Customer Referral Program Ideas For Pool Service Providers

As a pool service, you’re in the unique position that you have access to your customer’s property and have the opportunity to interact with them if they’re home. This allows you to interact with your customers in a place that they feel most comfortable.

With this in mind, you can offer them the opportunity to participate in a customer referral program – a program that offers them direct benefits by spreading the word. These types of programs offer them some sort of perk in exchange for generating business for your company.

These types of programs can work well in neighborhoods as neighbors exchange ideas and strive to help each other.

In this article, we’re taking a closer look at several customer referral program ideas to help you get started.

Customer Referral Program Ideas

Customer referrals are an amazing way to get new leads for your business, as potential leads will always trust the word of other customers. After all, if they’re using the service and say they’re happy with them, that means they’re worth trying out, right? If you want to harness the power of customer referrals, you’ll need to have a customer referral program in place.

Here are some tried and tested customer referral program ideas and how they will bring in that new business. 

Give Mystery Gifts

Who doesn’t like getting something extra for free? Your customers are going to be more than ready to refer you to their friends and family if you offer them a free gift for doing so. While some will want to know exactly what they’re getting, some will be drawn to the idea of a mystery gift. Promise a mystery gift when they refer you, and many will be looking to bring in their friends. 

MeUndies, for example, give customers a mystery gift when they refer their friends. The friends also get a 20% discount, so everyone gets something. 

The joy of this method is that you can send the customers anything you’re willing to give away. You can also switch it up if needed, so you don’t need to stick to one gift. That gives you a lot of flexibility. 

Gift Cards for Local Pool Stores

If you’re looking to build up a relationship with a local pool store or hardware store, then this is an excellent way to do so. If your customers refer a friend who then hires you, you can then reward them with a gift card for that store. 

It’s an excellent gift as they will need to buy supplies for their pool in any case. They can use that gift card in-store, and that helps them build up loyalty with the store. The store can then return the favor by advertising your services to their customers. 

Money Off Offers

This is a very common tactic with services like yours. They offer their customers so much off their next pool service, or a free appointment if they refer a friend to their service. Customers love this, as of course, they’re getting something for free. For you though, you’re just losing the costs of the service. Plus, you’ll be bringing in more business on top of that, so it’s a hit worth taking. 

It’s very easy to offer too, as you don’t need to bring in extra items or labor to do so. You can put the offer in email campaigns as well, making it incredibly easy to put together. Plus, that money off drives extra purchasing from you. It helps create loyalty to your brand, so they’ll keep coming back to you. 

Try Social Gifting

In theory, you wouldn’t think social gifting would work. When you offer your customers the chance to give their friends a free pool service though, you’ll be amazed at how quickly they take the offer up. They won’t get anything out of it, but they will be able to give a friend your service for free. It feels good to do, so it can be very effective. 

For example, the subscription box service Try The World did this. For a limited time, they allowed customers to send a free box to three of their friends for free. This sent out taster boxes to people who may not have heard of them before, and so they saw a rise in new business from it. 

Donate to Charity

This referral program will depend on your customers, but many will be interested in it. If one of your customers refers a friend, you’ll make a donation to charity. If you think your customers will like it, it’s well worth trying out. 

You’ll need to pick a charity that lines up with your business, as well as the values of your customers. As you’re working in a local area, you can always donate to a local charity that’s doing good in the area. You can also go for a water-themed charity, as you’re a pool service. Charities like The Water Project are a good choice here. 

Run a Referral Contest

As a customer, you may well have entered a few referral contests yourself. These usually offer a grand prize, and you can gain more entries the more you do. For example, you can share the contest on social media, sign up for a newsletter, refer a friend, and more. Each action gets you an extra entry into the competition, so you have more chances to win. This gives you plenty of incentive to do more actions and spread the word of the business. 

Not only will you be getting referrals, but you’ll also have the word of your business spread around social media. It’s not a bad deal all around. 

Offer More the More Referrals You Get 

This is a simple concept, but one that makes a lot of sense. Shaving brand Harry’s managed to pull it off well. The more people their customers referred, the more rewards they would get. When five friends were referred, they’d get free shaving cream. When they hit ten friends, they’d get a free razor, and so on. 

You can use the same model in your pool business. Referring one friend will get you money off your next pool service, referring five friends gets you a free gift, and so on. You can create a referral program that fits you and your needs perfectly. 

Conclusion

There are so many ways you can build a referral program that works for your business. Whether you try out social gifting or hand out mystery gifts to customers, there’s going to be a program that helps you bring in those new leads.