Set up the referral programme
Configure rewards for both sides, the qualification rules and the terms that make the offer compliant, then switch the programme on.
The referral programme turns happy patients into a source of new ones: every enrolled patient gets a personal link, a spoken code and a QR code to share, and earns a practice-fulfilled reward when a referred friend's treatment is won.
Everything is configured in Settings → Referral programme. Owners and managers can change the configuration; coordinators can enroll patients and record referrals but not edit the programme.
Choose the rewards
The programme is double-sided: you can reward the referring patient (the advocate), the referred friend, or both. For each side pick a reward type:
- Treatment credit — an amount taken off the patient's next course of treatment (the most common UK scheme).
- Voucher — a practice-fulfilled voucher with an expiry date.
- Charity donation — a donation made in the patient's name.
- Custom — free-text, for example "Free hygiene visit".
Amounts use the practice's fixed accounting currency (EUR, GBP or USD), for example €20–€60, £20–£60 or $20–$60 per successful referral. Reward wording and currency are frozen into each reward when it is earned, so changing the configuration later never rewrites rewards already in the queue.
For UK practices, never reward team members per referral — paying staff or clinicians for patient referrals breaches GDC guidance. Rewards are for patients only, and staff review every reward before it is approved.
Qualification rules
A referral qualifies when the referred friend's journey is won —
treatment accepted, the same moment that fires your journey won
automations. Three settings shape when the reward is actually payable:
- Hold window (days) — after qualification, rewards wait this many days (default 14) before they can be approved, absorbing cancelled or reversed treatment plans.
- Min treatment value — optional and shown in the practice's accounting currency; below this value the referral stays open instead of qualifying. Journeys without a value still qualify — the approval queue shows the value so staff can decline short ones.
- Voucher expiry (months) — vouchers stamp their use-by date when they are issued (default 6 months).
Private treatment only (on by default) shows a "private treatment only" line on the landing page. For UK practices, this helps prevent NHS treatment from being incentivised. It is a published condition, not machine enforcement: staff confirm eligibility when approving.
Landing page content and terms
The friend landing page shows your headline, intro message and — in full, above the form — the programme's terms & conditions, and the programme cannot be switched on without them. For UK practices, CAP code 8.17 requires the offer's significant conditions up front. Cover at minimum: who is eligible, when the reward is paid, expiry, non-transferability and that treatment is subject to clinical assessment. Practices outside the UK should confirm the applicable local advertising and healthcare rules.
The landing page always displays "subject to clinical assessment and suitability" alongside the offer; that qualifier cannot be edited out.
The share message is the prewritten text patients send from their own phone with their link — the practice never messages the friend first. For UK practices, this means the patient is the sender for UK e-privacy purposes.
Switch it on
Flip Programme live. Off, every referral link and landing page answers "not active". The poster / QR landing page link on the same card is a generic landing where friends type the advocate's spoken code — print it on waiting-room posters and reception cards. Regenerate link invalidates that poster link (reprint after rotating); patients' personal links are unaffected.