will appear allowing them to type in the reason for their dissatisfaction. 



This text box is a required field. However, if the consumer clicks away from the screen, for example by clicking on the Home Page for Client Center, then they can bypass having to add a comment. 

  • If a consumer rates a 1, 2, or 3 AND submits a comment, a task will be auto-assigned to the assigned to agent. This will trigger a new task notification based on how your Agency Admin has your task notifications configured. To learn more about task notifications, check out our Agency Workspace - Notes, Tasks, & Task Reminders help article! This notification will help you to take timely action to improve customer services and ultimately retain the consumer in the future.
  • If a consumer rates a 1, 2, or 3 BUT DOES NOT submit a comment, a task is NOT created as there is not enough additional information provided to create a task. This means that nothing will appear under the Activity Tab if the consumer does not input a comment.


EZLynx is working on coming up with a report for survey feedback so be on the lookout for future releases!


What happens if they rate 4-5 stars?


If your consumer provides a rating of either 4 or 5 stars, it bodes well for your agency as they are happy with your services and might refer their friends and colleagues resulting in additional business. After providing a positive rating, they will see the referral incentive text if enabled and have the option to provide information about a person or persons they want to refer. The information requested is as follows:


  • First Name - Required
  • Last Name - Required
  • Email - Only one contact method is required
  • Phone Number - Only one contact method is required
  • Type of Insurance - This means if it is personal, business, or other. It is not a required field. Also, the consumer is able to input multiple types of insurance if they would like.


If your consumer does not want to refer someone, they can simply click the No Thanks button. If the consumer provides a rating of 4 or 5 stars and DOES NOT refer someone, then nothing will appear under the Activity Tab. EZLynx is working on coming up with a report for survey feedback so be on the lookout for future releases!



If your consumer refers someone to your agency, a prospect account will automatically be created in EZLynx for you. For example, if John Smith is your existing customer and they have referred Mary Sue, an account by the name of Mary Sue will be created, and the applicant type will be set to prospect/lead. 



Also, the referrer (consumer who referred another prospect) and referee (prospect who got referred by a consumer) are linked in the system, so that it is easy to understand who referred whom. 



  • In the case the referrer has referred a referee for personal auto or home, the referee's account type will be personal. 
  • In the case the referrer has referred a referee for business risks, the referee's account type will be commercial. 
  • In the case the referrer chooses "other" for the referee's insurance type, the referee's account type will match that of the referrer. i.e. If the referrer has a personal account type, then the referee will also have a personal account type.
  • In the case the referrer did not choose anything since Type of Insurance is not a required field, the system will default to "other" and will make the referee's account type match the account type of the referrer.
  • In the case the referrer has referred a referee for both personal & business, then the system will create an account type for each - one account for personal & one account for commercial. It also links the two accounts together as you can see in the image above.


To check to see what the Account Type is click on the Details tab of the referee's account. If for some reason the account type is wrong and you need to switch it, check out our How to Switch the Account Type help article! If for some reason you want to merge a personal & a commercial account, check out our Merging, Deleting, & Restoring Customer Accounts help article!



If your Sales Center Admin has the Create New Opportunities automated event turned on, then the system will also automatically create a sales opportunity in Sales Center for the referee and set the opportunity source to Referral - Client Center. This way you can easily tell who are referrals while using Sales Center.

Depending on how your Sales Center Admin has setup the New Opportunity Assignment & Producer Management Notifications will determine if you get a notification when a referral comes in. To learn more about Sales Center automated events & notifications, check out the Sales Center: Setup & Settings Customization help article!



Now that the referral is in the system you can use the contact information to work towards making them your new customer!