There's nothing like a referral from a satisfied customer to instill trust in a prospective customer.  As long as you provide a quality product and quality service, you will eventually get some customer referrals.  However, many people hope to help the process along by starting a customer referral program.

A customer referral program can be as simple as remembering to ask customers for referrals.  You can do this one of two ways:  ask them to refer their friends or ask them to give you information to contact some of their friends.  Most people will be more willing to pass your name on than to give you access to others' contact info.  You can ask for referrals verbally or in writing.  A written request could be in a flyer, letter, email, brochure or on the back of a business card. 

You don't have to offer a reward for customers - you could simply call or write to them for the referral. 

However, the number of your referrals will probably go up if you offer them something in return.  Incentives should be given on sales from the new customer.  They can take many forms:

√ A discount on a future purchase
√ A free piece of jewelry or lot of beads
√ Something related to beads such as a jewelry cleaning cloth
√ Something completely unrelated to jewelry such as a single rose, a small box of chocolates, a manicure, or gift certificates to lunch or a movie. 

There are tons of options in every price range.

When you start your referral program, you have to keep in mind that most people are not going to expend a whole lot of energy for a coupon worth 5.00 off a piece of 50.00 jewelry.  This incentive will give an extra push to those already to offer your services to friends.  Some dealers try to sweeten the pot even more by having a referral contest.  The contest would run for a specified period of time.  During the contest, each customer would receive a chance to win a grand prize for every new customer they refer.  At the end of the contest, a grand prize winner is selected.  The grand prize could be a free piece of jewelry of their choosing, gift certificates for dinner or even a substantial sum of money.  Again, bear in mind that the amount of the grand prize should fit the price range of your goods.  If your pieces retail for 100.00, you could give dinner for two or a 100.00 prize.  On the other hand, if most of your pieces go for 19.95, price your prize accordingly - an elegant lunch, your top end piece of jewelry or 25.00 cash.

Want to increase sales without dealing with all the work involved in handing out incentives?  Have a charity month.  Tell your customers that 10% of all sales made in (for example) May will go to a charity of your choosing then ask for referrals.  You can tie the charity event in with the raffle.  The winner of the raffle gets to pick the non-profit to receive the funds. 

Whichever option you choose, customer referral plans do pay off long term.  But it may be a while before you see the results of your new campaign.  Some referees will look several times before they buy.  And many customers will actually refer more people after they get an incentive then before.  Think about it - imagine your customer's face when they receive a rose.  I bet they'll tell all their friends about it!  Then too, visitors will see the rose and comment on it.  As with many of the marketing options we present here, a referral program can generate a lot of return and good will without a huge cash outlay.