Referral program for a small business: rewards and ready-made texts

The cheapest customer is the one who comes through a friend. They already know your work from what they’ve heard, they trust you and they haggle over the price less often. The problem is that most small businesses wait for referrals to happen on their own.

In this guide I show how to set up a simple referral program in one evening: choose a reward, prepare a code or link, print a card, write the rules and track the results. At the end you’ll find ready-made texts to copy.

Step 1: choose a reward for both sides

A reward for the referrer and for the new customer works best. The referrer has a reason to speak up, and the new person gets a reason to choose you in particular. Such a campaign doesn’t look like chasing customers but like a mutual courtesy.

The rules for choosing a reward are simple:

• A discount or a free service instead of cash. It’s easier to account for and leaves less room for misunderstandings.
• A reward from your own offer whose cost to you is lower than its price. For you, that’s cheaper than advertising.
• A reward after payment, not after mere contact. That way you only pay for customers who actually bought.
• One simple rule. If it takes more than two sentences to explain, it’s too complicated.

Examples for three industries

The rewards below are suggestions to adjust to your margins, not a rule.

In a renovation company the job is large, so the reward can be higher. In a salon, frequency matters: it’s better to give a small reward, but one that’s paid out often. Always calculate how much you earn on one new customer, and set the reward so that the campaign pays off.

Step 2: a code or a link, or how to recognize a referral

Without a simple way to recognize a referral, you won’t know who is owed a reward. You have three options:

1. The referrer’s name. The new customer says when booking: “Marek Kowalski referred me.” This works in a salon or a repair shop, but you have to ask every time.
2. A referral code. Each referrer has a short code, e.g., MAREK10. The customer gives it when booking or in a form.
3. A link with a parameter. The referrer sends a friend an address like yourcompany.pl/referral?from=marek. You’ll see visits from such a link in your analytics.

To start with, the first option and a notebook or spreadsheet are enough. When the number of referrers grows, switch to codes. A link makes sense when you have a website with an inquiry form, because then the source can be recorded automatically. A separate page for referred customers works well: the headline “A friend referred you: you get a discount”, a short description of the reward and a form. You can order such a page as a landing page.

Step 3: a referral card to hand out

Most referrals happen at the moment when a customer is happy. That’s when you should hand them two small cards (business cards with a note): one for them, the other for a friend. On the card, include:

• the company name, phone number and website address,
• the slogan: “I recommend it. For you: [amount] off your first service”,
• a field for the referrer’s name, which the customer fills in with a pen,
• a QR code to the website or form,
• an expiry date, e.g., 3 months.

You can make a QR code for your own website in any free generator. A card is tangible, so a customer is more willing to give it to someone than to forward a link. The digital version is the same content in a text message or on WhatsApp.

Step 4: simple rules for the campaign

The rules don’t need to take up pages. A few points that you show on the card or the website are enough. Here’s a template to adapt:

[Company name] referral program rules

1. Any of our customers can make a referral. The referred person must be a new customer who hasn’t bought from us before.
2. The new customer gets [discount] on their first service if they give the referrer’s full name or code.
3. The referrer gets [reward] after the referred person pays for the service.
4. The reward cannot be exchanged for cash and cannot be combined with other promotions.
5. The reward is valid for [number] months from the date it is granted.
6. We don’t grant rewards for referring yourself, members of the same household or related companies.
7. We reserve the right to end the campaign and will announce this on our website.

Point 6 protects you from abuse. Point 3 makes sure the reward is only due for real purchases.

Step 5: ready-made messages to copy

Use the person’s name and something specific from the work you did. A short message works better than a long speech.

Asking for a referral after finishing the job (text message):

Hello, this is Marek from [company]. Thank you for today. If you’re happy with everything, I’d be grateful if you recommended us to your friends. We thank you for every referral with a [amount] discount, and your friend gets a discount on their first visit. Referral link: [link].

A message the customer will forward to a friend:

Hi, I use [company] and recommend them. If you give my name or the code [CODE], you’ll get [amount] off your first service. Here’s the contact: [link or phone].

Thank-you to the referrer:

Hello, thank you for the referral. The person you referred has used our service, so you’re entitled to [reward]. Please get in touch and we’ll arrange a time for you to collect it.

Reminder after a few weeks (email):

Hello, it’s been a month since we completed your project. I hope everything is working as it should. If any of your friends are looking for [service], I’ll be happy to help. We have a thank-you gift for you for a referral, details: [link].

Note that in none of the messages do you ask for a review in exchange for a reward. Google’s policies prohibit rewarding reviews, so keep your referral program and your review requests separate. I describe how to do it well in the guide on how to get Google reviews.

Marketing consent when contacting a referred person

This is where it’s easy to make a mistake. A customer gives you a friend’s phone number or email, and you write to that person with an offer. They haven’t consented to marketing contact, so this is risky.

Safer rules:

• The referrer passes on your contact details, rather than you obtaining the friend’s contact details. A card, a link or a ready-made text message to forward take care of this.
• Don’t collect friends’ numbers in a “give us the details of the person you’re referring” form.
• When the referred person gets in touch on their own, only answer their question. Collect consent to the newsletter and text messages with a separate checkbox that isn’t pre-checked.

I cover the details of newsletter and SMS consent in the guide newsletter and SMS consent under Prawo komunikacji elektronicznej (Poland’s Electronic Communications Law). Read it before you send your first mass campaign.

Tracking: does the program pay off

Without numbers you don’t know whether the campaign works. Keep a simple spreadsheet with the columns: date, referrer, new customer, order value, reward, payout status. After 3 months, calculate:

1. how many new customers came through referrals,
2. how much they paid in total,
3. how much the rewards cost (discounts plus gifts),
4. the cost of one customer from referrals, that is, the cost of the rewards divided by the number of customers.

Compare this cost with the cost of a customer from advertising. If referrals come out cheaper, expand the program. If the referral link has UTM parameters (e.g., utm_source=referral), you’ll see visits from it in GA4 in the Traffic acquisition report, provided you set up analytics and conversions. Mark phone calls and form submissions from referrals in the spreadsheet manually: ask every new customer “How did you hear about us?”

What not to do

• Don’t promise a reward you can’t pay out. One disappointment destroys the referrer’s trust.
• Don’t complicate things with thresholds like “after five referrals” if you sell a few times a year.
• Don’t send the request to unhappy customers. Solve the problem first.
• Don’t forget to say thank you. Even if the referred person didn’t buy, the referrer deserves a short “thank you.”
• Don’t mix the referral program with rewarding reviews. They’re two different things.

Summary

A referral program comes down to a reward for both sides, a simple way to recognize a referral and a few ready-made messages. Start with a card and a notebook, and after a month calculate what it brings. If you want referred people to land on a separate page with a form and tracking, write to me. I’ll prepare a landing page, and while you’re at it, you can check your current website with the free Check your website tool. I reply within 24 hours, and new clients get 20% off their first project.