Weekly referral groups

What the week actually looks like

Monday the reminder goes out and the apologies come in. Tuesday morning somebody is on the door with a printed list, two visitors turn up who nobody was expecting, and the referral slips go in a pocket. Wednesday the organiser types the slips into a spreadsheet, chases three people who forgot to pay, and messages the visitors from their own phone. By Friday the follow ups have not happened.

Everything below exists because of that week.

Seats by trade, kept honest

The seat rule is what makes the format worth joining, and it is the thing members watch hardest. Every member carries their trade and their company, and the directory is searchable, so before you invite a visitor you can see in seconds whether their trade is already in the room. When somebody lapses, their seat shows as free rather than being quietly remembered by one person.

Visitor days, without the clipboard

Members share their own invitation link, by WhatsApp or by email, and the visitor registers themselves in under a minute. They say what you may contact them about, which is recorded and checked on every send afterwards, so nobody has to think about it again. If the meeting is full they go on the waiting list, and if somebody drops out the place goes to the next person automatically.

The member who invited them is credited at that moment, and the credit sticks. If that visitor joins five months later, the credit is still theirs. That single fact changes how willing members are to bring people.

The bit most groups lose: the follow up

After the meeting there is a list of who came, who has not been followed up, and what each visitor said they were looking for. Follow up emails go in your organisation’s words, not ours, and only to people who agreed to receive them. Visitors who are not ready yet stay on the list rather than evaporating.

Referrals and one to ones, logged in seconds

Members log a referral from their phone on the way out, with the value when they know it, and log the one to ones they have done. Two things follow. The group can see what it is worth, in real numbers, at renewal time. And you can see which members are giving and which are only taking, which is the conversation that keeps a room healthy.

Attendance and substitutes

Bookings, apologies and check in on the day, including somebody who turns up without booking, because they are in the room whatever the list says. Attendance builds up per member, so an attendance policy can be applied from record rather than from memory.

Fees, without us touching them

Members can be monthly, quarterly or annual, side by side. Renewal reminders go out before each one falls due, and you record payments as they arrive, by whatever means you already take them. We never collect your members’ money and never take a percentage of it. The whole point is that the money stays between you and your members.

A group chat that stays useful

Each group has its own chat inside the member app, looked after by that group’s organisers, who can remove a post or stop somebody posting. Private messages need an introduction both people have agreed to. The adverts and the birthday messages have somewhere to go that is not the same thread as next week’s venue change.

If you run more than one group

Groups are unlimited and the price never depends on how many you run. Each group has its own organisers, its own meetings and its own members, and you see the total across all of them in one place. See networks with several groups.

What it costs

One licence, priced on active members, from £75 a month, and no setup fee: Barry sets the group up with you rather than leaving you to it. The pricing page has the exact figures, and you can work yours out on the slider there.