Our Referral Reward program at Country Auto in Jerome and Twin Falls is huge. It's one of the biggest I know about -- I've never heard of anybody in our area doing as much as we do. Country Auto management will forgive the balance of the customer's loan who refers 10 new, purchasing customers within 18 months.
So the way it works is that we have happy, satisfied customers who go out and tell their friends and family about the awesome service they received from us, and how we were able to get them into a vehicle that they love.
When the person they send in to see us buys a car, that person get $200 off the price. That saves them 200 bucks. And then we pay the person who referred them $200 – which can go toward their own car payment or it’s cash in their pocket. So they get a check for 200 bucks.
We also started a text program with that. The person who was referred can text 200CA to 31996 and they will get a coupon. All they have to do is have that coupon on the phone, come in and show it to us. That coupon is proof to us that somebody did send them. All they need to do is tell us who sent them so that they can also get their $200. They get $200 in their pocket and you get $200 off your car.
There is no limit to how many people you can refer, either. So if someone sends in enough friends and family to us and they all buy vehicles, someone could actually pay off their car if they have enough $200 referral rewards. The more the merrier, we'll just keep paying you!
It’s a successful program. We have a lot of referrals. We usually have around 50% - 60% referral and repeat business every month. I'd say about half of that's referrals.
We love to hear the comments people make about why they are coming to us as referrals. One of the biggest things we hear is that our staff is very helpful. We do a lot of training to keep customer as number one. One of our golden rules for the house is to service the customer above all else. We really do take that to heart, to treat our customers well. So that's one thing we hear a lot, that the customer service is awesome.
People are also happy about our warranty. If the car breaks down, we come running. If you call us, we answer the phone. We take this seriously. We give free roadside. So we will get the car picked up, brought in, and get it into our shop.
A lot of people who have been referred and that have been through that ordeal of a car breaking down know about our warranty. We tell them when they purchase a car that our warranty is true and real. And we stand behind it -- not just lip service, like a lot of people give. And then when something happens, we don’t run and hide like others do. That's probably the two biggest things our referrals come in for: our warranty and our customer service.
