Refer a Friend: The Good Kind of Gossip

Most of our new customers come from neighbors who already have our shade. That is not a marketing line; it is the operating reality of a company with hundreds of verified five-star reviews across the Inland Empire and coastal Southern California. When your retractable awning drops on a July afternoon and the house across the street is still baking, somebody is going to ask where it came from. This page is the answer to that question: the three steps, the one rule that matters, and what you get for being the person who made the introduction.

There are three steps, and the whole thing runs on text messages, the way the rest of our business does.

1. You talk. When a friend, neighbor, or family member asks about your shade, tell them the truth: who installed it, how the experience was, and that the estimate is free. Give them our text line, (909) 325-3110, and tell them to mention your name when they reach out.
2. They mention your name. Your friend texts us at (909) 325-3110 and says your name before their estimate is set. That sentence is the entire referral program. Without it, we have no way to connect two conversations that look identical from the outside.
3. We do the rest. We run the estimate, build the project, and install it with our own crews, the way we always do. After your friend's project is complete and paid, your thank-you lands. You never have to chase it; the referral is attached to their record from day one.

Referrals are credited to whoever is named before the estimate is set. This is the single rule that decides everything, and we keep it strict on purpose. If your friend mentions your name during their first text, you get credit. If they mention you after the estimate is already in the system, the window has closed. It is not about being difficult; it is about being fair. Two people can both claim they recommended us to the same neighbor, and the only fair way to settle it is first mention, on the record, before the estimate.

Practical advice from the people who run this program: tell your friend to lead with your name. "My neighbor Maria told me to text you" in the first message is all it takes. Reminders after the fact work only if the estimate has not been set yet.

• Counts: a new customer in our installation territory (San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties) who books an estimate naming you, and becomes a completed, paid project.
• Does not count: your own household (referring yourself is not a referral), a friend who was already in our system before you mentioned them, or a project that never gets built. We thank people for finished business, not for introductions.
• One per household: if two people from the same home both text us, that is one referral, credited to the name mentioned first.
• Community deals are separate: if your whole street or HOA is coordinating shade installs together, talk to us about that directly instead. Whole-community projects get their own terms; they do not stack with individual referral credits.

After your friend's project is complete and their invoice is paid. That order is deliberate. A referral is not finished when the estimate is booked, and it is not finished when the awning is installed. It is finished when the customer has paid in full and the job is done to their satisfaction. That is the same standard we hold our own work to: no price games, no pressure, finished work that earns its money. Your thank-you follows the same discipline.

In practice, most thank-yous go out within a couple of weeks of project completion. If you ever think one is missing, text us and ask. The referral is attached to your friend's record from their first message, so there is nothing to reconstruct.

AJ sets the thank-you personally, and it can change over time, so this page will not quote a figure that goes stale and misleads people. What never changes is the structure: one qualifying referral earns one thank-you, paid after the project is complete. Text (909) 325-3110 and ask what the current thank-you is, and we will tell you plainly. No fine print, no points that expire, no tiers that require a spreadsheet. One friend, one finished project, one thank-you.

If you want the two-sentence version to forward, here it is: "AJ Shades did our screens / awning. American-made, veteran-owned, free in-home estimate, and their own crews did the install. Text (909) 325-3110 and tell them I sent you." That is the whole pitch. Your experience is the credential; the company behind it is licensed (CSLB #951583), backs its retractable awnings and motorized screens with a 15-year warranty, and has a few hundred reviews saying the same things you would say.

We do not run a call center, we do not subcontract installs, and we do not buy our reviews. The reason a referral program page exists at all is that the math is simple: a customer who arrives because their neighbor loves their shade is already 90% sold, and they are usually our favorite kind of project, on a street where our work is already the proof. That is why the thank-you exists. It is not a gimmick layered on top of the business. It is the business, formalized: good work, talked about, rewarded.

And if you are reading this because you are the friend, not the referrer: welcome. Ask them how the install day went. Ask whether the crew cleaned up. Then text us, mention their name, and get your free estimate. You will understand the program from the other side soon enough.