How Referrals Work
Referrers, referees, programs and milestones — the referral lifecycle from a shared code to points on both sides
A referral program lets an existing customer — the referrer — bring in a new one — the referee — and rewards both of them as the referee progresses. You decide what counts as progress, what each step is worth, and how much human checking happens before points land.
The Building Blocks
Concept | In plain words |
|---|---|
Program | One referral scheme with its own dates, rules and rewards. A tenant can run several — one per service line, one per campaign |
Referrer | A customer enrolled in a program. Enrolment gives them a personal referral code to share |
Referee | The person they refer. Captured as a new lead against the referrer's code, through whichever channel you allow |
Capture channel | Where a referee came in — the front desk, a WhatsApp link, a public web form. Channels are yours to define, and each can auto-accept or hold for approval |
Milestone | A step in the referee's journey that earns points — registered, booked, billed, completed a package. Each milestone reacts to a business event you send in |
Review | A queue item for a human: two referrers claiming the same referee, a fraud signal, or a milestone that needs sign-off |
A Referral, End to End
- A referrer is enrolled. Staff onboard a customer into a program from the app (or the API), and the platform issues their code — or the customer becomes a referrer automatically when a program's auto-enrol event fires for them.
- They share the code. By word of mouth, a WhatsApp link, or a public form that carries the code in its URL.
- A referee is captured. The front desk adds the lead with the code, or the referee submits the public form. The platform creates the lead, links it to the referrer, and decides the referral's starting status from the channel's approval rule.
- The referral is accepted — or reviewed. Auto-accepted referrals start their journey at once. Referrals that need approval wait in the review queue; a conflict (two referrers for one referee) or a fraud signal also lands there.
- The referee progresses. Your systems send business events — registration, booking, billing, a package purchase. Each event that matches a milestone fires it, and the milestone's rewards are computed for the referrer and the referee.
- Points land. Immediately, after a waiting period, or after a reviewer approves the milestone — the program decides. Every reward is a normal loyalty transaction, visible in the customer's ledger and balance.
The Status Vocabulary
On the Leads page | Meaning |
|---|---|
Pending approval | Captured and waiting for a reviewer to accept the referral |
Flagged | Held by a conflict or a fraud signal |
In journey | Accepted and attributed to the referrer; stages can fire |
Expired | The attribution window closed before the referral was accepted — or a reviewer rejected it |
A stage reward is… | Meaning |
|---|---|
Held | Computed, waiting out the stage's hold before it becomes spendable |
In review | Waiting for a reviewer's decision |
Matured / Released | Points are in the customer's balance |
Reversed / Forfeited | Taken back after a reversal event, or refused by a reviewer |
The Attribution Window
Every referral carries a window — set per program; the new-program form proposes 60 days and the platform's own default is 30 — that starts at capture. A referral that is still pending when the window closes expires, and nothing is rewarded for it. An accepted referral keeps its attribution: the referee's later milestones still count for the referrer.
Points are points
Next: set up a program on Programs & Milestones, see how referees arrive on Capturing Referees, or walk the screens on Working the Referral Desk.
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