Troubleshooting Referrals

A referral program lets you encourage your shoppers to make word-of-mouth referrals. The referral begins when an advocate shares their unique link with a friend. Friends who click the link will be directed to your website, and see a welcome message & coupon code. The advocate is rewarded if a friend makes a purchase.

This article will cover how to use the Referral Link Activity section on the Customers page to troubleshoot referrals.

Workflow if the Referring Customer Didn't get the Reward

• Check the minimum requirement for purchase 
• Check if is this the friend's first purchase 
• Check security settings
• Check for IP address/user agent mismatch

Workflow if the Friend Didn't Get the Reward

• Check if module/popups are disabled
• Check for redirection issue
• Check the minimum spend amount for the friend
• (Shopify only) Check the friend's customer group and tag coupon usage limitations 
• Check security settings

The referring customer didn't get the reward

You can use the information in the customer's referral link activity to see exactly what happened with a referral.

Viewing the referral link activity

To check the referring customer's Referral Link Activity, do the following:

1. Click on Customers.
2. Scroll to the Referral Link Activity section.
3. Click Details on the referral you want to investigate.
   

'Minimum Requirement for Purchase' setting

There is a setting in your referral program called  "Reward the referring customer when the referred customer spends over…". This is the total the friend must spend AFTER any other discounts and/or gift cards. The amount must be paid with currency and not with coupons or points.

To see if the customer spent the minimum amount, do the following:

1. Click on Customers.
2. Scroll to the Referral Link Activity section.
3. Click on Details.
4. Check the Amount spent row. Compare "Required" to "Spent".
   
   Please note:

   The friend must spend this amount in one purchase (not across multiple purchases)

Check if this is the friend's first purchase

If this isn't the friend's first purchase, this could be one reason why the referring customer didn't get credit (even if the coupon was used). 

To check if this was the friend's first purchase, do the following:

1. Click on Customers.
2. Scroll to the Referral Link Activity section.
3. Click on Details.
4. Check the First purchase row. If it says "No" this means it's not their first purchase, and they are not eligible for a referral.
   .

Check security settings

To see if the referral was blocked for suspected fraud, do the following:

1. Click on Customers.
2. Scroll to the Referral Link Activity section.
3. Click on Details.
4. Look at the Fraud Checks section. A red flag icon will appear next to the reason the referral was blocked for suspected fraud.
   In this article, we won't cover specific details about fraud prevention settings. For additional information please reach out to your account manager or customer support.

Check for IP Address/device mismatch

The person who clicks the referral link must be the same person who makes the purchase.

This means you need to check the person's address+user agent who clicked the link and compare it with the IP address+user agent of the person who made the purchase. To identify a mismatch, do the following:

1. Go to Customers.
2. Open referring customer's profile and scroll to the Referral Link Activity section.
3.  Click the email under Referred Friend to get to the friend's profile. 
4. Scroll to the friend's Purchase History section
5. Hover over Device and IP Address to check that the information on the person who clicked the link matches the information on the person who made the purchase.

When hovering over the icons under Device, you will be able to see the exact versions of the different elements making up the user agent (in the above example, the user agent is Desktop, Chrome 83.0.4103.106, Mac 10.14.4).

The friend didn't get the reward

Check if popups are disabled

If there is an issue with your referral popups or module, it may interfere with the friend getting their code and/or being able to use their code.

See how to ensure your Referred Friend Welcome Popup is enabled

Check for redirection issues

Make sure that the Referral Program Page URL does not include any redirections, as they will prevent the referred friend from getting their reward. If you must have redirects, make sure all your UTM parameters populated by Yotpo are forwarded to the new URL.

Learn more about the Landing URL

Check 'Minimum Cart Value' setting

If you put a minimum cart value on the redemption option associated with the referred friend reward, and the customer did not meet that minimum. Note this setting is not available on all platforms and it is enforced by your platform.

To check your minimum spend settings,

1. Go to Rewards > Redeeming Points.
2. Click Customize on the coupon you made for the friend's reward.
3. Find the setting "Only apply if cart is greater than (leave blank for no minimum)"

This is the minimum amount they need to spend this amount on their first purchase, not across multiple purchases.

(Shopify only) Check the friend's customer group and tag coupon limitations

If you are using Shopify, you might have tag limitations set up. 

Learn more about Limiting Coupon Usage Using Shopify's Customer Groups.

Check security settings

To adjust your settings, do the following:

1. Log in to your Loyalty & Referrals account.
2. Click on the Settings" tab.

In this article, we won't cover specific details about the security settings. Please reach out to your account manager or to customer support if you have any questions.

Manually completing a referral

If a referral failed but you wish to complete it manually, you can use the Manually complete referral button. Using this button will credit the referring customer with the referral, and send them the associated reward. To manually complete the referral, do the following:

1. Scroll to the Referral Link Activity section on the referring customer’s profile.
2. Locate the referral that you want to complete.
3.  Click Details.

4. Click Manually complete referral.

FAQs