Referrals: Customer Referrals Overview

• Sell and deploy value-added services beyond the benefit to customers
• Be connected with customers who need the services which they specialize in
• Lower the cost of customer acquisition
• Uncover earning opportunities

Key facts point to the partner opportunity through referrals:

• FastTrack drives 95% of all incoming referrals to the FastTrack Partner Community
• Partner quote: “FastTrack Benefit referrals help build a relationship with customers.” 
• 80% of Referral Ready Partners surveyed want more RFAs (FastTrack Benefit Referrals)

FastTrack Benefit Referrals, also known as Requests for Assistance (RFAs)

• FastTrack Request for Assistance Form is submitted by customers or the Microsoft field
• Partners deliver the FastTrack Benefit as outlined in the FastTrack Service Description
• All FastTrack Ready Partners (FRPs) will receive FastTrack Benefit Referrals (in this article, Standard Referrals)

Standard Referrals (new in FY24)

• Submitted by the Microsoft field via an internal form or from a Microsoft-identified customer propensity list
• Partners may charge for all non-Benefit services
• All FastTrack Partner Community (FPC) members will receive Standard Referrals

Note:While we anticipate these requests to be beyond the FastTrack Benefit, we will still check for FastTrack eligibility as part of our process. If the customer is eligible for the Benefit, we will assign to a FastTrack Ready Partner. Otherwise, it will go to a FastTrack Partner Community member as in the scenario above.

How do FastTrack Referrals work

Both types of referrals (Standard Referrals and FastTrack Benefit Referrals) follow a process including phases of Submission, Evaluation, and Assignment and Partner Delivery.

Submission

A FastTrack Request for Assistance (RFA) may be submitted by the customer via the Microsoft Admin Center or through a form in the Microsoft Setup site. The Microsoft field may also submit RFAs via the Setup site. All RFA requests will be routed back to the Tenant Admin for approval prior to triage and assignment to a partner or delivery team. Review the section below, Examples of Communications.

Standard referrals are non-FastTrack Benefit requests for partner assistance with deployment, adoption, or other consulting services. The Microsoft field may submit a Standard Referral request for a partner. In addition, the Microsoft program team may identify customers at high propensity for growth with the help of a partner. Those customers may also be assigned to partners as Standard Referrals.

Evaluation and Assignment

• Referral matching of a partner with a customer is dependent upon the following criteria:
  • Workload endorsement (see Knowledge Base article on endorsements)
  • Location where partner services may be provided (home location and countries served)
  • Language in which partner services may be delivered (12 FastTrack languages: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese (resources speak Mandarin only), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.)
  • Seat size: Number of employees
  • Industry: Limited to Education, Government or Non-profit.
  • CPOR claims by existing partners: Claiming Partner of Record in the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program.
• Once a partner is matched with the customer, the partner receives a Referral Notification email directing them to respond to the referral in FastTrack Centered UX (FCU) within 2 days.
• Once a partner accepts a referral in FCU, the Partner Assignment email is sent to the requestor, the customer, the account team, the FPM, and the partner informing them of the match. The partner is expected to contact the customer within 2 business days of the assignment email.

Partner Delivery

• If this is a FastTrack Benefit Referral, the partner is expected to deliver the benefit according to the Benefit Description and then sell value-added services to the customer.
• If this is a Standard Referral, the partner is expected to evaluate the customer situation and propose appropriate paid services.
• If applicable, the partner should submit a CPOR claim for the workloads serviced for that customer.

Examples of Communications

Example: Request for Assistance (Benefit Referral)

Example: Admin communication to approve Request for Assistance (Standard Review)