Referral Program -> Best Way to Apply Credit On Account

[madmoneymike5]

Hello all!

We're getting ready to implement a referral program whereby current customers and new customers receive some amount of credit on their account inside TeamWorks to use towards labor. My question is this: When the new customer is standing in front of my front counter help, what is the best way to apply a credit on their account? We are not integrated with QuickBooks or anything like that, so don't factor that in.

Is the best way,
1. On the Customer tab, click "Update Customer Status" and change the credit balance,
2. Process a batch payment and use some sort of payment method there, probably some new payment type such as "Referral Credit,"
3. ...something else?

Your thoughts?

[Jeff @ Able Auto]

In customer status add the amount of credit. Then on next visit post ticket as charge, make payment with F5 button and apply credit to payment. Kinda drawn out, maybe someone else has an easier way.

[madmoneymike5]

Thanks, Jeff.

I think there's a way to apply credit towards an invoice while at the pay and post screen on that invoice; no need to use batch payment. I could be wrong; I'm away from my work desk just now so I can't test that theory.

That point aside, does anyone agree/disagree with Jeff? I, too, think his way is probably best, but I thought maybe there's some function of TeamWorks that I don't yet know about.

[Jeff @ Able Auto]

OR configurations...discounts..and set up your referral discount. At check out go to promos...discounts..apply to ticket. Then that can be tracked in accounting...discount summary. Not sure if that works better but would be able to apply it at the counter during the check out.
Now my brain hurts...

[ricmorin]

I think the best way to do this is to create a payment type called Referral. When the customer makes the referral, post the appropriate amount to his/her account using Batch Payment. That way the credit will have a 'paper trail' and you can do some reporting on it. The tricky part is that Manager does not warn about credits when posting or paying an Invoice. It'll be up to you to remember and apply it. We often miss credits due to the lack of notification. (current enhancement request)

Just adding the credit via the Update Customer leaves no paper trail and no reporting functions. You'll still need to remember that it's there.

Using Discounts could work, but you'd need some reliable way of knowing who has what credit. Again, it's on you to remember.

The Customers With Credit Balance report can help you, providing a list of credit balances. Unfortunately, this cannot be added to the EOD report list since it contains qualifiers. You'll need to regularly print and post the list where payments are taken.

[Jeff @ Able Auto]

Ric if the service writers were to get in the habit of checking the payment status box at write up they could add a note when the order is written. Just another thought. The tracking/reporting appears to be the difficult part.

[ricmorin]

Ric if the service writers were to get in the habit of checking the payment status box at write up they could add a note when the order is written. Just another thought. The tracking/reporting appears to be the difficult part.

That's a good idea, especially if you're going to have many customers with credits because you are running this kind of program.

[madmoneymike5]

If I'm not mistaken and depending on how you have your configuration set up, if you apply a discount to parts or labor in a scenario like this, couldn't that potentially affect the amount of shop supplies/hazmat you charge? So, applying a $100 discount to labor could potentially cost you more than $100 depending on how you set up your configuration and what percentage you charge for hazmat and shop supplies. Yes?

If I'm right, I'd prefer to avoid applying discounts. A $100 discount on labor with 3% shop supplies fee would mean that I'm giving away an additional $3 on each and every ticket. It's a small amount per ticket, but it would quickly add up!

[ajnealey]

Following this thread. I'd like to figure out the best way as well.

AJ

[madmoneymike5]

So far, I've been using the batch payment system to apply two new special types of payment types, "Referral Credit" applied to the person who referred the new customer, and "Referee Credit" applied to the person who was referred. I have yet to actually have to apply this to any customer's ticket or run any kind of reports. Time will tell how well this method works.

[steven kiser]

In my shop the way I do it is I give the person referred to me a discount based on what I'm doing and the person that referred them the same consideration. It also depends on what I'm doing. The amount may be a bit higher if it's a four wheel brake job, and a 60k service opposed to four tires that I shave down a bit to make it appealing. Sometimes the reward is an oil change and rotation. If the referred person becomes a steady customer I may throw the referrer a one time steeper discount on a profitable job. I do my best to show my appreciation without it going to deep in my pocket while making everyone know that I truly appreciate what they are doing or did. I don't want to turn a customer into a head hunter circling around looking for big payouts.

[madmoneymike5]

Update: I've been using this method for a while now, and I've been on the phone with tech support trying to nail down the best way to do this, as well as our accountant. It is apparent that TeamWorks does not yet have an ideal way of tracking the financial rewards you might give to customers who refer other customers. Since there are numerous ways in which you might be willing to compensate/reward referring customers, I can see how it could be difficult to program TeamWorks to handle the financial side of this.

As it turns out, the reporting function doesn't do a great job with reporting referrals. If a customer visits your shop that was referred by someone else, regardless of whether or not this is their first visit, they are included on the referral report. Ideally, this report would only include customers who made their first visit in the time period selected. Tech support tells me that it is likely possible that we could purchase the ProPack add-on and make this type of report happen; we are considering it but have not made a decision yet.

This batch payment method has worked fairly well. Not as convenient as I would like, but it works. Our accountant prefers that we write a check for the referral fees rather than give a discount so that it's more easily accounted for. The discounts given to the new customers who were referred to us remain as discounts on the invoices.

I wish there was an easier way, but without using the QB Integration and TeamWorks supporting multiple discounts per invoice with each discount type being given its own GL code, it won't work any other way.