Referral programs

A referral program turns your happy customers into your word of mouth. Each customer who joins your program gets a personal link to share. When a friend signs up through it and becomes your customer, the reward you chose is earned: for the customer who shared, for the friend who joined, or for both.

This page is for the business or organization that runs a program. To share someone else’s program, see Refer a friend.

Where

Marketing → Referral Programs in the Dashboard:

Page	Address	What it is for
My Programs	`/dashboard/referral-programs`	Your programs with their status, When they run and Where they apply, and Start a program
New Program	`/dashboard/referral-programs/new`	Start a new program as a draft
A program	`/dashboard/referral-programs/…`	How referrals are going, rewards, the customers sharing it, its referrals and settings

Who can run a referral program

Referral programs are for businesses approved to sell on United Pet Club, and for verified organizations and shelters. If your profile is neither yet, the page shows Referral programs are for approved sellers and verified organizations with an Apply to sell button (see Start selling). An organization or shelter can run one once it is verified.

If the page says We couldn’t check your access just now, select Try again in a moment.

What it costs

Running a program is free. When someone uses a referral reward on an order with you, you pay a small claim fee on that order. The page shows the current rate, for example Free to run. When a referral reward is used, you pay a 2% claim fee on that order. A reward that is never used costs you nothing.

The fee is added to your platform fees like the other fees on your sales (see Fees).

Start a program

Open Marketing → Referral Programs and select Start a program.
Fill in what customers and their friends see:
- Program name, for example Bring a friend to the salon.
- Link name: filled in from the name as you type (letters, numbers and dashes). You can change it.
- Short line, for example You both get 15% off, plus What friends should know and Terms (both optional).

Choose The reward is earned when. A program only counts what happens with you:

Choice	The reward is earned when
First paid order	The friend pays for their first order from you
First visit	The friend comes to their first booked appointment with you
Membership join	The friend pays dues to join your organization

Choose Who earns a reward: The person who shares, The friend who joins, or both. At least one is needed. Then Who can be referred: New people only (only people who join United Pet Club through a referrer’s link or code count) or Everyone (members who already have an account count too, once they open a referrer’s link and reach the step above). You can change it later under Edit details with Existing members count too.
Choose how long a friend has to join after opening the link (A friend must join within: 1, 7, 30 or 90 days).
Optionally, Wait before rewarding (days): the reward is issued this many days after the step is done (up to 365), so a refund in that time voids the referral before any reward goes out.
Turn on Approve each person before they can share if you want to review who shares your program. Off, anyone can join and share right away.
Under Where it applies, keep Everywhere or limit the program to some places (see Limit a program to a region).
Under When it runs, check the Time zone and, if you like, set Starts and Ends (see Schedule a program ahead). Leave both empty and the program runs from the moment you publish it until you end it.
Select Create draft. The program opens as a Draft.

Limit a program to a region

A program can be for everyone, or only for people in some countries and provinces or states. Under Where it applies, choose the places: a whole country, or some of its provinces or states.

You can pick only places where you sell or serve: where your products ship or are available, where your services take place, and where your business is. If you ship worldwide or serve online, you can pick anywhere. A place outside that is refused with Choose only places where you sell or serve.
Who counts. Only a customer who lives in those places can join and share it, and only a friend who lives there counts. Where someone lives comes from the address on their profile (or the country they signed up from), never from where their device happens to be.
What counts. A purchase counts where it happens: where your part of an order is delivered, where an appointment takes place (the customer’s home for a visit at home, your premises otherwise), or where the member lives for paid membership dues. When there is no place (a download, an online session), the friend’s own region, checked when they signed up, decides.
A friend outside the region still signs up normally, but the referral doesn’t count. In the Referrals card it shows as Blocked because it is outside the program’s region. That never counts against the customer who shared.

The Where column of My Programs shows the places, for example Canada: Ontario and British Columbia, or Everywhere.

Schedule a program ahead

Set a program up before it starts, for example a holiday program you prepare in November for December:

Under When it runs, check the Time zone. It starts as your profile’s time zone, and the start and end are in that zone. The hint under each date says which, for example Times in America/Toronto (UTC−05:00).
Set Starts and Ends. The note under the dates says what will happen, for example Scheduled. Publish it now: it starts on Dec 1, 2026, 12:00 AM and ends on Jan 1, 2027, 12:00 AM on its own.
Optionally turn on List it as coming soon before it starts. Off, nobody sees the program until it starts. On, your profile page shows it with Starts Dec 1, 2026. Come back then to get your link., without a join button.
Publish it. Its status becomes Scheduled.

Nobody can join a scheduled program and no referral counts before its start. At the start it goes Live on its own, and at the end it Ends on its own: no one new can join, and referrals already made can still earn their reward. An ended program can’t be published again.

The end must come after the start (The end must come after the start.), and a new end can’t be in the past (The end has already passed.). Once a program has started, its start can’t be moved.

Choose the rewards

A reward is one of your own promotions: a discount or store credit on what you sell. Create the promotion first in your promotions, and publish it.

On the program page, the Rewards card has a line for each side the program rewards (For the customer who shares, For the friend who joins). Select Choose a promotion (or Change), pick one of your published promotions, and select Save reward. Only your published promotions are listed. A promotion of another business, or one of United Pet Club’s, can’t be a reward.

When a referral is rewarded, each rewarded person gets a single-use code for that promotion, to use on your products or services.

A reward code can be used only until its promotion ends. If the promotion you pick ends before your program does, saving it is refused with This reward ends before your program does, and the picker shows Keep this reward even though it stops being claimable before the program ends. Tick it to keep that promotion anyway, or choose one that lasts as long as the program. The same check runs when you publish and when you move the program’s end later.

Publish, pause and end

Button	What happens
Publish	The program goes live, or becomes Scheduled if its start is still ahead. Customers can join it from your public profile page once it is live. Publish is available once every side the program rewards has a reward.
Pause	No one new can join. Referrals already made can still earn their reward.
Resume	A paused program goes live again.
End program	For good: customers can’t share it anymore. Referrals already made can still earn their reward. You’re asked to confirm.

If Publish stays greyed out, the page says Choose a reward for each side before you publish.

A program’s status follows its dates:

Status	Meaning
Draft	Not published yet
Scheduled	Published, its start is still ahead
Live	Running: customers can join and share
Paused	You paused it
Ended	Its end date passed, or you ended it

Where customers join

Your live programs appear on your public profile page in a Refer a friend card. A signed-in member selects Get my referral link to join and gets a personal link and code to share, with share buttons and a QR code. The Settings card on the program page has View your profile page, and shows Who can be referred.

To bring customers to the card, the program page’s Where customers join card has a link straight to it, with Copy link, the Share on buttons and Download QR for a counter sign. A customer who joins then shares their own personal link, which opens sign-up with their code filled in (/r/THEIRCODE).

You can’t join your own program.

The Customers sharing card lists everyone who joined, with how many friends they referred and how many rewards they earned.

Status	Actions
Waiting for you (approval on)	Approve or Decline
Sharing	Suspend (their link stops referring)
Suspended	Reinstate

When customers are waiting, the card says so, for example 1 customer waits for your approval.

How referrals are going

The top of the program page follows a referral through its three steps:

Friends signed up through your customers’ links.
… done: the step that earns the reward (for example First paid order done).
Rewards earned: rewards issued as single-use codes.

Between the steps you see the share of friends who went on, so you can see where they stop. The Referrals card lists each referral with the date the friend signed up, its status (Signed up, Qualified, Rewarded, Voided, Expired, Blocked) and who shared it.

A referral is voided when the order or dues that earned it are fully refunded or lost to a chargeback. A customer can’t refer themselves.

Edit a program

Edit details changes the name, short line, what friends should know, the terms, and whether you approve each customer. What earns the reward and the time a friend has to join are set when you start the program.

The Settings card shows When it runs (with the time zone) and Where it applies.