Referral Factory can sit alongside your home services website, quoting process and field-service systems. You can capture and attribute the referral first, continue the homeowner into your normal quote or booking journey, and tell Referral Factory when the job reaches the milestone that should qualify the referral.

For strategy, reward and promotion ideas, explore our home services referral program guide.

The basic journey looks like this:

Existing customer becomes a referrer → shares a Referral Link or QR code → homeowner details are captured → the homeowner continues into the normal quote and booking process → the job is completed → the referral qualifies → the reward becomes Due.

Your service, booking process, qualifying milestone and reward may be different.

1. Decide who should become a Referrer

Home services businesses often start with satisfied customers because they can recommend a provider they have already used.

For example, a solar, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, painting or cleaning business might invite homeowners whose work has been completed successfully. Invite the chosen audience through email, SMS, a customer portal or a follow-up message, or let people join through the Branded Referrer Portal if self-sign-up is appropriate.

Choose the best way to promote your referral program

Home services businesses have useful referral moments in person and immediately after a job. Customers can access their personal QR code through their referral experience and show it when making an in-person referral. You can also use email or SMS after a completed job to remind customers to refer and give them easy access to their referral experience. Referral Links are useful for customers who prefer to share digitally, and a Branded Referrer Portal can provide ongoing access to referral activity.

Referral Factory captures and attributes the homeowner lead first. A CRM integration can send that lead into the existing sales or booking workflow, while the CRM or normal operational system can record Job Completed when the verified job milestone occurs. Use the API, an inbound webhook or automation when the job system and CRM need a separate connection.

Referral Factory QR code sharing option for an industry referral program — Referrer QR code experience shown with test data.

3. Create the Referral Link Page for the homeowner

When a referrer shares a Referral Link, the potential customer lands on the Referral Link Page. This page carries the referral context forward, introduces the service, captures the details needed to identify the lead and explains what happens next.

Keep the initial form simple. For example, collect a first name and email address, and add a phone number only if your normal response process needs it. After submission, the homeowner can continue into the business's existing quote, booking or service enquiry journey.

See the Referral Link Page overview and How to design your Referral Link Page for the page setup options.

Referral Factory referral link page for an industry referral program — Example home services referral campaign shown with test data.

4. Continue the homeowner into your existing quote and booking journey

Referral Factory does not need to replace your website, quote form, scheduling tool or field-service system.

After the homeowner submits the Referral Link Page form, send them into the normal journey your business already uses. For example:

Referral Link Page → homeowner captured and attributed → quote requested → appointment booked → job completed.

The next step may live on your website, in a booking system, in a CRM or in a field-service platform. Referral Factory keeps the lead connected to the referrer while your existing systems handle quoting, scheduling and delivery.

5. Decide what counts as a successful referral

A homeowner submitting a quote request is not automatically a successful home services referral. Decide which business event should qualify the referral.

Possible milestones include:

There is no single correct milestone for every service business. If you want to protect reward spend, make the final milestone a completed job rather than an early enquiry.

In this example, the journey is represented by three additional records under Goals. In Referral Factory, added records are labelled Custom goal:

1. Quote Requested: the homeowner submits a request for a quote or service.

2. Job Booked: the homeowner books the service appointment.

3. Job Completed: the referred service is completed for the homeowner.

The example rewards trigger only when Job Completed is reached. That illustrates the difference between capturing a lead, tracking progress and reaching the final reward condition.

quote requested;
site visit scheduled;
job booked;
deposit paid;
job completed; or
another business-defined milestone.

Referral Factory goals used to track referral milestones — Example home services referral campaign showing the three example Goals with test data.

6. Decide how Referral Factory will know when the milestone happens

The milestone is the business action you want to track. These records are managed under Goals in Referral Factory.

The milestone and the method used to record it are separate decisions. First define the business event and the evidence that confirms the job is complete. Then choose how your systems will send or record that event in Referral Factory.

Depending on your systems, you may use:

Keep early stages visible if they help your team follow up, but do not make a quote request the final qualifying event unless that matches your economics and customer promise.

a CRM integration to map a job or deal stage to a goal;
the API;
an inbound webhook;
an automation platform such as Zapier, Make or n8n; or
manual qualification by your team.

7. Set up the reward after job completion

For example, both the referrer and the lead could have a manual fixed-value reward. Both rewards could be tied to the Job Completed goal, with automatic issuance turned off.

This is only an example. You can reward the referrer, the homeowner or both. You can also use a service credit, gift card, cash reward or another incentive. See How do I set up rewards for my referral program? for reward setup guidance.

Remember the difference between Due and Issued:

Due means the reward has been created because the qualifying condition was met, but it still needs to be issued according to your process.
Issued means the reward has been paid or delivered.

Referral Factory reward rules linked to the final referral milestone — Example home services referral campaign rewards tied to Job Completed, shown with test data.

8. Test the full referral journey

Check that the referrer receives a unique link, the homeowner is captured and attributed correctly, the quote or booking destination is correct, the Goals are recorded as intended, Job Completed is the only trigger for the example rewards, and no reward is Issued automatically unless that is intentional.

Important things to consider for home services businesses

Keep the operational details short and decide how you will handle:

existing customers who are already in your service database;
duplicate enquiries for the same address or project;
self-referrals and staff referrals;
cancelled appointments, refunds and repeat jobs;
different service areas and job types;
seasonal demand and long delays between quote and completion; and
collecting only the information actually needed on the Referral Link Page.

The home services example in one view

For example, a home services referral program can use this structure:

Existing customer → Branded Referrer Portal or QR code → unique Referral Link → Referral Link Page → existing quote and booking process → Quote Requested → Job Booked → Job Completed → manual rewards become Due.

Use the same structure as a starting point, then change the audience, fields, booking destination, milestones and reward rules to match your own home services business.