Patient Referral Program for Clinic Campaigns

A patient referral program gives your clinic a way to record patient recommendations, award points after eligible visits, and apply those points to the referrer's own bill. With the CareClinic Patient Referral Program, you can run a dated campaign, publish its terms on your clinic's public page, and review who referred whom. Start by choosing the reward rules your receptionist can explain and your cashier can apply. Then invite patients to share their personal referral link with someone who wants to book.

Give patient recommendations a clear next step

Patients who recommend your clinic need a simple way to make the introduction. CareClinic gives each patient a personal referral code and a booking link. A new patient can enter the code when booking online, or your front desk can record it when registering or booking that new patient. Opening the share link fills in the referral code on the booking form.

This gives your receptionist a recorded relationship to work with when the new patient arrives. Your administrator can review referrals through the program's staff screens rather than reconstructing the introduction from messages. Your doctor can keep the consultation focused on care while reception handles the referral details.

Keep the invitation specific: explain how to share the code, when an eligible visit earns points, and where the referrer can use them. Avoid promising a reward for sending a link. Sharing alone does not earn points. The clinic awards them through the visit workflow, under the rules you configure.

Set the reward before you promote the campaign

An administrator with Manage Referrals permission opens Settings > Referral program to enable the program. The program starts off. Set the clinic's default points before announcing a reward; the default value starts at zero. Review service overrides and campaign overrides alongside that default so your advertised offer matches the rule that will apply.

Choose how a visit earns points. You can add the points for its services, use the highest single-service amount, give a flat award per visit, or give a flat award for the first visit only. A service can have its own points value. Use the department and service setup to review these choices with the staff who maintain your service catalog.

The counting method changes what you are inviting patients to expect. A first-visit award supports an introduction-focused offer. A per-visit rule can continue rewarding eligible return visits. Service-based rules require staff to understand which services determine the amount. Choose the method you can explain without asking patients to interpret a long list of exceptions.

Also decide what a point is worth when spent. The default is one point to one peso, and the clinic can change that value. A value change affects later redemptions; it does not rewrite discounts already applied. State the current value in your campaign terms and brief the cashier before making a change.

Use campaign dates with the right eligibility explanation

Open Referrals > Campaigns and create a campaign with a name, first day, and last day. You can override the counting method, default points, multiplier, and points for particular services. Leaving optional overrides blank lets the campaign follow the relevant clinic settings.

CareClinic distinguishes a referral's campaign eligibility from the campaign rules available when points are awarded. It records eligible campaigns when the patient is referred. To apply a campaign's award rules, that campaign must also be running when the award occurs. If no eligible campaign is running then, the clinic's base rules apply.

This matters when a patient enters a referral code near the end of a promotion but completes a visit later. Do not promise that a campaign multiplier follows the patient forever. Explain the referral period and the award conditions together. A campaign link tag helps trace the introduction, but the tag alone does not establish reward eligibility.

You can restrict awards to patients referred during campaigns. That restriction checks the referral's eligibility history: a patient referred during a campaign can continue earning under base rules after it ends. A patient referred outside all campaigns earns nothing under that setting. Use the staff manual's referral instructions when briefing your administrator on this distinction.

If campaigns overlap, the clinic can refuse overlaps, apply the campaign that pays most, or combine campaign rules under its chosen policy. For a first launch, a single dated campaign gives staff fewer conditions to explain. Before adding another offer, review the overlap policy and update the public terms.

Publish terms where new patients book

Each campaign can have a public page on the clinic's site. Staff with Manage Referrals permission can write the page in a visual editor or in HTML, add pictures, and preview the result before publishing. You can limit visibility to the campaign's running period or keep the page visible until staff unpublish it.

Visible pages appear on the clinic's public page and in its sitemap. A short summary and link also appear beside the referral code on the booking form. This places the explanation close to the action the patient is taking through the online booking workflow.

Write the page around patient decisions: who qualifies, what action earns points, which reward rules apply, and how the referrer spends the balance. Include the campaign dates, any expiry rule, and the clinic contact for questions. Keep promotional language consistent with the settings; a public page describes the offer but does not configure its rewards.

Use simple page styling. CareClinic cleans saved content and removes scripts, forms, and unsupported embeds. It supports YouTube and Vimeo video embeds and JPEG, PNG, or WebP uploads up to 5 MB each. If you link an image from another website, that website receives the image request. Prefer a clinic-uploaded picture when you want to avoid that external request.

Give reception a procedure for code questions

A new patient may arrive with a code copied from a message, a share link, or a verbal recommendation. Ask about the code during registration or new-patient booking, while staff can record it in the intended field. An existing patient cannot become a newly referred patient, and a patient cannot refer themselves.

The clinic chooses whether an unknown code triggers a notice or blocks booking. Decide this before launch so reception knows how to help someone who mistyped a code. Review the booking experience through the public portal, including the explanation beside the code field.

A shared phone number or email address can cause a referral to be held for review unless the clinic disables that check. Family members may need staff review, so explain that a held referral requires a decision. An administrator with Manage Referrals can approve or reject it, or move the held referral to another referrer using that person's code.

CareClinic records one referrer for each referred patient. Treat correction requests as a staff decision with the clinic's reassignment policy in mind. Avoid inviting patients to try several codes to obtain different rewards. Brief reception on who handles a disputed introduction and how to contact that person during clinic hours.

Connect points to visits and cashier work

CareClinic awards points when the referred patient's appointment is completed or when payment triggers the eligible award, whichever comes first. The program checks for an existing award so completion and payment do not earn twice for the same visit and referrer. This gives staff a clearer answer when someone asks why a booking request has not added points yet.

For doctors, the relevant handoff is accurate visit completion through appointment management. For the cashier, the relevant step is applying the referrer's available points to an eligible line of that referrer's own charge. Points do not pay the referred patient's bill.

Services are the default eligible line type, and a service must also allow payment with referral points. The clinic sets the maximum share of a line that points can cover and can require administrator approval above a points threshold. Explain these limits before a patient expects to cover an entire charge with their balance.

The cashier sees the discount as Referral points, separate from other discounts. Review the billing and cashier workflow with the team before launch. CareClinic supports discounts through points; it does not pay cash rewards, transfer points between patients, or run tiered rewards.

Explain balance changes before they cause disputes

A referrer may see a balance change after a void, refund, expiry, or adjustment. Voiding a charge or removing a charge line returns the points used on it. Refunding all payments on a referred visit takes back the points earned from that visit. A partial refund, or money still paid on that visit, leaves the earn alone.

If the referrer has spent some of the earned points, the reversal can use their other unspent points. The balance does not go below zero; the system records any shortfall. Reassignment policies can affect which points remain with which referrer, so ask an administrator to review an unusual case rather than promising a fixed outcome at reception.

Administrators can adjust points with a written reason. Use that function for a documented correction and review the point history when answering a balance query. Tell patients whether their points expire and which services accept them. These details belong in the campaign terms as well as the cashier's explanation.

Keep referral visibility separate from clinical information

On a full-record patient portal link, the referrer can see their code, share link, balance, and points history after completing the portal access check. A link limited to one result or document cannot open the referral page. The clinic can choose whether the portal also lists the people the patient referred.

When that list is enabled, CareClinic shows partly hidden names, referral dates, and points gained and used for active referrals. It does not show the referred person's clinical information there. The booking form explains the list beside the referral code field when the clinic has enabled it. Partly hidden names may still be recognizable to someone who knows the person; decide whether that visibility suits your clinic before launch.

Staff with View Referrals permission see full names in the clinic's attribution report. Include this difference in your staff briefing and review the security and privacy feature guide when deciding who should have access. Avoid using referral reports as public leaderboards or putting patient details in promotional examples.

Review the campaign with measures staff can explain

Open Referrals > Attribution report to filter by dates, referrer, campaign, and status. Choose whether dates refer to patient attribution or points activity. Use the same basis when comparing periods so you do not confuse new introductions with later reward use.

Review referrals alongside net points gained and points used. The attribution report accounts for refund take-backs. The Campaigns page shows awards before those take-backs, so its total can exceed the report's net figure. That difference does not by itself indicate an error. CareClinic does not provide an attribution-report export or calculate a complete campaign return on investment.

Before launch, confirm the point value, counting method, service eligibility, dates, overlap policy, and portal visibility. Have reception rehearse an unknown-code question and a held referral. Have the cashier review a points discount and its approval limit. Preview the campaign page and check its wording against the configured rules.

After launch, review held referrals and balance questions with the staff responsible for resolving them. Use those questions to improve your terms and desk instructions. A referral campaign gives patients a clear invitation and gives your team records for follow-up; attendance and campaign results still depend on the offer, patient choice, and clinic execution.

Explore CareClinic's Patient Referral Program and plan a campaign your reception and cashier teams can explain.