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How PensionBee Gets 5x More Customer Referrals with SaaSquatch

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PensionBee teamed up with SaaSquatch to automatically reward customers who invite friends to use the online pension service. The result? PensionBee gets 5x more referrals and acquires customers at a 20% lower rate. Keep reading to learn their story.

Our referral program has proven to be a cost-effective, fully-automated channel for growth. One of our most important criteria was to make every component automatic -- from rewards and analytics to notifications -- and it’s fully delivered on that front.

neill
Neill Vandenberg

Head of Performance Marketing, PensionBee

About PensionBee

PensionBee is on a mission to make pensions simple. As the UK's leading online pension provider, it has helped thousands of people save for a better retirement.

PensionBee lets savers combine all of their pensions into one brand new plan that they can manage like their bank account, with one clear balance and the ability to make contributions at any time through its website or mobile app.

The London-based pension provider focuses on putting its customers first by offering human support every step of the way, and by providing the tools and information needed for savers to plan for a comfortable retirement.

PensionBee’s easy-to-use online dashboard and mobile app lets savers monitor their pensions, see a projected retirement income and set up contributions in a few clicks.

The Challenge

PensionBee understood the value of word-of-mouth marketing as a way to grow their business from the start.

“At PensionBee, we believe that we’re solving a common problem for a lot of people. Referrals are a natural way for people to want to talk about it, so we wanted it to be easy for customers to refer our business,” shares Neill Vandenberg, Head of Performance Marketing at PensionBee.

They implemented a customer referral solution with a previous vendor, but it quickly led to challenges when manual work was needed to fulfill each reward and track referral activity. The lack of automation and integrations with 3rd party tools sparked a search for a new provider.

The team looked for a solution that addressed their challenges and was more likely to provide a positive return on investment. They needed a referral system that could connect seamlessly with Salesforce, and automate the program from tracking user activity, fulfilling rewards, updating accounts, and sending user notifications.

Most importantly to PensionBee, they needed a referral platform that could easily scale as PensionBee continued to grow.

Vandenberg shares that: “In terms of finding a new referral partner, our main priority was growth, but also how we could automate the whole process so we could future-proof it for scale.”

The Solution

PensionBee turned to SaaSquatch as their new referral provider. SaaSquatch offered more customization options, seamless program automation across web and mobile, and the expertise necessary to design a successful program.

With SaaSquatch, PensionBee offers a double-sided referral program that rewards promoters and their friends with £50 each, when the referred friend transfers a pension to PensionBee. Users can share their unique referral link through the web portal or mobile app.

Since launching a referral program with SaaSquatch:

  • PensionBee has seen an uplift of 4x - 5x more customer referrals.
  • Referrals have become an integral part of their marketing mix, bringing in new customers at a 20% lower cost of acquisition.

Plus, their referral program runs itself - rewards are automatically triggered when the required actions are completed, and conversion data is automatically loaded into Salesforce. Program managers review conversion results on a regular basis to gauge performance and optimize the program.

Vandenberg shares how “the SaaSquatch platform is really simple to use and fully automates our referral program. But I think the real value comes from the SaaSquatch team - they are extremely responsive and helpful.”

He adds that “by leaning on the SaaSquatch team’s expertise, we’ve revised our referral program twice. And each time it has doubled the number of referrals to our business.”

PensionBee believes that by working with SaaSquatch they can keep doubling the impact of their referral program every year.

“We’ve set up our referral program so it’s visible to customers and easy to share from a web browser or mobile app. From PensionBee’s perspective, it’s future-proofed so there’s no doubt as to whether it will grow and scale as we do.”

Referral Program Results

  • PensionBee has seen an uplift of 4x/5x more referrals since they started using SaaSquatch.
  • Referred customers cost 20% less to acquire than non-referred customers.
  • PensionBee now runs a fully-automated program integrated with Salesforce, with automatic fulfilment, tracking, and communications.

Click here to read the full case study

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