Referrals
Most of your best jobs start with "you did my neighbour's"
Word of mouth is the best marketing in this trade — free, local, and the customer arrives already sold. The trouble is it's invisible. You rarely find out who sent who, the thank-you gets forgotten, and the recommendation that never quite turned into a booking is lost for good.
We Sweep's referral programme makes it visible. Every customer gets a personal referral code — and the tracking, the thank-you emails and, if you want, the reward itself all happen automatically. It's optional and off by default: switch it on when you're ready.
How it works
- Switch it on and write your offer — the incentive is yours, in your own words. "£10 off your next sweep", "a free birds' nest check" — whatever you're happy to honour, phrased however you'd say it.
- Every customer gets their own code — it appears in their booking confirmation and their job-done email, alongside your offer. No sign-up, no leaflets, no remembering to mention it at the door.
- Friends book with it — they enter the code in your online booking widget, or your customer shares a link that fills it in for them.
- Everyone hears when it works — the moment a referred new customer makes their first booking, you get a notification and the referrer gets a "your referral worked" email. The friend's details stay private — the email never names them.
Honour the reward yourself — or let the system apply it
The reward is your offer, funded by you — We Sweep doesn't decide what it is or pay for it. What it does is make sure the promise actually gets kept, and you choose how hands-on to be:
- Honour it in person — leave the reward as words. You know the referral landed, the customer knows what they were promised, and you settle it however suits you when they next book.
- Or make it automatic — set a fixed £ amount, and when the referrer next books, the discount comes straight off their booking. The price, the payment and the paperwork all follow — nothing for you to remember on the day.
Automatic rewards are applied one per booking, and each stays valid for 12 months — so a keen referrer with three successful referrals has three discounted sweeps ahead of them, not one confusing free-for-all.
And rewards are only earned on genuinely new customers making their first booking. An existing customer typing in a mate's code doesn't earn anyone anything — the programme pays for new business, not for gaming it.
What it costs
The referral programme is included in the standard 2% per booking — no add-on, no higher tier, and the 2% works the same however the customer pays. The only cost of a referral is the reward you chose to offer — and you only ever owe one when a new customer has actually booked.
Frequently asked questions
Do my customers have to sign up for anything?
No. Once you switch referrals on, every customer automatically gets a personal referral code in their booking confirmation and job-done emails, alongside your offer. Nothing to register for, nothing to download, nothing to print.
How does the friend use the code?
They type it in when they book through your online booking widget — or they open a share link from your customer and the code is filled in for them. The booking itself works exactly as normal.
What counts as a successful referral?
A new customer making their first booking with the code. An existing customer entering a mate's code doesn't earn anyone a reward — the programme rewards genuinely new business, not shuffling the customers you already have.
How does the reward actually get honoured?
Two ways, your choice. Leave it as words — '£10 off your next sweep' — and honour it yourself when the referrer next books, however suits you. Or set a fixed £ amount, and We Sweep applies it automatically as a discount on the referrer's next booking: knocked straight off the price, one reward per booking, and each reward stays valid for 12 months.
Who funds the reward?
You do. It's your offer, to your own customers, in your own words — We Sweep doesn't set it, cap what you promise, or subsidise it. What We Sweep does is everything around it: the codes, the tracking, the emails, and applying the discount if you've chosen the automatic route.
Does the referred friend get a discount too?
The built-in reward goes to the customer who made the referral — they're the one who earned it. There's no automatic discount for the friend; what you offer new customers is your own pricing decision, same as it's always been.
Can I turn it off?
It's off until you turn it on, and you can switch it off again whenever you like. Codes simply stop appearing in your emails and the widget stops asking for them.