Running a referral program
Referral program
Reward your customers for bringing in new ones. Every customer gets their own referral link to share. When a friend opens it, their discount is applied at checkout for them, so there is nothing to type. The booking is then linked to the person who referred them.
Off by default
The referral program is off until you turn it on. While it is off, customers do not see a referral link anywhere. Their customer account page and their booking confirmation emails hide it. So nobody is given a link that does nothing. Each customer's link is made the first time they need one. So once you turn the program on, every customer gets a link in their next confirmation email, or the next time they open their account page.
Turning it on and setting it up
- Go to Settings → Referral Settings.
- Tick Reward customers for referring a friend.
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Choose the reward type.
- Fixed amount: a gift card for a set amount in your currency, for example $5.00.
- Percentage: a percentage (1 to 100) of the friend's booking total.
- Set how long the reward gift card stays valid. The default is 365 days.
- Save. Customers now see their referral link in their customer account and in their booking confirmation emails.
How many people can use one link
A link works for anyone who opens it. So each link has a limit on how many times it gives the discount. By default it allows 10 discounted bookings when you offer friends a discount. It has no limit when you only reward the person who referred them. You can set your own number under Discounts per shared link, or enter 0 for no limit.
Once a link reaches its limit, new bookings still go through at full price. The referral still counts, so the person who shared the link is not punished for being popular.
How the reward is paid
The reward is a gift card. It is only issued after the friend's first booking is actually complete. That means the event they booked has finished, and the booking was not canceled or refunded. Waiting until the event is over proves the referral really turned into a customer. So you never pay a reward on a booking that falls through later. Once the event is over, the person who referred them gets their gift card by email automatically. The reward is paid once for each new customer they refer.
A discount that leaves nothing to reward
A reward comes out of a booking somebody paid for. A discount big enough to make the class free leaves nothing to pay it from. So a 100% discount for friends is refused while you also offer a reward. The settings page explains why. It asks you to use a smaller percentage, or to switch the reward off if you mean to give the class away.
A fixed amount can do the same thing without warning. For example, $85 off an $85 class also comes to nothing. That depends on what the class costs, so it cannot be caught when you save. When it happens, the referral shows as Free booking on the referrals report instead of “Pending”. So you are not left waiting for a reward that will never be paid.
The referral settings page also shows an example using your own numbers. It shows what a friend pays for a sample class, and what the person who referred them gets once that class has finished. The sample price is the cost of one spot in your most recent class. So you can see what a discount is really worth before you save it. If you have nothing scheduled yet, the example uses a $100 class.