Can you play nice with other companies?
There are hundreds of thousands of service companies in the US, and all of them vary in the services and areas they cover. Inevitably, when you refer customers to another company, there is a possibility that the provider has a certain degree of competitive overlap with you.
About 20% of the referrals that go through Baton have an existing business relationship with company that provided the referral. To give everybody confidence that their customers are in good hands when referred through Baton, we created the Pledge to Protect.
Baton's Pledge to Protect: Safeguarding Business Relationships
To be eligible to receive existing customer referrals from other Baton companies - which tend to convert very well given the trusted recommendation of the referring company - you will need to agree to Baton’s Pledge to Protect.
Opting into the Pledge to Protect
If you are open to receiving referrals that are existing customers of other companies, you can signal that on your profile by agreeing to the Pledge to Protect. This means they can trust you to make a good-faith effort to represent them well and respect their existing business relationships.
On your profile you will see these two options for your profile:
Pledge to Protect
To the best of our ability, we will train our sales reps and technicians to respect any existing relationship between the customer and the company that refers them to us. Other companies can feel safe referring their current customers to us for additional services.
We'd rather not take current-customer referrals from other companies at this time.
Choosing to agree will open you up to receive the 20% of referrals that could come your way.
Not agreeing is perfectly fine. For many companies, especially larger ones, the costs associated with training sales reps on a new process specifically for these types of referrals isn’t worth the effort.
Consequences of Not Adhering to the Pledge
Note that if you agree to the Pledge to Protect, and fail to live up to the Pledge (I.e. you intentionally or accidentally poach the existing business relationship of a customer that was referred to you), there is a chance we will be required to remove the Pledge from your profile. If the poaching was accidental, and you’d like to keep your Pledge to Protect active, we will offer a resolution that you can make to the referring company.
The Pledge to Protect is one of many ways Baton makes referrals easier, safer, and more rewarding than ever.
The Risk of Avoiding Referrals Altogether
Some companies tell us “I don’t want to risk losing business to competitor, so I don’t refer my customers to anybody.”
On the surface, that sentiment makes sense. You wouldn’t want to actively be sending clients to your competition.
But if you don’t direct them somewhere, who will? Are they going to just not solve their problem? Or are they going to go to Google and start calling the top advertisers - who are likely your biggest, most aggressive competitors?
Chances are that they will actually be more likely than not to end up with somebody you wouldn’t prefer. Plus, declining to refer somebody when they ask for your help might signal to them that you aren’t interested in helping them.
With Baton’s Pledge to Protect, you can provide your customers with a trusted referral and have at least a certain level of assurance that your interests are top of mind. And the goodwill you generate among Baton partners will likely result in more business being sent back your way!