A referral program page

One sentence, or it will not work

Recommend us and you both get a month free is understood at once. Anything requiring the reader to work out tiers, thresholds or qualifying conditions is not, and they will not do the work.

The reward can be modest. Clarity matters far more than generosity here, because the referral happens in a conversation, where nobody is looking at your website or asking an answer engine.

Test it by saying it aloud. If you cannot explain the offer to somebody in one breath, no customer will explain it to their neighbor either, and that conversation is the whole mechanism.

Say exactly what triggers the reward

When the friend enquires, when they book, or when they pay. Ambiguity here produces disappointed customers, and a disappointed referrer is worse than no program at all.

Say how long it takes to arrive and in what form. Credit, a payment, a discount on the next job, a gift. Each sets a different expectation and each needs stating.

And say what happens if the referral does not go ahead. Being told in advance is fine. Being told afterward, having recommended somebody, is not.

Disclosure is not optional

A recommendation given in exchange for a reward is an incentivized endorsement, and consumer protection rules in most places require that connection to be disclosed.

That obligation generally falls on the business as well as on the person referring. Telling participants plainly that they must mention the reward is both fair and protective.

Our page on testimonials and reviews covers the related rules on endorsements. Nothing here is legal advice, and requirements differ by place.

What the page must say

The list below is what turns a referral offer into something a customer can act on. Most referral pages carry the reward and none of the rest, which is why they produce nothing.

• What the referrer gets, in one sentence
• What the new customer gets
• Exactly what triggers the reward
• How long it takes and in what form
• Who is eligible and who is not
• That participants must disclose the reward
• How to actually make a referral

Make referring easy

Give people something to send. A short link, a message they can copy, or a card they can hand over. A program requiring somebody to compose an explanation will not be used.

Do not require the friend to remember a code. Codes get lost between the conversation and the enquiry, and the referrer then has to chase you about a reward you cannot verify.

Asking the new customer how they heard about you is usually enough. It is lower friction and it captures referrals that would otherwise go unrecorded entirely.

Who to ask, and when

Ask a customer immediately after a job went well, not in a newsletter three months later. The moment of satisfaction is short and it is when a recommendation costs them nothing.

Ask once and leave it. Repeated asking converts a goodwill mechanism into an irritation, and the customers most likely to refer are the ones most annoyed by being chased.

The referral page is where they go after you ask. It exists to answer their questions, not to generate the ask, which happens in a conversation.

Keeping it honest

Pay what you promised, promptly. A referral reward that arrives late or not at all costs you the referrer and everybody they mention it to, which is a larger group than the program ever reached.

Keep a record of who referred whom and what was paid. Disputes here are personal rather than commercial, and a clear record settles them before they become one.

And close the program properly if you end it. Honor the referrals already made, say plainly that it has ended, and do not leave the page live describing an offer that no longer exists.