It's essential to test your program before launching. Testing helps find any remaining snags or errors. It ensures you're happy with the referral flow/processes and everything works as expected.
There are six key areas you should test before launching:
Important notes before you start:
Turning off fraud settings will make it easier to test your program
Use your best judgment as each program may have distinctive steps, so ensure the flow works for you
Test in your live Referral Rock account (it's fine to test in a sandbox account if you set one up but be sure to test the main account before launching)
If you need help testing your program contact us via the support chat
Member Promotion
You should promote your program through multiple channels and it’s important to test all of them before launching. Below are a few of our most common promotion methods including the Program Landing Page, One-Click Access Links, or embedding the program within your application.
Things to look for when testing Member Promotion:
Are new members added to your Member List?
Are you happy with the member experience and overall flow?
Does it match your brand and connect with your audience?
Program Landing Page Testing
The Program Landing Page is an easy way to have Members join your program. It’s great when you’re promoting your program online to an unknown audience (i.e. website navigation, social media, etc).
Things to look for when testing the Program Landing Page:
Does the Program Landing Page reflect your brand and program offer?
Does the registration flow work as expected?
If asking additional registration questions, do they show up as expected?
Did you receive the Welcome Email (if turned on) after registering?
Steps to test your Program Landing Page:
1) Go to Programs, select the program you want to test and copy the Program URL.
2) Open a new Incognito Window (follow this quick guide if you need help) and paste the Program URL.
This will take you to your Program Landing Page where you click either CTA button and then follow the registration steps.
Use a test email you can access to get the email follow-ups.
3) You'll then access the Member Portal.
4) Go to the Members List and confirm that your test Member was added.
One-Click Access Link Testing
One-Click Access Links are a frictionless way for people to join and share your program without going through a registration page. They give your Members instant access to their Member Portal to start sharing.
Things to look for when testing One Click Access Links:
Does clicking the One-Click Access Link skip the registration process and take you straight to the Member Portal?
Do the correct Member fields get added to the Members List (i.e., first name, last name, email, custom fields, etc.)?
Steps to test your One-Click Access Link:
1) Open the Program Link Builder and walk through the “Build Your Link” flow. Copy the link that's displayed at the end.
2) Send a test email from your email marketing software (not Referral Rock) using the link created in Step 1 (best practice is to hyperlink from a CTA button or text).
The test email needs to include real merge tags in the URL (i.e., name and email of the recipient). If your email system doesn’t include actual merge tags with their test email functionality then you’ll want to send a live email to yourself instead.
3) Click on the One-Click Access Link (in the test email you received from Step 2). It should take you directly to the Member Portal.
4) Go to the Members List and confirm that your test Member was added.
Embedded Experience Testing
If you’ve embedded the program within your native experience you'll need to test it directly. Here are some things to look for when testing:
Are you embedding the referral program on the right page within your application?
Are people automatically logged in so they get access to the portal or shared experience directly?
Does it work as expected when you click around (i.e., sharing, navigation, etc.)?
Does it match your brand guidelines?
Member Sharing
A good sharing experience for your Members and Referrals is important. Your Members should be sharing messages they connect with and are helpful to the Referrals receiving them. You want to test all share messages you offer including social, email, SMS, referral share link, etc.
Things to look for when testing Member Sharing:
Does the social sharing experience work as expected?
Does the email share experience work as expected?
Does the referral link go to the page you expected and are you happy with this page?
Does the mobile experience work as expected?
Steps to test your member sharing:
1) Go to the Members List and find a test member (created in prior tests). Under the “Member Access / Last View” column, click the Open Member Portal icon.
2) Click around the portal and explore the different sharing options (i.e. socials, email, etc.). It's recommended to post these messages on social and send emails to yourself. You can always delete the post but this way you'll see exactly how it appears to the Referral.
Messages should come from the Member (not the company) and tell the Referral why they should care about your business/offer.
3) Click on the social posts and share links to see the full referral experience. It is recommended that this is a continuous journey, so the referral page should be relevant to what was shared on social, email, SMS, etc. with the referral.
4) Repeat Step 2 on a mobile device. It's easiest to click on the Dashboard link from the member welcome email you received in a prior test.
Referral Conversion
The Referral Page is where you send new referrals when they click on the share link from the Member. This page should have a clear CTA that speaks to the Referral. You want to test the referral experience and make sure referrals are correctly captured.
Things to look for when testing Referral Conversion:
Does the member share link go to the correct page where the referral completes your desired action?
Does the referral page use benefit-driven language with a clear call to action?
Is the referral added to your Referral List?
Are all the fields correctly added to the referral (i.e., name, email, and any custom fields)?
Steps to test referral conversion:
1) Open the Member Portal and copy the share link. See Member Sharing above to access the Portal).
2) Open a new incognito browser and paste the share link. Make sure it goes to the right page for your workflow.
3) Fill out the form (or required page action).
4) Confirm the referral is added to your Referral List. If not, check the Fraud Detection List as you may need to disable your fraud rule.
If you have trouble, request assistance and select the Conversion Tracking option. Our team will help you set this up.
If you require more information, review the integration documents.
Referral Update (Optional)
You can always manually update a referral's status but if you have a referral update integration setup, it's important to test it. You want to ensure the updates happening in your system of record (usually the CRM) are reflected in Referral Rock.
Things to look for when testing Referral Update:
Did the referral status update as expected (i.e., based on the change in your system of record, updated to the correct status, etc.)?
If updating additional referral information (i.e., referral amount or a custom field), does that information get updated as expected?
Steps to test referral updates:
1) Go to the system of record where the integration is set up and find the referral you want to update. The referral must exist on your Referral List in either the pending or qualified status.
2) Update the field/property in your system of record for that referral (whatever you set in your referral update integration).
3) Go back to the Referrals List and make sure the referral was updated with the correct information and status.
If updates are not reflected in Referral Rock, request assistance and select the Referral Activity Update option. Our team will help investigate the issue.
If you require more information, review the integration documents.
Rewards
Rewards are a critical part of your referral program and it’s important to ensure your reward logic is correct so you’re giving the right reward at the right time.
In the Program Editor, you've likely set up your reward rules. You want to check that the member and/or referral reward is triggered at the appropriate time based on the referral moving through your sales process (i.e., referral statuses).
Things to look for when testing rewards:
Are rewards firing based on the correct referral status?
Is the reward amount accurate?
Is it linked to the correct payout (i.e., Gift cards, Wise, Coupons, Manual, etc.)?
Does the payout received by the recipient look as expected?
Steps to test rewards:
Before testing, set Rewards to "Manual Review" in the Reward Rules section. See the Reward Delivery article for more details.
1) Find a referral in the Referrals List and manually update the status to trigger the reward (i.e., Pending -> Approved). Be sure to select the status that will trigger the reward.
2) Go to the Rewards List and confirm that the correct reward was created. Check the reward details by clicking on the new reward.
3) Test the Payout (Optional). Find the reward and click "Issue Reward." Make sure you have access to the recipient's email address so you can see the entire experience.
Automated Emails
When setting up your program, you likely turned ON (and possibly OFF) some of the automated emails that Referral Rock sends on your behalf.
Most of these emails are found in the Emails & Notifications page of the Program Editor.
Things to look for when testing emails:
Did you receive all the turned ON member emails at the appropriate time?
Do the emails look as expected?
Did you get too many emails during the referral process? Too few?
Have you added your company logo to your email templates? If not, you can do so here. (Settings > Branding > Email > Template Settings)
Steps to test automated emails:
1) Open the email section of the program editor. Check the settings and content of your automated emails by clicking the "edit" icon next to each email.
2) Select the emails you want to test and edit content to match your brand and referral program goals.
3) Send a test email (to an email you can access) by adding it in the top right corner.
4) Go to the email account where you sent the test and verify you received it as well as confirm the format matches your expectations.
The test email is focused on format. If you want to test the URLs and other merge tags, you’ll need to complete the actual action that would trigger those emails.