[July 2024] 🤠 Member Portal: what's changed?

Hi there,

As we pass the midpoint of 2024, I wanted to reflect on the significant improvements we’ve made to the Member Portal and highlight some upcoming updates I’m really excited about.

The Member Portal serves as the central location for sharing and engagement. It is designed to be easy to use, simple to access, and comprehensive. But this wasn’t always the case.

Here’s a walk down memory lane highlighting many major changes since starting in 2017.

Where we started

At first, there was no Member Portal but a single page (now called Classic) with sharing buttons and stats. You also had the option to add a color or image background. While functional, it was difficult to use, overloaded, and missing interactive features.

This was our first attempt to see if people would engage and share a formal referral program. As more people used it, we realized there was an opportunity to expand the features (though some customers still use Classic today).

Introduction of full portal experience

Based on the success of Classic, we felt confident in building a full Member Portal experience to be the central hub for all referral program interactions. This included:

• Adding tabs and tables

• Offering different sharing widget

• More branding and design options

• Support for multiple languages

• Better navigation

• More mobile friendly experience

Updates to remove friction (2023)

Over time we noticed two major friction points preventing people from engaging with the Member Portal and sharing the program.

• People not joining from the registration page - too many steps to sign up, not mobile friendly, forms = friction

• Returning members not logging in - never setting or forgetting passwords, confusion on where to log in (registration vs. login page), general frustrations with the experience

This showed how important it was to provide a seamless experience. Even if there is intent, any friction can stop people from engaging. So we focused on making it easier to access the Member Portal:

• Introduced One Click Access links so members can start sharing without needing to signup or register

• Created a passwordless experience so members don’t need to set or remember passwords

• Removed the need for separate registration and login pages - now there’s one page for both (optimized for mobile)

• Added Google and Facebook Single-Sign-On (SSO) so members can signup using credentials from the sites they already use

Updates to improve overall experience (2024)

The next iteration of the Member Portal made it easier to use, giving members more control and insight into their referrals and rewards.

1. More visually appealing card view

2. Ability to switch to table view (for power users)

3. Robust search, filtering, and sorting

4. More properties and configuration options

5. Improved mobile experience

What’s next?

We continue to focus on making it easier for your members to share and engage with your program. Next month we are releasing features to:

• Configure which share options appear in your Member Portal

• Add QR codes as a share option

We’ll continue to build features to improve the member experience and let you opt into the ones you want (we never force you to switch).

These are the highlights but don’t miss the rest of the updates below.

-Mica
Head of Operations

👀 Content Updates

[Referral Basics] 2 important referral integrations (insight post): Detailed explanation of the most important referral integrations (build sharing into customer experience and referral tracking). Includes other advanced use cases.

Referral Program Integration Basics (webinar): 30-minute webinar covering the 2 most important referral program integrations plus other advanced use cases and how to set them up with Referral Rock. Watch on demand and get a copy of the slides.

HubSpot Tutorial (video): Learn how to integrate Referral Rock and HubSpot to issue rewards based on changes in HubSpot, send emails from HubSpot using referral data, and create HubSpot reports combining referral data with your other data sources.

Reward Rules (support article): Better explanation of how to set up rewards with more supporting resources.

Program Landing Page (support article): More details on configuring the Program Landing Page when members sign up for your program.

⏮ And in case you missed it…

Here are some more recent posts from our team that you may have missed!