Customer referral programs and return policies don't always play together very nicely.

For instance, what if an advocate refers a friend to your store, who buys something (earning a cash reward in the process)... and then returns the product?

That could get a little messy.

The simplest way to prevent complications like these is to setup a referral purchase review period.

A referral review period is a 'buffer' time after a referral is made.

Leesa, for example, is a modern mattress retailer that gives its customers a reassuring 100-day money-back guarantee.

It also uses ReferralCandy to run a customer referral program that pays out substantial cash rewards.

To prevent any confusion with referral reward payment and product returns, Leesa sets its referral review period to fully cover its 100-day return policy. Referred purchases only count.

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For ReferralCandy users:

You have the ability to define the 'referred purchase review period' for your referral program specifying a number of days after the purchase is made.

Referred purchases will only count toward rewards after this review period. Within this period, you can mark referred purchases as invalid or cancelled. If flagged as invalid or cancelled, that referred purchase will not count towards a reward.

This referred purchase review period is usually set to be in line with your return policy to take into account any cancelled or returned purchases.

To change the referred purchase review period for your account:

1. Go to your account's Referral Reward page.
2. At that page, go to the box with the title 'Do you want to have a referred purchase review period?'
3. Click the green [Edit] link and a box will be shown below with a dropdown input box.
4. Click the dropdown input box, click on the number of days that you'd like to set for your referred purchase review period and the referred purchase review period will be automatically updated.

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Learn more about optimizing your referral program.