Vinsyt / Communications

The Referral Program

One messaging system for eight dealership referral offers

I rebuilt three generations of referral messaging into a configurable system for Vinsyt. The work covers the offer model, conditional copy, channel variants, and the path from invitation to sharing and redemption.

Role

Offer modeling, message architecture, UX writing, share and redemption flows, and event configuration.

Team: Me and a lead developer.
Surfaces: Email, SMS, app notifications, landing pages, and QR-based redemption.
Stage: In production. The message examples are design specimens.

The offer model

Model the offer before writing the message

Dealerships can reward the owner, the friend, both, or neither, across sales and service. The copy has to describe that configuration accurately without making a reward appear where none exists.

The configurator makes those choices visible beside their output. I used it to connect the commercial settings to the language a customer would actually receive.

Two switches behind an offer: who is rewarded, and whether it is earned on a vehicle sale or a service visit — How an offer is built

Two switches sit behind every offer: who is rewarded, and what they have to do to earn it.

The case configurator beside the message it assembles, with reward lines appearing as each setting is switched on — The configurator

The offer configuration determines which rewards the message can describe.

A reference table of the eight offer cases against the four reward shapes — The eight cases

The eight-case reference table.

The same invitation email rendered for three offer configurations side by side — One message, three cases

The same message under three of the eight configurations: the owner rewarded, the friend rewarded, and both, with the sale carried alongside.

Message architecture

Assemble the message from the offer

Instead of maintaining a complete copy set for every case, I built one structure for each moment. Conditional blocks determine which reward lines appear; tokens supply the dealership, salesperson, vehicle, and amounts.

The side-by-side variants show why this matters. The invitation remains recognizable, but its promise changes with the offer. Blocks that do not apply are left out.

A diagram of the message structure showing the conditional reward blocks and the tokens filled at send time — One structure, three conditions

One message structure, with reward blocks included only when they apply.

The invitation email to the owner, with the reward figures and dealership details in place — The email

Reward figures, dealership details, and names are filled at send time.

The recipient

Write for the person receiving it

The owner already knows the dealership. The friend may not. Their first message needs to explain who is contacting them, why, and what has been offered before asking them to act.

The no-reward case needs a different emphasis too. Without an incentive to lead with, the invitation rests on the relationship with the salesperson rather than implying a benefit that is not there.

How audience and offer together decide where the message puts its emphasis — Audience and offer

Audience and offer change the emphasis, not just the name at the top.

The first email to the person referred, explaining who is contacting them and what has been offered — The email to the person referred

The message carries the offer into the next step.

The share path

Keep sharing deliberate

The design includes two routes: the owner shares a personal link, or supplies a chosen contact for an introduction.

Two share routes side by side: a personal link, and a chosen contact with a preview before anything is sent — Two routes out

For the direct-contact route, I specified a clear explanation before the field, minimal contact information, a message preview, and no automatic follow-up sequence for an unresponsive friend. The introduction should remain deliberate rather than quietly enrolling someone in a sequence.

The message sequence

Design the sequence as well as the individual send

The send plan connects the invitation to a completed visit or vehicle handover, then defines the channel timing and cancellation checks. Once sharing has happened, the remaining invitation sequence should stop.

I wrote the email, SMS, and app variants as parts of that sequence rather than unrelated messages. Each needs enough context for its channel without repeating the whole program.

The sequence milestones and interrupts, from vehicle handover through to the friend redeeming — The send plan

Channel variants belong to one sequence, with a condition checked before sending.

The referral offer as an SMS and as a push notification on the lock screen — SMS and app

SMS and app notifications carry the offer into their respective channels.

The send plan for one case across push, email, SMS and follow up, for the owner and for the person referred — All three channels

The configuration view and message table support the send sequence.

Beyond the inbox

Carry the offer beyond the inbox

The landing and reward pages continue the same offer into the next step. The QR destination connects that digital path to redemption with an advisor at the counter.

The customer should not have to reinterpret the reward as they move from a message to a page to an in-person interaction.

The shared delivery infrastructure is covered in the Lifecycle Engine. This project focuses on the offer, the language it generates, and the path the customer follows.

The referral landing page carrying the same offer through to redemption — The landing page

The landing-page specimen continues the referral offer.

Delivery & scope

Production system. Design specimens shown

This page documents the offer model, message system, and share-to-redemption flow. It does not report measured links shared, codes redeemed, or attributed sales.

The shipped system carries 32 configured referral events
22 live share messages across email, SMS, and app notifications
Eight offer configurations, across sales and service
The message examples on this page are design specimens