Past-Client Referral Engine

What the past-client referral engine does

Past clients are the cheapest, highest-converting lead source any GC has. They also disappear into the void within 60 days of project close unless something brings them back. The referral engine keeps them warm and makes the “refer a friend” gesture frictionless.

• 30/90/180-day touch sequence — three automated check-ins after project close. 30 days: “settling in?” with a photo prompt. 90 days: seasonal maintenance tip relevant to the work done. 180 days: “who do you know” referral ask.
• One-tap refer-a-friend SMS — the 180-day SMS includes a single tap that opens a pre-written SMS to the friend, with the homeowner’s name as the introduction.
• Referral attribution — when the referred friend fills out an intake form, the original referrer’s contact gets a tag and the referral chain is recorded.
• Auto-pay on close — when the referred project signs an estimate, the original referrer gets an automated SMS confirming their referral bonus is processed (configurable: $250-$1,000 typical, or a yard upgrade, or a gift card).
• Annual loyalty drip — past clients hit a once-yearly “anniversary of your project” touch with a high-quality photo from the project archive.

How it works under the hood

The engine is built on a long-running GHL workflow plus a separate contact tag system:

1. Trigger — project pipeline stage moves to closed-warranty-active.
2. Wait + send — workflow schedules the 30/90/180 touches. Each touch is a personalized SMS or email pulling from the project’s photo archive and scope.
3. Refer-a-friend flow — the 180-day SMS includes a unique short link. When the homeowner taps it, it generates a pre-filled SMS draft addressed from them to a contact in their phone.
4. Referral capture — referred friend’s intake form has a referred_by field that auto-fills from the URL parameter or the qualifier asks “who sent you?” The system matches and tags.
5. Payout trigger — referred friend signs an estimate (pipeline stage = contract-signed); the workflow fires the referrer’s bonus payout and an SMS thank-you.

What it’s NOT

• Not a discount program. The referral bonus pays the referring homeowner — not a discount for the referred friend. Discounts to the referred friend train homeowners to ask for them as a baseline and erode margin on every project. Pay the referrer; don’t discount the new buyer.
• Not unlimited touches. The 30/90/180 cadence is intentional restraint. More frequent touches feel like marketing spam. The system stops at 180 days unless a referral fires; then it re-engages.
• Not a public affiliate program. This is for past clients only. Non-clients who try to refer leads (without ever having worked with you) don’t qualify for the bonus. Affiliate programs without that gate get gamed.
• Not a CRM segmentation overhaul. The tags are simple: past-client, referrer-active, referrer-paid. We don’t build elaborate segments. Simple beats sophisticated for sub-50-client referral lists.

Why 180 days, not 60

At 60 days post-project, the homeowner’s friends and family haven’t seen the finished work in person yet. The “you have to see what they did” moment hasn’t happened. Asking at 60 days produces polite nods and zero actual referrals.

At 180 days, the homeowner has hosted Thanksgiving in the new kitchen, the in-laws have visited the new bath, the neighbors have seen the addition. The social proof has compounded organically. The ask lands at a moment when the homeowner already has 2-3 people in mind.