referral-program

name	referral-program
description	Use when designing a consent-based client referral programme with reward, timing, attribution, partner routing, and disclosure rules. Use `agency-client-retention` to earn advocacy and `local-in-person-acquisition` for cold local outreach.
metadata	{"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

Referral Program

Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, [phone].

Use When

• Designing a client referral program from scratch for a web/branding studio.
• Choosing reward structures and amounts (cash, credit, charity, tiered, fees).
• Deciding when and how to ask clients for referrals, and writing the scripts.
• Routing referrals that fall outside your niche to partners or a sibling line.
• Setting up referral tracking, attribution, and payout rules.
• Checking referral-fee ethics and disclosure obligations.

Do Not Use When

• The task is keeping/expanding an existing client's spend (use agency-client-retention — though its Advocate phase feeds this skill).
• The task is in-person cold acquisition (use local-in-person-acquisition).
• The task is the agency's overall offer, pricing, or qualification (use agency-positioning).
• The task is a paid affiliate / reseller channel with formal contracts and product training at scale — that is a partner program; this skill covers the client-referral and lightweight-partner case, and points to the distinction.

Inputs

• A base of delivered, satisfied clients (or a near-term path to one).
• The agency's market and fee floor (from agency-positioning) to size rewards.
• A way to capture a referral submission and attribute it (CRM, form, or log).

Artefact	Source	Required?	If absent
Verified client satisfaction and permission posture	Account records	yes	Do not ask; repair or validate the relationship.
Reward economics and authority	Finance and leadership	yes	Design options only; do not promise or pay.
Attribution, disclosure, and privacy rules	CRM, counsel, and operations	yes	Stop activation and obtain approved rules.

Workflow

1. Earn the referral before asking. A referral program on top of mediocre delivery fails. Confirm the client has reached the Advocate phase — they have experienced a clear win (see agency-client-retention).

2. Choose the reward structure. Default to double-sided (reward both the referrer and the new client). Offer a small menu (cash/credit, charity donation, or service credit) so professional referrers aren't forced into an awkward cash gift. See references/reward-structures.md.

3. Set the ask into the relationship early. At project kickoff, tell the client you'll ask for introductions at the review once they're delighted — so the later ask is expected, not a surprise. See references/ask-scripts-and-timing.md.

4. Ask at peak happiness. Trigger the ask right after a measurable win or a high satisfaction signal (e.g. within 24–48h of a 9–10 NPS score), not on a random calendar date.

5. Make it effortless. Give the client the exact words to forward, a referral link or form, and a clear description of who is a good fit. The gap between willing-to-refer and actually-referring is almost entirely friction.

6. Route cross-niche referrals. When a client refers a business outside your niche, reward them anyway and route the lead to a partner or sibling line. Tell referral-sourced leads you also serve other niches. See references/cross-niche-and-partners.md.

7. Track formally and attribute at submission. Capture every referral with a timestamped record and a named source. Pay only after the referral is qualified and closed. See references/tracking-and-ethics.md.

8. Check ethics and disclose. Confirm referral fees are permitted and disclosed where the client's sector or your jurisdiction requires it.

9. Report referral KPIs. Feed referral count, source, conversion, and value into the monthly client/agency reporting (monthly-report).

10. Stop activation when consent, disclosure, satisfaction, or payout authority is missing; recover with draft rules and a gap register.

Quality Standards

• Generosity is deliberate. The reward is large enough that clients feel genuinely thanked, sized against the lifetime value of a won client — referred clients are measurably more valuable and less likely to churn.
• Double-sided by default. The new client gets something too, so the referrer feels they did their contact a favour, not sold them.
• Ask at the right moment, with the right words. Timing (post-win) and ease (a ready-to-send intro) matter more than the size of the reward.
• Formal record, not informal intros. Every referral has a timestamped submission and an unambiguous source; payout rules are written and known.
• Ethical and disclosed. No undisclosed fees in contexts that forbid them.
• Built on real delivery. The program amplifies genuine satisfaction; it never substitutes for it.

Anti-Patterns

• Launching before clients experience a win. Fix: require a verified satisfaction trigger.
• Using a one-sided reward that embarrasses the referrer. Fix: offer an approved double-sided or non-cash structure.
• Asking on a fixed date. Fix: ask after a verified outcome and with no pressure.
• Relying on informal "send people my way" with no submission record or attribution — the most common reason programs quietly fail.
• Setting a token reward without economics. Fix: size and approve it against the qualifying event and margin.
• Paying on an unqualified lead. Fix: tie payout to the documented qualifying event.
• Ignoring disclosure rules. Fix: obtain and record the required sector-specific disclosure.

Outputs

• A documented referral program: reward structure, amounts, and payout rules.
• The kickoff expectation-setting line and the post-win ask scripts/templates.
• A referral submission + attribution mechanism and a tracking log.
• A cross-niche / partner routing rule and reward.
• Referral KPIs wired into monthly reporting.

Artefact	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Referral programme rules	Clients, partners, finance, and sales	Names eligibility, reward, attribution, disclosure, privacy, payout, expiry, and disputes.
Ask and routing plan	Account owner	Uses earned timing, permission, one clear submission route, and no-pressure language.
Referral register	Finance and reporting owners	Every record has source, consent, status, attribution, reward, and outcome.

Evidence Produced

Evidence	Format	Acceptance condition
Satisfaction trigger	Dated verified win or explicit advocacy signal	No ask rests on assumed happiness.
Reward audit trail	Referral, rule version, approval, payout evidence	Rewards reconcile and disclosures are recorded.

Capability Contract

Design and review default to read-only. Sending asks, sharing contact data, changing CRM, promising or paying rewards, or creating partner obligations requires explicit authority and consent.

Degraded Mode

Fallback if satisfaction, economics, consent, or legal review are unavailable: return draft rules and a gap register. Do not ask, introduce, promise, pay, or claim programme performance.

Decision Rules

Choice	Action	Failure or risk avoided
Client has a verified win and consents	Make a specific low-pressure ask	Extractive request before advocacy
Professional rules restrict rewards	Use permitted recognition or no reward	Undisclosed conflict or ethics breach
Referral is outside niche	Route through an approved partner rule	Poor-fit acceptance and attribution dispute

Worked Example

At a 90-day review, a client confirms the site reduced missed enquiries. With permission, ask for one introduction to a similar business, disclose a service credit, record the introduction source, and pay only after the documented qualifying event.

References

• references/reward-structures.md — double-sided vs one-sided, cash / credit / charity / tiered options, agency referral-fee norms, and how to size rewards.
• references/ask-scripts-and-timing.md — setting the expectation at kickoff, NPS-triggered and post-win timing, and copy-ready ask scripts and email templates.
• references/cross-niche-and-partners.md — rewarding and routing referrals outside the niche, building a reciprocal partner network, and the client-referral vs partner-program distinction.
• references/tracking-and-ethics.md — formal submission, attribution, payout gating, the informal-intro failure mode, and referral-fee ethics / disclosure.
• references/sources.md — attributed sources (Schmitt/Skiera/Van den Bulte, Jantsch, Coleman, Reichheld) with confidence flags.

Notes

• This skill is a portable execution layer for both Claude Code and Codex.
• Upstream: agency-client-retention (Advocate phase) earns the referral. Downstream: local-in-person-acquisition and agency-positioning convert the referred lead; monthly-report reports referral performance.
• Africa calibration: in relationship-first markets, personal introductions carry high trust; charity-donation and service-credit rewards often fit professional networks better than cash. Frame rewards in the local market band — see ../../orchestration/africa-excellence/SKILL.md.
• This skill has no bundled scripts; the workflow is documentary.