Referral Program

Status: Concept · Growth & Marketing

Turn happy customers into your best sales reps — AI identifies the right moment to ask, customers share links, rewards fulfill automatically.

AI-Driven Referral Timing: The AI continuously monitors customer satisfaction signals — 5-star reviews, high NPS scores in the review funnel, positive post-project feedback, and paid invoices with no complaint history. When the right conditions are met, it automatically initiates a referral ask at the optimal moment, before the excitement fades. Messages are personalized to the customer's actual project: "You mentioned you loved how your new deck turned out — would you know anyone else who might need the same quality work?" The AI handles the entire conversation, including answering questions about how the reward works, following up once via email if the first SMS goes unanswered, and logging everything to the customer's contact record.

What's Included

• AI-Powered Ask Timing — Automatically identifies happy customers and initiates personalized referral requests at peak satisfaction moments — no manual triggering required
• Personalized Invite Links — Every customer gets a unique, trackable referral URL generated in their portal. Each click and conversion is attributed back to the correct referrer automatically
• Public Referral Landing Page — A branded, standalone page hosted at the contractor's booking URL. Referred friends enter who sent them, claim their incentive, and book — all in one flow
• Customer Portal Sharing Hub — Customers access their referral links, view share history, track pending and earned rewards, and broadcast via copy-link, text, or email — all from their portal
• Incentive Tier Configuration — Business owners set reward amounts, types (credit, gift card, cash), milestone bonuses, trigger conditions, expiration windows, and per-customer caps from CRM settings
• Referral Tracking & Payouts — Full pipeline visibility from link shared through booking, job complete, and reward issued. Credits apply automatically to invoices; other types trigger fulfillment workflows

How the Referral Flow Works

Every referral moves through five stages — from the AI identifying a happy customer through to both parties receiving their reward.

1. Happy Customer
   └─→ 5-star review or positive funnel response triggers the AI referral ask

2. Invite Sent
   └─→ Customer shares their unique link via text message or copy-paste

3. Friend Visits
   └─→ Friend opens the public referral landing page and sees the incentive offer

4. Booking Made
   └─→ Friend submits their info and books an appointment through the landing page

5. Reward Issued
   └─→ Both the referrer and the new customer receive their configured incentive

Zero manual work required. From the AI identifying the moment to ask, through link sharing, booking capture, and reward fulfillment — the entire loop runs automatically. The business owner only sees the results in the referral tracker.

Public Referral Landing Page

A branded, standalone page hosted at the contractor's booking URL. This is where referred friends land when they click a customer's invite link. It captures who referred them, collects their contact details, and lets them claim their discount and book — all in a single friction-free form. The page auto-brands with the contractor's name and active incentive amounts from CRM settings — no design work required.

Form fields:

• Who referred you?
• Your Name
• Your Phone Number
• Reward display: "You get $50 off your first service. They get $100 credit toward their next project."
• CTA: Claim Offer & Book Now

Customer Portal — Refer a Friend

Customers access their personal referral hub directly from their customer portal. They can see which reward tier they're offering, copy their invite link, and share via text or email without leaving the page. Multiple invite tiers are shown when the business has configured a milestone bonus.

Standard Referral Tier

• You get $100 credit applied to your next invoice
• Your friend gets $50 off their first service — automatically applied at booking
• Share via: Copy Link, Text a Friend, Email

Project Milestone Bonus Tier

• Active when your friend completes a full project over $1,000
• You earn $250 bonus
• They receive $100 off their project total
• Separate invite link generated automatically

Referral Tracker

Full referral history is visible both to the customer in their portal and to the business owner in the CRM. Each entry shows who referred whom, current pipeline status, and the job value associated with the referral.

Referrer	Referred	Status	Value
Marcus Hendricks	James Whitfield	Pending (link opened, no booking)	—
Sandra Kowalski	Brenda Martinez	Booked ($800 estimated)	$800
Derek Park	Alan Park	Converted (job complete, invoice paid)	$3,200
Marcus Hendricks	Tom Yung	Rewarded ($100 credit applied)	$4,100
Lisa Okafor	Nina Patel	Converted (reward pending 14-day dispute hold)	$1,900
Tony Villareal	(pending booking)	Pending (link shared, friend hasn't booked)	—

Incentive Configuration

Business owners set the full reward structure from the CRM settings panel. These values populate the landing page, portal invite cards, and AI messaging automatically — no manual updates needed when amounts change.

Setting	Options	Default	Notes
Referrer reward type	Credit toward next invoice / Gift card / Cash via Venmo	Invoice credit	Credit applies as a line-item discount on the referrer's next invoice
Referrer reward amount	Custom $ amount	$100	Labeled "Referral Reward — [friend's name]" on the invoice
Referee reward type	Discount off first job / Fixed dollar amount	Discount	Auto-applied at booking confirmation, shown on landing page
Referee reward amount	Custom $ amount or %	$50	Displayed prominently on the public landing page and in AI messaging
Milestone bonus	Extra reward if referred job exceeds a configured dollar threshold	$250 if job > $1,000	Generates a separate portal invite link with milestone-tier branding
Reward trigger	On booking / On project completion / On invoice payment	On project completion	Determines when CRM issues or queues the reward for fulfillment
Link expiration	30 / 60 / 90 days	60 days	Expired links redirect to the contractor's main booking page with no reward offer
Max referrals per customer	Unlimited / Custom cap	Unlimited	Optional cap prevents reward abuse in high-volume or multi-contractor scenarios
Ask frequency	Once per 30 / 60 / 90 days per customer	90 days	Prevents the AI from over-asking the same customer across multiple qualifying events

AI Ask — Timing & Messaging Logic

The AI evaluates a layered decision tree before initiating any referral conversation. It doesn't blast everyone — it waits for the right signal, confirms no suppression conditions exist, then sends one highly personalized message with a single follow-up if needed.

Trigger Conditions

• Primary trigger: Customer posts a 5-star review through the CRM review funnel
• Secondary trigger: Customer responds with an NPS score of 9 or 10 in the post-project review sequence
• Tertiary trigger: Project marked complete + invoice paid + no complaint signals within the past 30 days

Suppression Conditions

• Active dispute: Any open dispute or chargeback on the account — ask is held until resolved
• Recent refund: Any refund issued within the past 30 days
• Complaint logged: Any complaint recorded in the CRM conversation history within 30 days
• Recently asked: Customer received a referral ask within the configured ask frequency window (default 90 days)
• Opted out: Customer has opted out of marketing or non-transactional communications

Channel & Follow-Up

• SMS first — highest open rate; sent within 24 hours of the trigger event
• Email follow-up — sent 48 hours later if the SMS link was not clicked or replied to
• No third attempt — the AI does not persist beyond two touches per qualifying event
• All touches logged — every message sent, opened, and clicked is recorded in the customer's contact timeline

Message Personalization

Every message references the customer's actual project type and uses their first name. The AI pulls the job category (roof, deck, HVAC, landscaping, etc.) from the project record and weaves it naturally into the ask.

Example SMS:

Hi Sandra — we just wanted to say thank you again for trusting us with your kitchen remodel. If you know anyone else thinking about a kitchen project, we'd love to help them too. Send them your personal link and you'll both get something back: portal.link/ref/SK-7741

If the customer responds with questions about the reward — how it works, when they receive it, whether there's a limit — the AI answers directly in the same conversation thread before handing off to the booking flow.

Reward Fulfillment

Once a referral hits its configured trigger event, the CRM automatically initiates fulfillment based on the reward type selected in settings. No spreadsheets, no manual tracking.

Invoice Credit

The CRM automatically applies the referral credit as a named discount line item on the referrer's next invoice. The customer sees it labeled "Referral Reward — [referred friend's name]" so they know exactly where it came from. No action required from the business owner.

Gift Card

The CRM triggers a fulfillment request to the configured gift card integration (Tango Card or Giftbit). The gift card is delivered to the referrer's email on file. The referral record updates to show the card code and delivery timestamp. If delivery fails, the business owner receives an in-app notification and the reward status shows "Action Required."

Manual (Venmo / Cash)

The business owner receives an in-app notification: "Reward due — $100 to Marcus Hendricks." The referral record stays in "Pending Reward" status until the owner manually marks it as issued. The CRM tracks the total outstanding reward liability so nothing falls through.

Dispute Protection

All rewards are held in a 14-day pending state if the associated project has any open issue — dispute, chargeback, or formal complaint recorded in the CRM. If the issue resolves within the hold period, the reward releases automatically. If a refund is issued, the reward is voided and both parties are notified via the channel used for the original referral ask.

Referral Attribution

The CRM tracks where each new customer came from so rewards are assigned accurately. Four attribution methods are supported, ranked by certainty.

Method	How It Works	Attribution Certainty	Reward Eligible
Unique referral link	Customer shares portal.link/ref/[code]. Friend clicks it — CRM captures the referrer at the moment the link opens, before the friend fills out any form.	100% — no ambiguity	Yes — fully automatic
Manual entry on landing page	Friend types the referrer's name in the "Who referred you?" field. The AI matches the name against existing contacts and flags ambiguous matches for owner confirmation before issuing a reward.	High — AI-matched, may require one confirm	Yes — after match confirmed
Phone-in via AI receptionist	When a new caller books, the AI receptionist asks: "Did someone refer you to us today?" The answer is logged verbatim to the new contact's record and flagged for attribution review in the referral tracker.	Medium — verbal, logged for manual review	Yes — after owner review
Untracked / organic	Walk-in, direct web search, or any booking where no referral source is captured. No referrer can be identified.	None	No

Duplicate protection: If a referred friend submits via both a unique link click and manual name entry on the public page, the CRM deduplicates and counts only one referral credit for the referrer. The unique link always takes precedence for attribution.