Patient referral program software that rewards both people

Velarya is patient referral program software built into your loyalty app. Every patient has a personal referral code to share from the app. When a friend joins your practice with that code and meets the activation rule you set, such as a first paid treatment or a membership, both people are rewarded with points or a free treatment. Checks for self-referrals and repeat sign-ups run on every referral, and each one appears in your dashboard with its status.

Patient referral software can mean two things. In Velarya it means word of mouth: a patient shares a code, a friend joins, and both are rewarded. It is the refer-a-friend kind of referral, between patients, not a doctor sending a patient on to a specialist.

How does a patient referral work?

1. The patient shares a code. Every patient has a personal referral code in the app, and the share button sends it by text, email or any messaging app on their phone.

2. The friend joins with it. The friend gets the app, joins your practice and enters the code when signing up. The referral starts as pending.

3. The friend meets your rule. If you set an activation rule, the referral waits until the friend meets it, within the number of days you choose. If you set none, it completes as soon as the friend joins.

4. Both people are rewarded. The patient who shared the code and the friend each receive the reward you set for their side. A referral that misses its window expires, and nobody is paid for it.

A background check re-reads every pending referral, so a friend who met the rule through a payment that arrived late still triggers the reward. Each referral pays out once, however many times it is checked.

Give and get: the rewards and rules you set

Most practices reward the patient who refers at least as well as the friend who arrives, because the patient is doing the work. Velarya sets each side separately, so you can.

Setting	Options	Why it matters
Reward for the patient who refers	Points, or a free treatment you choose	The thank-you that keeps your best patients sharing
Reward for the new patient	Points, or a free treatment you choose, set separately	The reason the friend books a first visit
Activation rule	None, a spend amount paid through Velarya, a first paid treatment, or joining a membership	Pays for real patients rather than sign-ups who never visit
Activation window	The number of days the friend has to meet the rule	Keeps each reward tied to a recent referral
Referral limit	The most referrals one patient can be rewarded for	Caps what any single patient can earn
Program dates	A start date and an end date	Lets you run referrals for a season or all year

Referral points land in the same balance as every other point and turn into wallet credit the same way, which is covered on the loyalty program page.

Rules that stop self-referrals and farming

A referral program that pays for invented friends costs more than it earns. Velarya checks every referral before it counts:

• No self-referrals. Two accounts that share an email address or a phone number are never paired as referrer and friend.

• One referral per new patient. A patient can be referred to your practice once, so the same friend is never claimed twice.

• A cap per patient. You can limit how many referrals one patient is rewarded for.

• Rewards on real activity. With an activation rule on, nothing is paid until the friend spends, buys a treatment or joins a membership.

• One payout per referral. Each referral is claimed once before it pays, even when a payment and the background check arrive at the same moment.

Referral tracking software: what your team sees

Every referral appears on the referrals log in your dashboard, with the patient who referred, the friend, the status (pending, completed or expired), the points awarded and the date. The list exports to CSV. Referral points are written to the same point ledger as every other earn, so any balance can be explained line by line.

If you want the reward to wait until the friend becomes a member, set the activation rule to a membership. The membership side is covered on membership software.

Setting up a referral program that works

Referral marketing software only helps if the rules are easy to explain. Four choices decide most of the result:

1. Tie the reward to a first paid treatment. It is the simplest rule that pays only for friends who actually come in.

2. Make the friend’s reward worth a first visit. A free treatment or a points bonus the friend can see in the app gives them a reason to book now rather than someday.

3. Give the window a deadline. Thirty to sixty days keeps the referral connected to the conversation that started it.

4. Ask in person. The best moment to mention the code is at checkout, right after a treatment the patient is happy with, and the code is already in their app.

You set every rule and every reward. If your practice bills Medicare, Medicaid or another federal health program, talk to your counsel about patient incentives before you launch a referral program.

Where referrals fit

Referrals are one part of the loyalty program, next to points on spend, QR check-ins, a sign-up bonus and a birthday gift, and they run in whichever app your patients use: the Velarya app or your own app. For how a referral program sits among the other kinds, see the guide to customer loyalty programs. Referral rewards come with every plan; the pricing page shows the rest, or book a demo to watch a referral go from a shared code to a reward.