Sometimes, and the conditions are predictable enough to check before you start. Referral programs work for contractors when the trade serves customers who talk to each other, when the ask happens close to the job while the work is still visible and the customer is still pleased, and when the reward is a specific named amount that actually gets paid. They work poorly when the ask is generic, when it comes weeks after the crew left, or when the reward is vague enough that nobody can repeat it. The reward amount is rarely the deciding factor. The timing and the specificity of the ask usually are.
Trades where the work is visible from the street or discussed between neighbours have a built-in advantage. A new roof, a driveway, a fence, a tree that came down, a fresh coat on the exterior: these start conversations without you doing anything. Trades where the work is invisible are not excluded, but the referral has to travel through a different route, usually a landlord, a property manager, a family member or a group of people in the same building or the same trade.
The strongest moment is the one where you are still standing there and the work has just been done well. Everything after that decays. A message the same evening still works. A message a month later is a different conversation and needs a different opening, usually one that checks the work is still holding up before it asks for anything. A generic broadcast to everyone you have ever invoiced, with no reference to what you did for them, is the weakest version and it is the version most businesses try first.
"We appreciate referrals" is not a program. A named amount, a clear condition and a fast payment is. The paying part is not a formality: a customer who was promised something and had to chase it will not send you a second person, and they will mention it to the first one. If you cannot commit to paying quickly, set a smaller reward you can.
They do not work if you never ask, which is the most common failure by a wide margin. They do not work if the ask is a link in a footer nobody reads. They do not work if the customer cannot say what they get or what counts, because ambiguity makes people avoid the whole subject rather than risk asking. And they do not work as a rescue plan for a business with a quality problem, because a referral puts your customer's reputation on the line and they will not risk it on work they were not happy with.
A referral program is not a volume channel you can turn up when you need work next week. It compounds off jobs you have already done, at the pace you do them, and the return depends on how many customers you have served and how consistently you ask. What it does offer is a cost structure most channels do not: nothing is owed until a job closes, and the lead arrives with trust already attached. Whether that adds up to a meaningful number for your business depends on your ticket values and your list size, which are numbers only you have.
They work when the trade has customers who talk to each other, when the ask happens near the job while the work is fresh, and when a named reward is actually paid. They work poorly when the ask is generic or delayed, or when the reward is vague. The ask matters more than the amount.
Usually because nobody asks. After that: the terms are vague so customers cannot repeat them, the ask arrives weeks after the job, or someone earned a reward and had to chase it, which ends their participation and damages the story they tell about you.
There is no fixed answer, and anyone offering one does not know your list. A referral program moves at the pace of the jobs you complete and the customers you ask, so the honest expectation is gradual compounding rather than a spike. Asking your existing past-customer list is the fastest starting point because those people already exist.
The cost structure suits small operators well, because there is no per-lead fee and the reward is only owed on closed work. On Revvin publishing the page is free, so the main investment is the habit of asking. Whether the return is meaningful depends on your ticket values and how many past customers you have.
While you are still on site and the work has just been done well, or by message the same day. Later asks still work but need a different opening, usually one that checks the work is holding up before it asks for anything.