6 REAL Reasons Why You Need A Mobile-Optimized Website
We’ve all heard the saying, “If you build it, they will come.” But what about that other saying: “If you build it right, they&...
Most service businesses are trapped in an expensive cycle. They pay $100-400 to acquire each customer through Google Ads, Facebook, or platforms like HomeAdvisor. When a customer is only worth $600 in first-year revenue, there’s little left for employee bonuses, community investment, or business growth.
Kendall Hines knows this pain intimately. At 21, he took over his family’s struggling lawn care business with just 90 customers. Within six years, he scaled it to 2,000 customers and nearly $1 million in revenue. But the digital advertising costs kept climbing, eating into profits and limiting growth potential.
His solution led to building Lawn Bot, which was acquired by Real Green and later WorkWave. Now, as co-founder and CEO of Clicki, Kendall has created a referral platform that automates the entire referral process for service businesses, turning satisfied customers into powerful lead generation machines.
The results speak for themselves: one client reached $650K in revenue in their first year while spending $0 on traditional digital advertising. Instead, they focused entirely on referrals and community marketing, proving that word-of-mouth can still drive substantial growth when systematized properly.
This show is sponsored by Blue Crocus Solutions, a web design and SEO agency focused on helping home service companies grow.
• Digital advertising costs are crushing small businesses: Service companies now pay $100-400 per customer acquisition, leaving little room for growth or profit
• Automated referral systems work: Clicki sends referral invitations immediately after job completion and handles payouts automatically via multiple platforms
• B2B partner programs multiply results: Real estate agents and complementary businesses become powerful referral sources when properly incentivized
• Magic links eliminate friction: Customers can start referring immediately without login requirements or authentication barriers
• Systematic approaches scale: One client reached $650K revenue spending $0 on traditional ads by focusing on referrals and community marketing
Kendall’s entrepreneurial journey began with necessity rather than grand ambition. His father owned a Lawn Doctor franchise as a part-time side business, and when Kendall dropped out of college at 21, he committed himself to learning how to sell lawn care services.
“When I came in, that business had about 90 accounts. Like it was a part-time deal. We went from like 90 to 300, 300 to 600, 600 to 1200. We just kept compounding every year for six years.”
The growth wasn’t accidental. Kendall became obsessed with lead generation and sales systems. But he quickly discovered the seasonal nature of lawn care created unique challenges: everything happened at once during spring selling season, with leads piling up over weekends and customer service requests overwhelming the small team.
“I’d come in Monday morning and if anybody has a high growth business, you know, leads come in over the weekend, customer service requests, you’ve got 30 voicemails, like all this stuff.”
This pain point led to his first software solution: allowing customers to sign up online without requiring phone conversations. The idea seemed simple, but the impact was transformative.
“I’ll never forget the day when we made our first sale online and I went to my wife and I’m like, oh my God, this is gonna be huge. Like if it worked for us, it could work for anybody.”
“So when I left that business, we had around 2000 customers close to a million bucks in revenue.” – Kendall Hines
What started as an internal tool for the lawn care business quickly evolved into Lawn Bot, essentially “Shopify for lawn care companies.” Customers could get quotes, purchase services, and pay online—revolutionary for the industry six years ago.
“We built that tool for ourselves. And my buddies that owned lawn care businesses started saying, ‘Hey dude, that lawn bot thing’s pretty cool.'”
The growth was explosive. Within a year, Lawn Bot reached $50,000-60,000 in monthly recurring revenue. The scalability was unlike anything Kendall had experienced in the service business world.
“We grew really fast. It was just totally different than running a home service business. The problems are different.”
The success attracted attention from Real Green, a major CRM provider for the green industry. Instead of investing in Lawn Bot, they made an acquisition offer that changed everything.
“He said, well, what if instead of investing in you, we just buy you instead? So they were owned by private equity at the time, and this is when valuations are pretty frothy and kind of blew my mind.”
Six months later, WorkWave acquired Real Green, giving Kendall exposure to operating within a 1,300-employee organization—a dramatic shift from a seven-person startup.
The experience provided valuable lessons about corporate operations while reinforcing his passion for solving real problems faced by service businesses.
“Going from working at a seven person startup to 1300 employees, I don’t come from the corporate world. So trying to navigate that and operate inside of that was really interesting.” – Kendall Hines
After completing his earnout with WorkWave, Kendall and his co-founder Eric began exploring their next venture. The inspiration came from a persistent problem they’d observed across the service industry.
“There’s almost no CRM that focuses on how do we turn one customer into many, and how do we make referrals simple for customers?”
Traditional referral programs suffer from systematic failures. Companies typically use Google Sheets to track referrals, send Visa gift cards through the mail, and struggle with attribution. The result: frustrated customers who refer business but never receive promised rewards.
“The ball gets dropped and customer calls in and is like, yeah, I referred three people to you and I never got my bonus. All pissed, right?”
The fundamental issue isn’t lack of desire for referrals, it’s lack of systems to manage them effectively. Most businesses start referral programs with good intentions but lack the infrastructure to execute consistently.
Meanwhile, digital advertising costs continue climbing. Google, Facebook, and lead generation platforms have created what amounts to a monopoly on customer attention, forcing small businesses to pay increasingly higher prices for the same results.
“Some of our customers pay upwards of 200, 300, $400 to acquire a customer today. And when the problem with that is when they’re paying that much to acquire a customer and that client’s only worth 600 bucks in revenue in the first year, that means less money for bonuses, less money to invest in the community.”
“At best it’s a Google sheet with a form on a website. We broke down every step of the referral process and just tried to make it totally frictionless.” – Kendall Hines
Clicki solves the referral problem through complete automation integrated with existing CRM systems. The workflow is elegantly simple but powerful in execution.
When a service company completes a job and marks it complete in their CRM (House Call Pro, Workiz, ServiceTitan, etc.), Clicki automatically triggers within seconds. The customer receives both email and text messages with a personalized referral invitation.
“Hey, it’s Joe’s junk removal. We just delighted you today. We pay you $50 for every friend or family member you refer to our business. Click here to start referring now.”
The magic happens with the “magic link” technology. Customers tap the link and immediately land in their personalized referral portal without any login requirements or authentication barriers.
From there, they can either submit referral information directly or share their personal referral link via Facebook, text, or other channels. The system tracks everything automatically.
“Now their customers are generating referrals for them on autopilot. The company doesn’t have to remember to ask. It’s just all happening in the background.”
When referrals convert to customers and complete service, Clicki detects this through CRM integration and automatically issues rewards. Customers can choose from Venmo, Cash App, Amazon gift cards, or Visa cards for payout.
The entire loop completes without any manual intervention from the business owner.
“From there, their customer gets a notification that they just earned a referral bonus. They tap the link, which brings them back to the portal and they can pick how to receive their gift.” – Kendall Hines
While customer referrals provide the foundation, Clicki’s B2B partner program functionality opens additional growth channels. Service businesses can create referral relationships with complementary professionals who regularly interact with their target customers.
For junk removal companies, real estate agents represent ideal partners. They work with homeowners who frequently need junk removal services during moves, estate sales, or property preparations.
“Getting real estate agents in your partner program, giving them a unique link that they can share with homeowners. Same thing. All the tracking is maintained because we’re already tied into your source of truth software.”
The system works identically to customer referrals but targets B2B relationships. Real estate agents receive unique referral links to share with clients, often combined with special offers for the referred customers.
“The most common thing that we see is it’s called a two-sided referral program. So the referer gets something, the referee gets something, and we’ve seen that be most effective.”
This approach creates win-win-win scenarios: real estate agents earn referral bonuses, homeowners receive discounts or special offers, and service businesses acquire customers at lower costs than traditional advertising.
The scalability becomes apparent when businesses build networks of referring partners across multiple complementary industries.
“Lots of creative ways that we see people using the software. We had one company this year, they just launched first year in business. They got to 1300 customers, 650K in revenue while spending $0 on traditional digital advertising.” – Kendall Hines
Recognizing that 60% of referral interactions happen on mobile devices, Clicki recently launched a completely redesigned promoter app optimized for smartphone use.
The interface prioritizes the most common user behavior: direct referral submission. Data shows that 60% of first referrals come from customers who know someone specific and want to quickly submit their information.
“We designed the experience and the workflow around that. If they click share link, it gives them options here. They can share to Facebook, they can email it to somebody, they can copy and paste it into Instagram, Nextdoor, that kind of thing.”
The app includes QR code functionality for face-to-face referral situations. Service providers can print QR codes for display in their vehicles, offices, or partner locations.
Kendall shared an example from his wife’s lash and brow studio: “They have a QR code at the front desk talking about the referral program.”
The mobile-first design extends to tracking and gamification features. Customers can view all their submitted referrals, see their position on leaderboards, and cash out rewards directly from their phones.
The emphasis on user experience reflects deep understanding of referral psychology: the easier the process, the more referrals get generated.
“You would be surprised, to make it look this simple, so much obsession went into that. We wanna shorten the distance between somebody wanting to make a referral and being able to.” – Kendall Hines
Traditional referral systems create friction through login requirements. Customers click referral links, land on login screens, enter phone numbers, wait for verification codes, then finally access referral portals.
Clicki’s magic link technology eliminates this friction entirely. The link contains authentication information, allowing customers to bypass login requirements and immediately start referring.
“The magic link knows who they are. So they don’t have to log in. It automatically takes them to their page based on the information in your CRM.”
Authentication only becomes necessary when customers want to cash out earned rewards. By moving authentication to the end of the process rather than the beginning, Clicki removes the primary barrier to referral participation.
“We moved the authentication from the beginning, which is where it’s most friction, to the end after they earned a referral bonus.”
This seemingly small change has significant impact on referral generation rates. Every additional step in a process reduces completion rates, so eliminating unnecessary steps directly increases referral volume.
The magic link technology also enables seamless sharing. When customers share their referral links, recipients see personalized landing pages featuring the referrer’s information and company branding.
“They don’t ever have to authenticate until they actually say, Hey, I want my hundred bucks sent to Amazon gift card.” – Kendall Hines
Clicki incorporates gamification elements that tap into competitive psychology while providing transparency around referral performance.
The promoter app includes leaderboard functionality where customers can see how their referral activity compares to others. This creates friendly competition and encourages increased participation.
“There’s leaderboard, so the customers can actually kind of compete a little bit, makes it a little competitive, makes it kind of fun.”
Individual tracking allows customers to monitor all their submitted referrals, see which ones have converted, and track their earnings over time. This transparency builds trust and encourages continued participation.
The system also enables businesses to identify their most active referrers and potentially offer additional incentives or recognition.
From the business perspective, comprehensive analytics show referral program performance, top referrers, conversion rates, and ROI compared to other marketing channels.
This data-driven approach allows businesses to optimize their referral programs based on actual performance rather than assumptions.
The gamification elements work because they align with natural human psychology around competition, achievement, and social recognition.
“They can easily cash out from here, so when she earns some money, she’ll just tap cash out and she’ll pick whether she wants Venmo or Cash App, Amazon gift card, Visa gift card.” – Kendall Hines
Not every business owner immediately sees the value in systematic referral programs. Common objections include being “fully booked” or not wanting to complicate their operations.
Kendall’s response focuses on the growth mindset required for long-term business success.
“If you’re building a business and you’re profitable and you’re happy, that’s fine. I think the brands that really buy into this vision and need this are high growth brands where basically if you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
Natural business attrition means that without active growth efforts, businesses eventually decline. Customer churn, competitive pressure, and market changes require continuous acquisition of new customers.
The businesses that benefit most from Clicki are typically doing over $500,000 in revenue, using CRM systems, and have ambitious growth goals.
“They wanna have a $5 million business, they wanna have an $8 million business. They wanna be the number one company in their market.”
For businesses not experiencing the pain of expensive digital advertising, referral systems may seem unnecessary. But as markets mature and advertising costs continue rising, referral programs become essential for sustainable growth.
The key insight: referral programs aren’t just about immediate lead generation—they’re about building sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time.
“Until you have to pay Google $5,000 per month to grow your business, then you’ll realize how much of a value add our software is.” – Kendall Hines
Kendall’s philosophy extends beyond referrals to comprehensive marketing presence across all available channels.
“The healthiest businesses that we see, they wanna do everything and they wanna do it great. I wanna do SEO, I wanna do PPC, I wanna do LSA, I wanna get my referral program cranking, I wanna have a partner program, going to trade shows, I’m putting out lawn signs.”
This omnipresent approach creates multiple touchpoints with potential customers. They might see lawn signs, notice the company working in their neighborhood, encounter Google ads, and receive referral links from friends—all reinforcing the same brand message.
The compounding effect becomes particularly powerful in seasonal businesses where most sales happen within concentrated time periods.
“I just wanna be everywhere, like all at once, especially in these high seasonal businesses where most of the sales are made within the first power window.”
Rather than relying on single marketing channels, successful businesses diversify their lead generation across multiple sources. This reduces risk and creates more stable growth patterns.
Referral programs complement other marketing efforts by providing social proof and personal recommendations that enhance the effectiveness of paid advertising and SEO efforts.
“I want everything in my toolbox dialed in. The high growth businesses think like that.” – Kendall Hines
Kendall recommends using the end of the year for strategic planning that reverse engineers growth goals into actionable marketing strategies.
“This is a great time of year to do a look back on what went well this year. And then setting the number of growth that we wanna do.”
The process starts with specific revenue targets. If a business did $600,000 this year and wants to reach $1 million next year, they need to acquire a specific number of new customers based on average customer value.
“We need to get 450 new customers at this customer value. Well, how are we gonna do that? Well, we’re gonna do Google, we’re gonna get our referral program cranking.”
This systematic approach ensures that marketing efforts align with business objectives rather than operating on hope or intuition.
The planning process also identifies which marketing channels need development during slower periods so they’re fully operational when busy seasons arrive.
For seasonal businesses, this preparation becomes critical because most sales opportunities occur within compressed timeframes.
“So when the busy season does hit next year, you have everything dialed in and ready to go. So you’ve got a whole army of people working for you.”
“We reverse engineered our growth goals for the year. This is a great time of year to do that.” – Kendall Hines
The fundamental difference between successful and struggling referral programs lies in systematization. Manual processes don’t scale and inevitably break down as businesses grow.
Clicki provides the infrastructure that allows referral programs to operate automatically while businesses focus on service delivery and growth.
“If you don’t have a system, you can’t scale.”
The system enables businesses to leverage their entire customer base for lead generation. When special promotions or seasonal campaigns launch, businesses can instantly notify all their referral partners through the platform.
“When you have 750 promoters or customers and it’s Labor Day, and you wanna do a blast out to all them to remind them about your referral program, you can just send out a reminder.”
This scalability transforms referral programs from occasional activities into consistent lead generation engines that operate 24/7.
The automation also ensures consistency in customer experience. Every customer receives the same high-quality referral invitation and has access to the same user-friendly tools for making referrals.
As businesses grow, their referral programs grow proportionally without requiring additional manual effort or resources.
“Now you have a system in place. There’s a system there and it allows you to scale.” – Kendall Hines
Kendall’s vision extends beyond current referral functionality to broader solutions for customer acquisition challenges facing small businesses.
“I think as we think about Clicki today, it’s referrals, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna stop there. We have a lot of ideas around where this is headed and how can we help small businesses generate more leads and opportunities at a lower cost.”
The core mission focuses on keeping marketing dollars within local communities rather than flowing to large technology platforms.
“How can we help small businesses generate more leads and opportunities at a lower cost while keeping the marketing dollars local in your own community.”
This philosophy aligns with broader trends toward community-based marketing and the desire for authentic, personal recommendations over anonymous digital advertising.
AI search is also changing the landscape, moving away from traditional “10 blue links” to conversational recommendations that may favor businesses with strong referral networks and community presence.
The businesses that build systematic referral programs now will be better positioned for whatever changes emerge in digital marketing and customer acquisition.
“How can we live in a world where small businesses can grow like they used to before all this, while keeping the marketing dollars local in your own community.” – Kendall Hines
Interested in seeing if Clicki is the right fit for your business? Click here to book a demo and snag a $50 gift card
This Podcast is sponsored by Blue Crocus Solutions, a marketing agency offering website design, branding, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services for Home Service businesses.
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