Here's my referral
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We currently use Extole's Refer a Friend technology to power our loyalty program and allow our customers to share special offers with their friends and reap rewards if they make a purchase. We look at this as a way to both reward our current customers and keep them engaged with the brand and as bonafide customer acquisition channel.
Pros
- Track advocates and reward friends.
- Fraud prevention/Abuse of incentive program.
- Reporting is easy and provides good insights.
Cons
- Lacks geo filtering capabilities (i..e, ability to serve refer a friend only to visitors from specific countries). Our team had to put that logic in place on our side instead of relying on Extole.
- Platform requires assistance from account manager for some actions/features that should be in the hand of the client.
- Quality Control has been an issue at time. Our program has gone down because a new global platform update went out and affected our implementation. Extole has been responsive in these types of incidents, but that should not happen.
Return on Investment
- It took a few months to become ROI positive with Extole, but the ROAS has been good since. It probably represents about 2% of our new customers per month.
Alternatives Considered
Mention Me - Referral Marketing Platform, Referral SaaSquatch, ReferralCandy and Ambassador
Other Software Used
Tealium iQ Tag Management System, ion interactive, Oracle Responsys

