The expectations regarding a referral program differ depending on the scale of a business and the audience. Local grocery stores may run their referral programs with great success, but they would be much different than a referral program of a company at an enterprise level. The difference lies in scale (and scalability).
Enterprises need more than a mere creator app to successfully run (and maintain) a referral program that would bring the expected results. They need stable, reliable, and flexible referral management software.
What is referral management software?
Referral management software is a solution used by businesses to create, run, maintain and improve referral programs. What are the typical functionalities of referral management software?
Creating single- and double-sided referral programs with multiple tiers.
Defining successful referral criteria.
Managing reward system.
Segmenting referrals and customizing referral programs.
Omnichannel messaging.
Protecting from referral fraud and tracking referrals.
Headless architecture for referral programs
Headless approach means separating the frontend and backend. In headless software the communication between back- and front-end takes place via API. Companies using the headless ecommerce or headless CMS, gain the flexibility that allows them to quickly and effectively adapt to the ever-changing market trends. That’s why headless approach had become very popular in the enterprise sector, where scalability and adaptability are very much valued.
Referral programs for enterprises – expectations and challenges
There’s a significant difference between a perfect referral solution if you’re running an enterprise business. Certain expectations need to be met – without them, the referral program won’t work well enough. Check the list below and see if it matches the expectations of your enterprise business:
Product assortment – different versions of a product available, so the enterprise buyer can select the most suitable.
SSO – single sign-on means that the enterprise company should have the opportunity to manage its users from a central directory instead of being forced to switch between software.
Audit logs – the detailed tracking of account (and its users) activity is vital for enterprise businesses – it allows preventing fraud and detecting suspicious activities.
Role-based access control – assigning different roles to multiple account users keeps work in order. Usually, there are few access levels, but ideally enterprise customers should be able to create custom access levels.
Change management – allowing customers to introduce application level and account level changes is one of the most desired enterprise-level features.
Product security – software security is a top priority for enterprise businesses. Not providing a secure environment basically equals disqualification to any software vendor.
Deployment options – enterprise customers require flexibility in development, such as private instances of the application or dedicated clusters for handling their critical projects.
Team management – this feature allows the software to be used collaboratively with coworkers. This should include: inviting users, removing users, creating and editing their profiles, and so on.
Integrations – the ability to integrate the referral management system with POS, CRMs, or other tools of your choice is vital – especially if the referral software doesn’t offer native integrations.
Reporting & analytics – detailed tracking and reporting makes the value from using software visible and demonstrable.
SLA and support – enterprise companies are responsible for hundreds of operations of great value daily. There’s no time to wait for a response – that’s why many enterprises require priority support and/or dedicated Engineers or Advisors.
GDPR, ISO, and CCPA compliance – legal issues should be the last of enterprise customer concerns, so making sure that the referral management software you’ve found is reliable (is GDPR-compliant, ISO certified and so on) seems like a must.
These features aren’t everything you should consider while choosing the right software for your organization. Instead, think of the challenges your company faces and could face in the future – here are a few examples:
Lack of personalization – there are dozens of ways a company can execute a referral program, from setting up various rewards to designing custom referral actions that fit your organization’s and audience’s profile. Keep that in mind while talking with sales teams – the default solutions might work well now, but the personalization options should always be available, especially for enterprise customers.
Mobile readiness – even if your company doesn’t need a mobile referral program right now, there’s a solid chance it will show up in your area of interest in the coming years. Make sure the software you choose provides mobile features that can be used if needed.
Lengthy preparations – big companies often struggle with a lack of speed when it comes to implementing new things, such as referral programs. Find out if the referral software company can set up and launch your referral program quickly enough for your needs.
Limited referrals – you’ll sleep peacefully knowing no additional costs depend on the number of referrals. Even if your customer base isn’t extensive, the referral program you’re just considering might change it drastically, and if it does, paying extra for additional referrals would be painful.
All those challenges are easy-to-beat if you have proper software – the one with a flexible and dev-friendly API. As scrolling through thousands of propositions in Google search can be a tedious and exhausting process, I’m here to show you 14 enterprise-oriented referral management software examples with their strong and weak sides, genuine reviews and pricing (if available).
Enterprise referral management software comparison
1. Referral Rock
Referral Rock is a solution for those who need to improve their referral marketing and take some burden off of the development team. Enterprise companies will surely appreciate having a dedicated customer success manager. What other features are worth noticing?
2. ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy is a solution dedicated to ecommerce businesses. It allows companies to create referral programs, manage all the word-of-mouth marketing activities, and integrate with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce or Magento.
3. Mention Me
Mention Me is an advocacy-first referral & customer retention marketing software offering 15 reward types and even more sharing methods for their customers.
4. GrowSurf
GrowSurf is a referral program software dedicated for tech companies – IT startups, enterprises, fintech businesses, SaaS and so on. It focuses primarily on customer acquisition automation.
