How to refer a customer
Email or message your build advisor with the customer's name and contact details, and tell us they're a referral before they get in touch with us another way. We'll take it from there.
Referring a customer to Beams today is a short email or message to your build advisor. Self-serve referral links and a dashboard view of your referrals are on the roadmap — they're not live yet, so the process is hands-on for now.
Steps
- Email or message your build advisor before the customer contacts Beams another way. Send the customer's name, email or phone number, and a one-liner on the project — what kind of work, rough location. The referral has to land with us before the customer reaches us through any other channel.
- We confirm receipt and check the record. We make sure they're not already in our system from a prior enquiry. If they are, the referral doesn't qualify (we'll tell you, and you can decide whether to flag it for the customer).
- The customer goes through the standard journey. Planning call, design (if applicable), builder quoting, contract, build. There's no separate process for referred customers.
- We confirm eligibility when the qualifying conditions are met. Your build advisor will tell you when the commission is due — typically after the customer signs the Home Improvement Contract, the initial invoices have been paid for more than £1,000, and the project has reached break ground.
What the customer sees
A normal Beams onboarding. We may mention that you referred them; we won't pressure or pre-frame the conversation. The customer engages on their own terms.
What to tell the customer when you refer
The customer-facing article What Beams is and how it works is the plain-English version we'd use ourselves — feel free to point them to it. Two specifics worth getting right:
- Beams isn't free for the customer; they pay a project fee. Don't tell them it costs nothing.
- You can't promise you'll be the builder on their project. Quoting is competitive — you may or may not be selected.
Where referrals tend to fall over
- Customer was already in our system from a previous enquiry — referral doesn't qualify. Check with your build advisor if you're unsure.
- Referral came in after the customer had already contacted us — first touch matters; the email needs to arrive before the customer does.
- Customer feels steered into a build they didn't want — disqualifies the referral and creates a problem for the customer.
What this means for you
Refer customers you genuinely think Beams would help. Email your build advisor before they contact us another way. The programme works best as a steady trickle of well-fitting referrals, not a marketing push.
Related articles
- The Ambassador Programme