17hats allows you to track Referral Sources automatically inside the platform. You can track automatically using Questionnaires, Lead Capture Forms, or Online Scheduling.

Referral Source Reporting is available on Standard and Premier Levels of 17hats Membership.

Referral Source Reporting is a report of all referrals captured in the Contact's "Referred By" data field, which can be manually added during contact creation or editing, or automatically mapped through Questionnaires, Lead Capture Forms, and Online Scheduling.

With the Referral List Report, you can easily see who your most successful referrers are. This feature provides you with a comprehensive overview of who’s referring your business, the number of referrals, and their overall impact on your success.

By utilizing this report, you can identify your top referrers and show them the appreciation they deserve, fostering stronger relationships and encouraging even more referrals. Additionally, you’ll have a clear picture of which marketing strategies or channels are driving the most referrals, allowing you to focus your efforts effectively.

You can find your Referral List under your Leads Tab in the Reporting section of 17hats. The first tab is your Lead Source reporting, and the second tab is your Referral List.

The first column is the name of the referrer (the person or place that told your Lead about your company).

The second column shows the total number of Contacts referred by that Referral Source.

The next four columns break your Contacts into types (read more about Contact types here):

The last column shows the Contact Name. This is the name of your Lead or Client, the person who was told about your business.

If more than one Contact heard about you from the same source, you will see an arrow icon on the right side of the page. Clicking that shows you all of the Contacts who were referred by that source. By default, 17hats shows the most recently created Contact without needing to expand the list.

Below, you can see that six people found this business through Google. Contacts are sorted by the date they were created, with the most recently created Contact on top. If multiple Contacts were created on the same day, 17hats will sort those alphabetically.

17hats will only show the sixteen most Contacts in your Referral List. If the same source has referred more than 16 people, you will see an "export" button on the right. Clicking that button will automatically download a CSV file of all Contacts referred during the time period you are viewing.

The colors of the Contact names correspond to their Contact type. Green is for Clients, orange is for Hot Leads, blue is for Cold Prospects, and gray is for Other.

Please Note: Referral Sources are tracked by the date the Contact was created. If a Contact was created in 2021, be sure that the Date Range for your Referral List begins in 2021. You can use the calendar to choose a specific date range or the Quick Select dropdown for commonly accessed time periods.

1.) Manually adding Referral Sources to Contacts.

To manually add a Referral Source to a Contact, open a Contact from the Contact Tab or access a Project and click "edit" in the top right corner. Choose "edit Contact" in the dropdown.

Add a Referral Source to the "Referred By" Contact Field.

Data may already appear in the Referred By field. If you are using Lead Source Reporting, Lead Sources are automatically added to this field when a Lead Capture Form is filled out if the field is blank. You may edit the field to show the specific referrer as needed.

2.) Automatically adding Referral Source with Mapping.

Short Answer types of questions can map to a Contact's Referred By field (learn more about mapping here). There are three places you can ask a question that will automatically add a Referral Source to the Referred By field:

Navigate to one of the three options in 17hats. The example below shows a Lead Capture Form.

Click the "Add Question" button and choose "Short Answer."

Type your question into the question field and choose "Person referred by" in the "Maps To" dropdown:

Choose whether the question is required and save your question.

When the question is answered in a Lead Capture Form, with Online Scheduling, or on a Questionnaire, the answer will automatically map to the Contact's Referred By field and appear on your Referral List.

Referral Source Reporting and Lead Source Reporting have similarities and differences in 17hats.

Referral Source List offers the advantage of including names, allowing you to dive deeper into each Contact's journey and precisely identify how and from whom they initially discovered your services.

You can use Referral Sources and Lead Sources together.

For example, on a Lead Capture Form, you could ask "How did you hear about me?" and use the Lead Source Question to provide a dropdown list of options.

One of those options is "Friends and Family" so your next question would be a Short Answer that maps to "Person Referred By":

Now you can track your larger Lead Source of "Friends and Family" while also seeing that Dan Stevens was the specific friend who referred Emma.

Here you see the Friends and Family Lead Source:

And on your Referral List, you can see the more specific detail that Dan Stevens was the friend who referred Emma:

Q: How many Referral Sources may I have?

A: There is no limit to the number of different Referral Sources in 17hats.

Q: I manually added a Referral Source to an existing Contact but don't see it in the Reporting. Why not?

A: Check to make sure the timeframe of the Reporting includes the date the Contact was created. Referral Source Reporting is based on the Contact Creation date, not the date you edited the Contact.

Q: There is a typo in a Referral Source. What do I do?

A: You can edit the Referral Source on the Contact Details page.

Q: One Lead typed "Google" and another typed "google" on my Referred By question. Why are they two different sources on the Referral List and can I merge them?

A: 17hats sees capital letters and lowercase letters differently and doesn't transform what your contacts enter as an answer. You can't merge the two on the Reporting page, but you can edit the Referred By source on one Contact to match the other.

Q: Can I only allow specific answers in a Short Answer question that maps to Person Referred By?

A: No, it is freeform. Your Leads and Clients can enter anything in that box. You can edit their answer later if you see a mistake.

Q: Can I change the order of Referral Sources on the Reporting Referral List page?

A: No, they will always be sorted alphabetically by the Referrer Name.

Q: Is Referral Source Reporting available on all levels of 17hats?

A: Referral Source Reporting is available on the Standard and Premier Levels of 17hats.