Illustration of a worker thinking

1. Think of an offer

Imagine you are a customer. Think what kind of incentives would interest you. Referral programmes work best when the process of referring new customers to your workshop is easy, so the simpler the offer, the better.

Tip: All customers like discounts, so an obvious benefit is to offer a money-off voucher to a customer who refers a friend to you.

Illustration of three medals in gold, silver and bronze

2. Give 'tiered' Rewards

Maybe you could offer tiered rewards that get better with each referral? For example:

  • Bronze (one referral) – a free oil change.
  • Silver (two referrals) – free oil changes for a year
  • Gold (three referrals) – free oil changes for a year AND 10% off repairs.
Illustration of a woman with a mobile

3. Make the offer easily shareable

The fewer hoops your customer has to jump through, the more likely they will refer; for example, a simple ‘Share’ button at the bottom of an invoice gives the customer an easy way to share a discount voucher with a friend.

Illustration of a car promotion campaign on different online platforms: Mobile, tablet and destkop

4. Promote your offer

You could start by sending an email to all customers on your mailing list, letting them know about the offer. And if you have a good following on social media you can post an announcement there, too.

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