How to get your regulars to bring a friend

The bank gave any customer who brought in a new one a €25 shopping voucher. Three researchers took all 5,181 customers who arrived that way in 2006, and a random sample of 4,633 who came by other routes, such as direct mail and advertising. They followed both groups to September 2008: 33 months.

Over that time the referred customers earned the bank about 25% more, after its direct costs. The authors estimate that this edge had gone about 29 months after a customer joined. Referred customers also left less often, and that gap did not close: after 33 months 82.0% were still customers, against 79.2% of the others. Projected over six years, a referred customer was worth "at least 16%" more than a similar one who came another way.

It is one bank, and a bank account is a long way from a lunch. The authors suggest two reasons, which they did not test. People recommend a place to others like themselves, who tend to suit it. And a customer whose friend is also a customer has one more reason to stay. They expect both to count for more with complicated products than simple ones. We found no comparable study of a shop or a café, so read it for direction only.

The warning does carry over. "In most referral programs," they write, "the reward is given regardless of how long the new referred customers stay with the firm. Such programs are prone to abuse by customers." The bank's own scheme asked nothing of a newcomer beyond opening an account, and they call it "especially prone to exploitation".

The Referrals page, under Marketing, states the arrangement: "Members invite friends with their own link. When a friend who is new to your business visits, the member who invited them gets a share of the Points the friend collects, from your business." A friend who joins and never buys costs you nothing. One who buys weekly earns the member a little each week.

The share is extra: "These are new Points from your business: the friend keeps all of theirs." It works only with Points. On a program that counts stamps or visits the page reads "Referrals need Points": see Points, stamps or visits: which should you use? It stops at one level, so a member earns nothing from the friends their friends bring. A friend counts once, for one member, and not at all if the two already share a Family Account.

Of sixteen large Malaysian programs whose terms we read in October 2026, at least three give a referral reward: Sunway Super App, Tealive and Starbucks Malaysia. Sunway's FAQ says a member is "rewarded whenever your friends or family register". Tealive's gives a "Mystery Reward" to the member, and to the friend "when they use your code". None of the three describes a share of what the friend goes on to spend.

Four experiments published in 2007 looked at who should get the reward. Rewards made people more likely to refer. For close ties and stronger brands, the authors conclude, "providing at least some of the reward to the receiver of the referral seems to be more effective." The receiver is the friend. They measured the likelihood of referring, which is a step short of a customer at your counter.

A neighbourhood shop's regulars are probably inviting family, colleagues and close friends, so give the friend a reason too. The setting is Friend’s welcome bonus, "Added with the friend’s first visit", and it opens at 0. It is the only head start a card can have in native.cards, and it arrives with a purchase, never on joining. How soon should customers earn their first reward? has the evidence on head starts.

Keep it below the cost of your cheapest reward. A bonus that covers a reward outright is a sign-up reward by another name: one small purchase unlocks it. A quarter to a half of that cost puts the friend visibly on the way and leaves a reason to return.

An example with made-up numbers. A shop gives 1 Point for every RM1, and 100 Points take RM5 off the bill. A Point is worth 5 sen, so the program gives back 5% of what a member spends. Referrals are set to a 30% share, a 50-Point welcome bonus and 12 months. A regular invites a friend, who spends RM40 a month for the next twelve months: RM480.

The referral adds RM9.70 in rewards to RM480 of sales, about 2%, on top of the 5% any member earns. Had the friend bought once for RM40 and vanished, the member would have 12 Points from it and the friend 90, ten short of a reward.

The share is the part that keeps running, and it is one multiplication: what the program gives back, times the share. Here 5% × 30% is 1.5 sen for every ringgit the friend spends. Work backwards to choose it. If 1.5 sen is what you are willing to add and your program gives back 10%, set the share to 15%.

RM9.70 is the most it can cost, since unused Points cost nothing. The RM480 also overstates what the referral brought. "New to your business" can only mean new to your records. A friend who has shopped with you for years without a card counts, and so does one who would have found you anyway.

The page opens with referrals Off, a 30% share, no welcome bonus, no end date and no limit.

Member’s share of a friend’s Points runs from 10% to 50%. It is public: your Business page shows visitors a Referral Program card with the percentage on it.

How long members earn from a friend is "Counted from the day the friend joins": For as long as both are members, or 3, 6, 12 or 24 months.

Limit what one member can earn from friends sets a Monthly limit in Points, "so one very well-connected member can’t earn without end". In the example, 250 holds a member's earnings from friends to RM12.50 of rewards a month. Points above the limit are not given later.

The page adds: "Changes apply to friends who join from now on. Friends who already joined keep their terms." A friend who joins while the share is 50% with no end date goes on earning that member 50% after you lower it. Turning referrals off stops all sharing, though "Points already earned stay with members". A referral you stop "can't be restarted". A refunded or corrected purchase takes its share back.

So begin with a share you could pay for years, a fixed period and the limit on.

Nothing we found measures how a shop should ask. The bank used "staff and flyers in the branches" and mailings.

Ask just after recording a regular's purchase, while their phone is in their hand:

Example wording. "You're in most weeks. If you know someone who'd like it here, your own invite link is on our page. They get 50 bonus Points on their first visit, and you earn a share of what they collect."

On your Business page a signed-in member finds the Referral Program card, with buttons for WhatsApp, Messages, Facebook, Instagram and More. The message it writes says who gains: "You get 50 bonus Points on your first visit, and I earn a little too when you visit." A friend given the code by word of mouth types it under the join form, at Have an invite code? Before joining, the friend reads that the member "will see your first name and the Points they earn from your visits".

Start with the customers you would most like more of. The bank study's authors argue, without testing it, that good customers tend to bring good ones, and expect the fit to worsen the more people one customer brings. Keep any one person's code off the counter, your team's included. A customer who was joining anyway would then earn that person a share for the whole period.

What referrals brought covers friends who joined in the last 30 days, 90 days or 12 months: Friends joined, Visited, Friends' spend and Points given out. Multiply Points given out by the value of a Point, divide by Friends' spend, and you have the example's 2% for your own shop.

Recent referrals marks two patterns: "Email looks like the inviter's" and "Five or more joins through one link in a day". A mark blocks nothing by itself. If a second look confirms it, Pause link closes that member's link to new friends and Stop earning ends one referral.

In Campaigns, invited members have their own line, Member invites (referrals), beside each sign and link, with Came back counted over every member's first 30 days. That puts the bank's finding to the test on your own members: see Which sign, link or post brings you the best members?