A restaurant referral program is a small contract. A regular sends a friend to your door, and both sides know what they get. Independent owners can run that contract without a separate referral app. The hard part is the sentence, the proof, and the link, not a new login.
MicroSky Food does not include a built-in customer refer-a-friend tool. There is no personal share link, and no report that says who sent whom. You can still run the program with pieces that already exist: loyalty points you set, a coupon with rules you set, and, on Growth Plus, an SMS or email to guests who already ordered. How points land is MicroSky Food loyalty and rewards. What to keep from a paper card is restaurant loyalty card. How a list message works is restaurant SMS and email marketing.
What a Restaurant Referral Program Has to Promise
Three jobs. The friend needs a reason to order the first time. The regular needs a reason to send them. Someone on the shift needs to know the promise was kept. If any of those is a speech, the program dies at the window.
Write one sentence a cashier can say. Shape, not a required offer: send a friend to our site, they get this item on the first order, and you get the reward we already use. Use an item you already prep. Do not invent a percent of new guests. Your own tickets are the only number that counts.
Keep the reward on your checkout. A marketplace coupon teaches the friend to reorder in someone else's app. DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub often charge 15 to 30% of the sale. The referral should land on your domain, where the account and the points can exist.
Design the Friend's Reward Before You Ask Anyone to Share
Start with the new guest, because that is the order you can see. A first-order reward should be one item the kitchen already makes, or a set amount off food, with a last day. Staff should be able to repeat it before the guest pays.
Coupons are the tool for that first order. A reward or a coupon can cover the whole order. A coupon shows once on the order and the receipt. You can skip categories you do not want discounted, and you can use limits you used before. Sales tax follows the food total after coupons and rewards. You set the coupon. The site does not mint one referral code per regular.
A Coupon Does Not Name the Regular
Hand the same code to every regular, or change it when the week ends. Either way, the coupon is a rule on the ticket. It is not a record of who texted it. If two friends use it, you still do not know which regular to thank unless the new guest says the name.
Do not tell the staff the software will match the code to an account. It will not. The lookup you do have is for loyalty, after a person is named.
Track the Thank-You with Loyalty Points You Set
The regular's thank-you can live on the loyalty program you already run. Guests create accounts, save orders, and earn loyalty points on storefront purchases. You set the rewards. The customer list stays with the restaurant. Points do not print a plastic card, and they do not run a punch-card gadget.
When a new guest says a name, open restaurant admin and use the guest rewards lookup. Honor the reward you promised, in the words you already use for points. Do not invent a second currency for referrals. You decide what the points are worth. MicroSky Food does not force a points table.
A guest who creates an account at checkout keeps the points from that order. That can start the friend's own balance. It is not proof of who referred them. A marketplace receipt does not build either balance. If the friend ordered in someone else's app, do not comp from memory.
Share the Order Link by SMS
The link in a restaurant referral program should open your menu, not a personal tracker. MicroSky Food does not generate a share link per guest. What you can send is the address of your ordering site, the same link you would put on the box.
On Growth Plus, that send can be an SMS or email campaign to your customer list. Advanced customer segmentation and targeting are on that plan, so the note can go to people who already order, not to a file you bought. Marketing campaign analytics and ROI tracking are there too. Read them against orders on your site. A sent text is not a referred guest.
Guests choose email and text updates, and checkout explains the choice before they sign up. Do not text numbers you did not ask. Standard and Growth do not include SMS or email campaigns. Growth, after 3 months on Standard, includes push to the branded iOS app. That push is not a text. On Standard, put the link on the box, the receipt, the window, and the Google order link. A regular can still forward your site from their own phone. That forward is not a tracked product link.
What the Message Should Say
Name the restaurant, the friend's reward, the regular's thank-you, the last day, and the link to your menu. Campaign emails can greet a customer by first name. Email and SMS campaigns themselves are listed on Growth Plus.
Skip a code you cannot match to a person, unless the code is only the friend's discount and the staff know to ask for a name. Tell regulars to send people to your site.
A Friday Version the Window Can Run
A pizzeria writes one sentence: send a friend to our site this week, they get a side on the first order, and you get the usual reward when they say your name. The side is a coupon with a last day and a category limit. The thank-you is the loyalty reward the staff can already explain.
On Growth Plus, one SMS goes to guests who already ordered and opted in. It names the side, the week, and the link. On Standard, the same sentence goes on the box. Friday, a new guest says Maria sent them. The cashier looks Maria up and does not guess if the guest cannot name anyone. If the side sells out, 86 it in admin and the storefront updates.
What This Program Will Not Do
It will not attribute a visit on its own. It will not text strangers, and it will not ping a phone because someone drove past. MicroSky Food does not offer geofencing. It also does not dispatch drivers, run a fleet, or track drivers. A referral is a person and a link, not a map.
Do not buy a list of people who have never ordered. Do not promise a birthday referral or an automatic email the product does not send. Checkout does not ask for a birthday, and the platform does not add birthday points on its own. A birthday note is a different offer, in restaurant birthday rewards.
Which Plans Cover the Pieces
Loyalty points and rewards are on every plan, including Standard. On pricing, Standard is $249 per month plus 5% commission on net sales, or $499 per month flat. Only that $499 per month Standard option has no commission. Commission on the $249 option applies to net online order sales through the storefront, after refunds and voids. You do not need Growth to set points or a coupon.
Growth is $499 per month plus 7% commission on net sales, after 3 months on Standard. It includes loyalty, a branded iOS app, app push, a website redesign, and monthly SEO for 5 keywords. It does not include email or SMS campaigns. Growth Plus is $999 per month plus 10% commission on net sales, after those same 3 months, and adds email, SMS, push across the iOS app, SMS, and email, segmentation, and campaign analytics. A 30-day free trial does not replace the 3 months. Your storefront, menu, customer data, and loyalty carry over when you qualify.
Hardware is $500 once if you need a mini PC print server and a receipt printer. There is no long-term contract. Setup is how it works. Restaurants on the platform are on clients. Questions go through contact. See a storefront in the live demo. Start 30 Day Free Trial. Call (888) 960-1359.