For Tina Wagner, the upbeat accounting manager at Jack L. Massie Contractor, Inc., a heavy highway, sitework, utility and design-build contractor in Williamsburg VA , almost every day is a good day. But Wagner recently experienced an exceptional day when she got a call from Jack L. Massie’s construction-management software vendor, Seattle-based Dexter + Chaney  ( www.dexterchaney.com ).

Wagner learned from Dolores DeMarco, Dexter + Chaney sales rep, that she had won Dexter + Chaney’s annual customer-referral incentive contest open to current users of Dexter + Chaney’s Spectrum® Construction Software. The prize: $10,000 from Dexter + Chaney for Wagner to spend on a trip for two to Hawaii any way that she’d like. Wagner’s reaction: initial disbelief, followed rapidly by complete elation and repetitive screaming.

“We strive to make our customers happy, but we outdid ourselves with Tina,” said John Chaney, Dexter + Chaney co-founder and president. “Saying that she was ‘ecstatic’ is putting it mildly.”

“I’d never won anything, so at first I couldn’t believe it when I got the call from Dolores,” Wagner explained. “It immediately went through my mind that my husband, Steve, wouldn’t believe it, either.” The Wagners will visit Hawaii in September, using the cash prize from Dexter + Chaney to choose the entire itinerary (dates, flights, lodging, food, and entertainment).

Wagner’s name was chosen at random in a drawing among existing customers who referred sales prospects to Dexter + Chaney in calendar year 2008. Wagner referred four construction companies seeking construction-management software to Dexter + Chaney, and thus she had four entries in the contest.

“Referrals from existing clients are a significant source of new business for us,” Chaney explained. “The contest underscores the importance of referrals from our current clients, and provides a great incentive for them to keep sending them our way. People like Tina make our day—and we’re very glad to return the favor.”

It was the second straight year that Dexter + Chaney has held the contest. The 2009 contest, currently underway, will end on December 31; the winner will be chosen in a random drawing in early 2010.