---
title: "When is the best time to ask for a referral?"
id: "16974"
type: "post"
slug: "the-best-time-to-ask-for-a-brand-referral"
published_at: "2021-07-20T20:51:01+00:00"
modified_at: "2025-11-09T21:27:21+00:00"
url: "https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/the-best-time-to-ask-for-a-brand-referral/"
markdown_url: "https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/the-best-time-to-ask-for-a-brand-referral.md"
excerpt: "This article considers the question of when is the best time to ask for a referral. We’ve recently written a sister article to consider how to to ask for a referral. Over the last few years, referral marketing has exploded..."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Thought Leadership"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "Best Practice"
  - "Referral Program"
taxonomy_translation_priority:
  - "Optional"
---

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# When is the best time to ask for a referral?

Last Modified: 09/11/2025  
**18 min read**

[https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/alex-pandya/](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/alex-pandya/)

**Author:**  
[Alex Pandya](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/author/alex-pandya/)
- Marketing Manager

This article considers the question of when is the best time to ask for a referral. We’ve recently written a sister article to consider [how to to ask for a referral](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/how-to-ask-your-customers-for-referrals/)
.

Over the last few years, referral marketing has exploded in both its popularity and effectiveness as a means of acquiring new customers with our recent [Reward Revolution research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/reward-revolution-report)
 finding that 95% of people have referred a friend in the past year, and our [Referral Codebreakers research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/referral-codebreakers-report)
 reporting that fully eight out of ten people expect to be able to refer their favorite brand. We have highlighted the brands who built their businesses on the back of referral marketing and recent research by [Rachel Gershon of UC San Diego and Zhenling Jiang of the University of Pennsylvania](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-contagion/)
 found that referred-in customers were not only more valuable based on the fact that they tend to spend more and stay longer with a brand, but also as they are in turn more likely to refer-in new customers.

And instead of endlessly pouring more money into the coffers of Meta, Alphabet, Amazon etc., brands can harness the power of word of mouth marketing as has been demonstrated by [Airbnb](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/stop-paying-the-google-and-facebook-tax/)
, which explained how its Organic Discovery strategy enabled it to get 90% of all its website traffic from unpaid sources.

And, while providing an excellent customer experience is the prerequisite to generate positive sentiment towards a brand, referral marketing is often the most effective mechanic to convert that goodwill into new customer acquisition; whether leading to a new purchase, subscription, app download or other valuable action. Put simply, it works because a [referral program](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/referral-programs/)
 gives satisfied customers, [employees](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/employee-rewards-incentives/)
, [partners](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/partner-marketing/)
 and [influencers](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/influencer-ambassador-marketing/)
 a simple and safe means to share a recommendation with friends, family, colleagues and other audiences and typically provides a [reward and incentive](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-rewards-and-incentives/)
 for each successfully tracked referral.

So in seeking to [maximize the number of referrals](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/tips-encourage-customer-referrals/)
 from your audiences you need to identify:

- the people most likely to refer you i.e. those with a net positive sentiment towards your brand;
- the moments when that net positive sentiment is likely to be at its highest and, therefore, willingness to refer at its greatest;
- when those audiences are most receptive to receiving a message from you;
- when they are most likely to act on a call to action to refer a friend;
- how to remove barriers to referral, whether psychological or physical; and
- the rewards and incentives most likely to lead to a successful referral

And finally, you need to think about what, even if you have all of the above in place, you should do if the referred-in friend is not yet ready or able to switch to your brand, for example, if they are locked into a contract with another supplier at the time of the referral.

This article looks at all these questions, but first, we will start with a quick recap on referrals and their value.

## **A referral marketing recap**

Referral marketing, also known as advocacy marketing, refer-a-friend, customer-get-customer or member-get-member, is a marketing tactic that leverages word-of-mouth in order to acquire new customers and grow your business.

In other words, it’s the active (i.e. direct, personal) or passive (i.e. public, general) recommendation of a specific brand, product or service to an audience of potential customers by a customer, employee, partner, influencer or other person with a personal experience of the brand. After a successful referral, typically both the referrer and the referred-in friend receive some sort of reward, like cash, vouchers, free service or even physical prizes, and the company itself receives a shiny new customer, often at a fraction of the cost of other channels. It’s a win-win all the way around.

All told, an estimated [$6 trillion of annual consumer spending](https://review42.com/resources/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics/)
 is driven by word-of-mouth marketing and it brings in [5X sales than paid media](https://review42.com/resources/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics/)
. The reason that referral marketing works so well is that [88% of customers prefer recommendations from friends to traditional marketing](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/88-of-consumers-trust-word-of-mouth/)
, and [74% of customers cite word-of-mouth as a primary driver behind their purchase decisions](http://)
.

**How to identify brand advocates or brand ambassadors – Buyapowa’s Referral Experts:**

Referral marketing: How to identify potential referrers? Gideon Las...

Referral marketing: How to identify potential referrers?

Gideon Lask: "Gents, I have a question and I'm hoping you are just the two guys, coincidentally to answer it for me. I'm a brand, how do I identify the people who are going to refer?"

Peter Cunningham: "Well for a start, a lot of those people self-identify. So people leave positive reviews on review sites, they like your social media, they stand up for you in social media. They repeat buy and they give you high NPS scores, so they're actually saying 'I do love you', so you should be reaching out to those people and saying 'you said you love us why don't you share that love with your friends?"

Robin Bresnark: "Yeah, that's my favorite thing about NPS. People spend a fortune on NPS, and you're literally asking people the question 'would you refer your friends?' And then they don't ask people with high NPS scores to actually do that. It's bonkers completely."

Gideon Lask: "Such a wasted opportunity. And we have lovely integrations with NPS programs now that do exactly that and lo and behold people that give eight nines and tens for NPS have a far higher propensity to refer. Who would have thought it? Thanks guys."

  
## **How to identify potential referrers**

Word-of-mouth marketing is all about generating positive sentiment towards your brand among your audiences and encouraging them to spread positive word-of-mouth about you within their influence circles (family, friends, colleagues, followers, readership, etc.). As mentioned above, referral marketing gives you the means to take that positive word-of-mouth and direct it towards generating new customers by giving potential [brand advocates or brand ambassadors](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/how-to-turn-customers-into-brand-advocates/)
 an easy, safe and trustworthy means to share a message about your brand, with a reward and incentive and a means to track or attribute each successful referral.

Obviously, brand detractors are unlikely to want to refer your brand, particularly to their trusted friends and family. However, this leads to a key point about [referral rewards](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-rewards-and-incentives/)
: they should be enough to overcome the psychological barriers to referral and should act as a ‘thank you’ to the referrer for the effort he or she undertook, but should not be so generous as to encourage unwanted behaviour, such as spamming or gaming, where even detractors push your brand to earn rewards.

So how do you find people positively disposed to your brand who can potentially become brand ambassadors? Well luckily, many people self identify as potential brand advocates by:

- Following your brand and liking your posts on social media, and even defending your brand in online forums and threads;
- Giving positive feedback in online reviews;
- Giving positive feedback in customer surveys and high NPS (Net Promoter Scores);
- Reporting satisfaction in-store, to call centre agents or in website exit pop-ups (e.g. “How happy were you with your experience today?”);
- Purchasing your product or service, particularly repeat purchases;
- Upgrading your service (e.g. subscribing for Amazon Prime, upgrading to a premium membership, taking out a new line, adding new services, etc.);
- Reaching a milestone (e.g. having been a subscriber for a year, used a service a certain amount, etc.)

All of these, and other signals relevant to your business, are either indications or direct expressions of customer satisfaction, and in the case of NPS, actually ask the question ‘how likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?’. In some cases, you will be able to identify the person who gave this feedback and ask them to refer you. But even where the feedback is anonymous, there is scope to include a message in a pop-up requesting a referral.

> “A lot of [brand advocates or brand ambassadors] self identify. They leave positive reviews on review sites, like your social media, stand up for you in social media. They repeat buy. And they give you high NPS scores, so they’re actually saying ‘I do love you’. So reach out and say: ‘you said you love us, why don’t you share that love with your friends and family’”
> 
>  **Peter Cunningham,****Director of Marketing –****Buyapowa**

While a percentage of your audience will self-identify, inevitably a large portion will not. However, you might conclude that an act, such as an upgrade or contract renewal has a high correlation with customer satisfaction and invite all customers who upgrade or renew to refer. In the our WOM Day event in 2021, [GemSeek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy6hHmN2tY4)
 explained how a company can analyze all company-held data to impute an NPS across all customers and use this to identify potential churn signals, as well as potential brand ambassadors.

However, assuming that you will never be able to 100% accurately identify all those in your audience, it’s wise to include a call-to-action [across all your customer touchpoints](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/promote-your-referral-program/)
, such as in prominent navigation on your website and in your app, customer areas and in newsletters links. That way happy customers can find your referral program. Our recent Referral Codebreakers

You should also make your referral programme easy to find on Google and in your internal search engine – with a publicly available page with an easy-to-remember URL like *www.company.com/refer*.

**Hear from Natasha Saviuk, Director of Growth at Wealthsimple on when is the best time to ask for a referral:**

When is the best time to ask for a referral? | Wealthsimple Natasha...

When is the best time to ask for a referral? | Wealthsimple

Natasha Saviuk: "So for us clients definitely refer their friends at any stage in their life cycle, but we definitely see that clients are the most likely to refer in that first 30-day window. They're actually 10 times more likely to refer than clients later on."

Natasha Saviuk: "Probably just because when you're a new client, you're excited you found a solution to a problem you're having and, you know, Finance being so important and relevant to people, I think that they're inclined to share it with their friends or tell their friends about it. And especially when you've had an 'aha moment' in the app for a lack of a better way to put it."

Natasha Saviuk: "We see a lot of referral activity around those times, so as an example with Wealthsimple when you see how easy it is to fund the app or how easy it is to purchase a stock for the first time, those are key moments where we see that after clients complete those actions, they become a lot more likely to refer. We definitely want to nudge clients after they've completed those actions as a really time-based relevant moment to encourage them to refer their friends to the app."

Robin Bresnark: "So you flag and surface that message at those key moments exactly to encourage them to refer?"

Natasha Saviuk: "Yeah both in the app and through our traditional life cycle channels like push and email and that's been a really effective strategy."

  
*[See Full Video](https://youtu.be/D1FaR3s3kjc?si=EKH2Y4ezc-c0m3NP)*  
## **When is the best time to ask them to referrer?**

This article by [Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz](https://andrewchen.com/how-to-design-a-referral-program/)
, provides a very insightful summary, particularly given his involvement with the Uber and Dropbox referral programs. Basically he advises that you should ask as often as possible given the context of what you’re asking the user to do. In particular, he advises incorporating referrals into the user onboarding flow.

> “Ask many times, in many places, with different messages, and in-context with whatever action you’re asking the user to take…..Thus, make the referral ask part of the main flows….And add it to the onboarding flow, and at the end of key transactions when the user is otherwise done.
> 
>  The headline best practice is that your referral program should target new users to refer their friends — this means prompting users during their initial onboarding flows… Why focus on new users? First, mathematically, it’s easiest to make a big impact when you are hitting a cohort of 1000 new users when it’s as close to 1000 as possible, not in day 30 when the cohort will have churned and gotten down to 150. And in the math of the viral factor, you have a better chance to hit >1 when you have 1000 users invite 1000 users than to ask 150 to invite 1000. Second, new users generally have more friends who haven’t yet used the product, because they are new themselves. Once they have gone through the referral program a few times, then they will have naturally tapped out their networks.”
>  **Andrew Chen, Partner – Andreessen Horowitz**

So here are some moments when you can consider asking for a referral:

1. **Immediately after self-identification**

Clearly, when an audience member has just self-identified as a potential brand advocate, that is the best moment to ask for a referral. So just after a customer has given a positive review, a high NPS score or told your call centre staff that they are happy with the service, then that is the ideal moment to ask. Not only is positive sentiment likely to be high but also your brand is front of mind, and you are likely to have a short window of opportunity before the challenges of daily life push your brand back to the recesses of your customer’s brain.

The opportunity here is to include a reference to the referral program in the thank you pop-up or email after completion of the review or survey, or have the call centre staff ask if it is okay to text a link to the referral program. The key is to get the referral link to the potential referrer as soon as possible after self-identification and make it very easy to refer, for example by allowing native sharing on a mobile phone and having default sharing texts available.

1. **Immediately post-purchase**

At first glance, you might wonder why someone would refer after having just purchased and before they have had the chance to use the product or service. But as well as the [self-serving motive](https://www.cloudsponge.com/blog/psychology-sharing-referrals/)
 for word-of-mouth in wanting to be the first in a group of friends to break the news of a cool new product or service, in actual fact, many purchases are actually repeat purchases. And the act of repeat purchasing is in and of itself a moment of self-identification as a potential brand advocate.

However, there is a scientific reason why it’s a good reason to contact potential referrers immediately post-purchase. This is because, between the gratification of buying and the anticipation of receiving our purchase, our brains [release a happy chemical known as dopamine](https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/brain-wise/201510/shopping-dopamine-and-anticipation)
, the neurotransmitter closely linked to [motivation and behaviour](https://www.healthing.ca/wellness/getting-a-buzz-off-of-prime-day-its-all-about-dopamine)
 and the formation of habits. In fact, immediately after having bought, signed up or taken out a policy, the customer’s dopamine levels are often at their highest, which can make them more receptive to your messaging and more willing to refer your brand. Simply put: immediately after they shop, your customers are feeling great, which is exactly when you should be ready to ask them to refer you.

Our recent [Referral Codebreakers research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/referral-codebreakers-report)
 identified that the optimal time to ask for a referral was between 1-3 days after purchase. This would suggest allowing the customer time to receive and evaluate the product and service. but not leaving it too late that the purchase is no longer top of mind.

**Hear from Jacob Tice, Senior Marketing Specialist at Trupanion why identifying specific moments in the journey where that is going to be the most compelling ask, is an important part of building your referral program**

Robin Bresnark: "In terms of activating people, when do you tend to do...

Robin Bresnark: "In terms of activating people, when do you tend to do that? Do you do that when people first come along or after they've received treatment? When do you find people are more likely to refer and when would you sort of encourage them to do that?"

Jacob Tice: "We encourage them to refer after they've had a really strong experience with us for one, and after that initial enrollment period. That first hospital visit is when we really want to see them enroll so that they can get the absolute most out of their coverage. And so for us, when we're talking about referrals that means as a part of their enrollment process of getting oriented and familiar with Trupanion, with our coverage with our policies.

Those are the moments where we're like 'hey if we know that this is something that you're going to love and use, then you should bring your family, bring your loved ones, bring your friends in along with you because they'll love it too.

And I would say identifying specific moments in the journey where that is going to be the most compelling ask is an important part of building your referral program.

After a successful claim, after someone has gone through the Trupanion experience, they've had their vet paid directly upfront, no waiting for reimbursement, their pet is feeling better. They're feeling good about their interaction with us, with their veterinarian. Again, we have that opportunity to put that forward and say therefore, you know, refer your friends."

  
See the [full video here](https://youtu.be/P7BhUN5mO6o?si=pr46wVg34RVrk5OR)
.  
1. **At customer milestones**

There is no coincidence in the fact that you often get asked to review a product or service 14 or 28 days after purchase. Not only does this allow you to have actually used the product or service for some time after purchase, but it is often the statutory cooling off period. This means if you haven’t returned or cancelled after 14 or 28 days, then perhaps you are happy with the product or service.

There can also be other milestones relevant to your business like paying an insurance premium, paying your monthly mobile bill or allowing the free month’s trial to roll into premium membership. Other milestones can be upgrades or renewals, which can correlate to use and satisfaction.

> “And I would say identifying specific moments in the journey where that is going to be the most compelling ask is an important part of building your referral program. After a successful claim, after someone has gone through the Trupanion experience, they’ve had their vet paid directly upfront, no waiting for reimbursement, their pet is feeling better. They’re feeling good about their interaction with us, with their veterinarian. Again, we have that opportunity to put that forward and say therefore, you know, refer your friends.”
>  **Jacob Tice, Senior Marketing Specialist – Trupanion**

Of course, anniversaries and customer events like birthdays can be a good excuse to ask for a referral, particularly if there is another offer included. For example:

> “Dear John,
> 
>  To say thanks for being a loyal customer over the past year, we have given you a month’s complimentary upgrade to our premium streaming access, where you can see all our exclusive sports content. And as a reminder, for each friend you convince to sign up for our streaming package, you will get another month’s premium access free. &
> 
>  And to celebrate your anniversary, each new customer you refer this month will earn you two months premium instead of one.”

Finally, and subject to privacy and other applicable laws, you could reward the referrer again when their referred-in friend renews or upgrades, as this will remind the referrer that their friend did get value from the referral.

1. **When a customer has just successfully referred someone to you**

This is an obvious point, but when someone has successfully referred a new customer to you and earned a referral reward, not only should you notify them, thank them and explain how they will get their reward, but you should ask them to refer again.

In our experience, too many commercial and in-house built referral programs are content with getting an average of one referral from each referring customer. But your customer has just referred, has seen that your program works and they have just received the dopamine hit of getting a reward in their hands, so it’s the perfect time to ask them to do it again. Particularly, when you mix in smart psychology with gamification, tiered rewards and booster campaigns designed to get referrers referring again and again.

1. **When a customer is about to lose their right to refer**

Some referral programs like the one belonging to [London-based fintech Revolut](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referral-program-examples/)
, actually restrict the number of friends you can invite and/or limit the period in which you can invite. This is to create the fear of missing out (or FOMO, as it’s more commonly referred to), and Revolut will email you, send you in-app messages and place a message in your app notifying you of the time remaining, creating an immediacy.

> “For us, clients definitely refer their friends at any stage in their lifecycle but we definitely see that clients are the most likely to refer in that first 30 day window. They’re actually 10X more likely to refer than clients later on. Probably just because when you’re a new client you’re excited you found a solution to a problem you’re having…..and especially when you’ve had an ‘aha’ moment in the app….we see a lot of referral activity around those times….[and] we definitely want to nudge clients after they’ve completed those actions.”
>  **Natasha Saviuk,****Director of Growth –****Wealthsimple**

## **When will your audience listen to you?**

Estimates vary, but we are estimated to be exposed to [between 4,000 to 10,000 ads every day](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/25/finding-brand-success-in-the-digital-world/?sh=e02e7a2626e2)
 and there is a limit to how many times a day, week or month a customer will want to hear from your brand. Opinions vary greatly on how often a brand should communicate, and the answer will depend not only on the demographic involved but also the type of brand. For instance, we might assume that a member of Generation Z would be willing to hear more often from a fashion or music brand they like than from his or her insurance company or bank.

**Hear from Buyapowa’s Director of Brand, Robin Bresnark, on why customers are particularly receptive to invitations to refer friends after a good experience with your customer support team:**

Robin Bresnark: "Here's another grid this time with eight moments of k...

Robin Bresnark: "Here's another grid this time with eight moments of key interaction between customers and brands.

Let's quickly go through them:

- So immediately after a transaction, so whether that's buying something or signing up for a service, taking out a contract whatever is relevant to you.

- After receiving a product or service, so that's once the product arrives at their door or the service begins contract starts.

- In the weeks following a transaction. You've probably got email drip automations that guide customers at this time. It works for a referral too.

- After following the brand on social, kind of a no-brainer right?

- And the same goes for after signing up to the brand's mailing list.

- And after joining the brand's loyalty program.

- Then there's once they've interacted with customer support. Now that might be asynchronous like an email exchange, or it might be synchronous over the phone or in an online chat.

- And finally after responding positively to a brand's customer satisfaction survey such as NPS.

So which ones work? Short answer they all do.

Longer answer, well this one really surprised me: The number one answer to when are you most responsive was after interacting with customer support. Really didn't expect that but it makes so much sense. That interaction, that human connection is going to inspire more human connections with friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues...

  
   
But as well as the frequency at which we might want or expect communication from a brand, there will be moments when a potential brand ambassador is more willing to listen, these include:- **Just after purchase** – a customer will be actively looking out for the post-purchase email or text with details of the purchase and delivery dates.
- **Account and billing enquiries** – many consumers attention is highest when they see a payment has been taken from their bank account and want to check their account
- **Customer support via call centres, chat and FAQ pages** – where the customer is looking for help with the use of the product they will be attentive. And in fact our [Referral Codebreakers research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/referral-codebreakers-report) found that, across all age groups, potential referrers are most likely to interact with your referral program after a positive experience with customer support
- **Renewal periods** – assuming you communicate that renewal is due, will auto-renew or send a post renewal thank you

> “Well this one really surprised me: The number one answer to when are you most responsive [to messaging from the brand] was after interacting with customer support. Really didn’t expect that but it makes so much sense. That interaction, that human connection is going to inspire more human connections with friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues…”
>  **Robin Bresnark, Director of Brand – Buyapowa**

On all of these occasions, you have or should have high customer attention levels. However, it is important not to interfere with the original purpose of the communication, For example, don’t make someone who logs into your account area first go through your referral program. However, this is a chance to add a message about your referral program at the end of the journey when attention is still high, and hopefully after the customer has successfully achieved what they came to do and feels good about your brand.

If you have the luxury of a platform that monitors how and when each customer is most responsive to messages, you may know your audiences preferred message format (e.g. email, text message, phone call), preferred day and time, language, and so on, in order to most effectively communicate your referral program.

**What’s going to a stop a referrer in their tracks – Buyapowa’s Referral Experts:**

Referral marketing: Worst referral mistakes Gideon Lask: "I'll let ...

Referral marketing: Worst referral mistakes

Gideon Lask: "I'll let you guys into a secret. We are sadly nerdy about all things referral. And in our spare time we look at hundreds and hundreds of referral programs. I'd love to hear from you guys what you feel are some of the most common mistakes made by people with their referral programs what makes a referrer stop in their tracks or a friend say 'I'm not participating'?

Robin Bresnark: "Number one for me it doesn't look like a core thing the brand is doing. It's an afterthought. The worst case of this is when the program is hosted on a microsite with a different url. Maybe whoever is providing the software has got their brand all over it. Maybe that's the url that the referral might share with their friend. Maybe it's referral platform.com - that's awful."

Gideon Lask: "So it needs to be trustworthy, on-brand, integrated into the experience."

Robin Bresnark:"Yeah if I'm your friend and you want me to shop at this shop don't go telling me about some referral platform. That's horrible."

Gideon Lask: "Got it."

Peter Cunningham: "I agree with Robin. It's between the brand and the customer, so no one else should get in the way. I think the offer needs to be clear. It needs to be clear what you can get, what your friend can get and what you need to do. So that needs to be spelt out just really clear. Another thing you need to be clear about is what's happening with any data you're giving. That data is it going to be resold? Are you going to be hawked to any referral program out there. So it's very important that your supplier doesn't share that data with anyone they shouldn't."

Gideon Lask: "I know I'm asking the questions but I've got an answer as well. I hate it when they don't promote  
 the program because I need to be able to find the referral program if I'm looking to refer or if I'm minded to refer because I've just had a great experience, ask me to refer. Don't hide these things."

Robin Bresnark: "Yeah if someone comes to your website looking for your referral program you've got 10 seconds until they go and look at cat videos. So put it in the places they're gonna find it."

Peter Cunningham: "And give it a url that makes sense, so it's brand.com/referral."

Gideon Lask: "And rewards which are commensurate with the experience as well. If you're asking someone to join up, then offer them something good don't be tight about it. Thanks guys."

  
## **What stops customers from referring in the first place?**

The biggest and most obvious barrier first is poor customer experience, and here we mean the holistic perception of a customer’s experience over the course of their relationship with you; the sum total of all of their interactions, from navigating your website, app or store to engaging with customer service to actually receiving and using your product or service. So if you aren’t getting a lot of business from word-of-mouth, the first action is to audit your business and your customers’ perceptions of what you offer. And if their perceptions are poor, we suggest you try and fix the issues first.

However, as mentioned above, unless you are offering over-generous referral rewards, it is likely that only customers who already have a positive perception of your brand will be willing to refer you. But there are many things that can still get in the way of referrals from happy customers.

As [research from Yale University and UC Berkeley found](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/what-yale-university-and-uc-berkeley-can-teach-you-about-word-of-mouth-marketing/)
, there are many psychological barriers to referral, not least of which is apathy or inertia. Quite simply you are competing for time and there are other things that a customer could do with their time like watch something on Netflix.

In [their research](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/what-yale-university-and-uc-berkeley-can-teach-you-about-word-of-mouth-marketing/)
 Dr Aniko Oery and Yuichiro Kamada identified a barrier that stops people from talking about brands or products; namely the risk of losing social currency if that recommendation turns out to be a bad one. So that in order to motivate a referral, the referral reward and any net positive externality from the friend also using the product or service (like being able to share files in Dropbox or discuss shows viewed on Netflix) must outweigh the perceived risks of the referral. Therefore, you need to think carefully about the rewards you offer as well as the risks a referrer may perceive in referring you. In fact, our own [Reward Revolution Research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/reward-revolution-report)
 found 74% of respondents would be less likely to refer a friend if there were no reward and the vast majority of those surveyed across all ages said an uninspiring reward had stopped them referring at least once.

Drs. Oery and Kamada also talk about creating an opportunity cost of not referring, such as having an incentive for the referred-in friend that is not available elsewhere. And research from [Cynthia Crowder of the Olin Business School, Rachel Gershon of the University of California and Leslie K. John of Harvard Business School](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/importance-of-friend-incentives-in-referrals/)
 emphasized the importance of friend incentives in motivating referrals. In an experiment, they found that referrals were highest when all the reward was given to the friend instead of being kept by the referrer, split equally or donated to charity. At WOM Day, our very own Director of Brand, Robin Bresnark, explained how the [psychological principle of reciprocity](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/the-psychology-of-referral-part-one/)
 can encourage referrals by being open and honest that both the referrer and referred-in friend will benefit from a successful referral. Our own [Reward Revolution Research](https://labs.buyapowa.com/reward-revolution-report)
 found that almost 70% of people reported that they wouldn’t act on a referral from a friend without an incentive.

As well as overcoming the reluctance to refer, brands will want to encourage their audiences to refer now, which, as mentioned above, is where the fear of missing out (FOMO) comes in. This can be achieved by time limiting the right to referrals or the number of referrals a customer can make. Another illustration of this is time-limited booster campaigns that give extra rewards if referrals are made within a short period.

As well as linked to rewards, FOMO is a [social anxiety](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563213000800)
 that stems from the belief that you are missing out on some novel experience, shared experience or a profitable investment. And, in the world of marketing, this refers to benefits, value or experiences that consumers are missing out on by not engaging with a brand, their offer or content. There’s no more clear example of this than the popularity of the HBO show Game of Thrones, which became a cultural phenomenon and took FOMO into the stratosphere with people working hard to be up-to-date with every single episode and its surrounding media in order to order stay completely in synch with other viewers and participate on conversations, many of which happened online.

As for your referral program, you can leverage the psychology of FOMO by carefully calibrating your program and positioning it in such a way that by not participating, your customers are missing out on something that others are experiencing.

> “Number 1 [mistake] for me, it doesn’t look like a core thing the brand is doing, it’s an afterthought. The worst case of this is when the program is hosted on a micro-site with a different URL and maybe whoever is providing the software has got their brand all over it.”
>  **Robin Bresnark,****Director of Brand –****Buyapowa**

## **Considered purchases**

So far we have considered referrals mostly from the point of view of the referrer, but we should also consider the position of the receiver of the referral solicitation; the friend. Obviously, a person can act quickly on an impulse purchase of a product where the price point is not too high, the value of the product or service is well known and there is little risk associated with the purchase. So if your friend recommended that you buy a banana-yellow jacket at half price, you may just act quickly on impulse, despite the obvious fashion crime.

However, that is unlikely to be the case with a [considered purchase](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/130774/impulse-vs-considered-purchase-strategy.html)
 where the purchase decision is more complex and has a higher degree of financial or emotional risk and reward. A considered purchase can be anything from taking out a home insurance policy to purchasing kitchen appliances, even a selecting family internet service plan.

They also include [referrals in a B2B context](https://www.buyapowa.com/blog/referrals-in-the-world-of-b2b/)
 where the person being referred may require more guidance as part of their due diligence, such as insights into the products and services themselves, impressions of the brand and the customer experience, and any other specific requirements that they may have.

A considered purchase referral isn’t generally a single recommendation and then you’re done. The referrer often needs to repeatedly follow up with their referred friend to answer questions and provide help. And, while it may be that the recommendation is welcome and the offer tempting, the recipient may be locked into a contract with his or her current insurer or mobile phone provider for an extended period and be unable to act immediately.

In these cases, it is unlikely to be a single recommendation that leads to a purchase, and often both the referrer and the friend will need further reminders to drive the referral forward.

## **Automation**

Ideally, you will not be manually sending these messages, but your referral program will integrate with your back-end systems (e.g. CRM) and allow messages to be automated according to the entire customer journey for each customer. This can include the post-purchase page, confirmation of purchase email, tracking information email if it’s being delivered, your request for feedback, and even your receipts, renewal notices, NPS surveys, and so on.

## **The main takeaways**

Ultimately, the success of your referral program and your ability to recruit referrers depends on identifying your pool of potential brand ambassadors, knowing when and how to reach out to them, understanding the psychological barriers that prevent them from referring and referring now, and how to effectively overcome these.

By using smart psychology and economics you can encourage referrers to refer again and again. So by carefully designing your referral program with these in mind, you can significantly boost the number of referrers you have and turn your program into a wellspring of newly acquired customers.

If you’re interested in building and launching a [referral program](https://www.buyapowa.com/solutions/referral-programs/)
 that’s capable of overcoming all of the barriers we mentioned above, then don’t hesitate to [contact us](https://www.buyapowa.com/about-us/)
. We’d love to chat.

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