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Use referrals to grow your firm

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2nd Dec 2016
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Active referral management has been one of the big growth activities among Practice Excellence firms in the last year.

As revealed in a recent Receipt Bank guide entitled ‘7 referral systems for winning more clients’, here are four quick-start tips for more effective referrals.

Before implementing a referral systems in your practice, ask the following questions:

  1. Are your clients raving fans? - don’t think about implementing a referral system until your service levels are where they need to be. Clients need to love your firm and the work you do for them
  2. Be easy to refer - you need to provide clients with everything they need in order to refer effectively. You also need an onboarding process for new clients that’s seamless from start to finish
  3. Don’t be afraid to ask - if you’re delivering an amazing service to your clients, you’ve got no reason to be hesitant about asking for a referral
  4. Choose referral partners carefully - bad clients rarely make good referral partners. This may even be the perfect time to review your client base and ditch some of those troublesome and unprofitable clients

Points three and four were also highlighted in a recent post from Colin Dunn, co-founder of Panalitix called ‘referral strategy for accountants’. Dunn explained there were several ways in which you can ask clients for referrals: “Whichever you choose, please do it only with your best clients – your D class clients have friends just like them!”

He later added in summary: “when building an accounting firm based on business improvement services, your client base is of critical importance. Take steps to ensure you are ultimately only working with the right sort of client. Remember, it’s your business, you decide with whom you work.”

Referrals systems and referral management are among the fastest-growing trends in practice. Referrals also fit into the theme of firms changing course and becoming more advisory. This means the more progressive firms are becoming more systematic in managing and measuring the referrals process.

Earlier this year AccountingWEB’s own Richard Hattersley commented that Practice Excellence firms were using technology more systematically to tackle referrals. CRM systems were commonly used by shortlisted firms to measure conversions, target profiled clients and to capture enquiries.

He added that CRM wasn’t just about recruiting and bringing new clients on board. “You also have huge amounts of client information from preparing their accounts... and this data can help you better serve and market to existing clients,” he said.  

Steve Pipe also commented on the article that you should never treat clients as a commodity, and that you should always strive to give them the very best service: “Once you have done something really good for a client, reciprocity (which psychologists tell us is deeply rooted in human nature) kicks in and they actually want to do something for you in return.

“So if at that point you gently and professionally remind them that you would love a referral, you are almost doing them a favour by allowing them to reciprocate. As a result, they won’t feel exploited or commoditised. They will simply be happy to be true to their nature by being able to do something in return,” Pipe said.

 

Have you implemented a system for referrals in your firm?

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By Ian McTernan CTA
06th Dec 2016 11:00

I'm small enough not to have to worry about all these management systems that larger firms need.
I rely purely on referrals- from other firms of accountants and other professionals, as well as clients. I don't buy fees, or pay for 'referrals'.
I've built up these relationships over a number of years so they know the sort of clients I am looking for and will deal with, so I don't have any bad unprofitable clients to try and get rid of.
If you are taking a look at the way you get new clients, first set yourself a goal, as knowing what you want is a good starting point in communicating that to your referrers and clients. Don't try and expand too fast, service levels will suffer.
I always find saying to my contacts and a couple of clients 'I'm looking for a couple of new clients' or 'I have space for an enquiry case at the moment' yields results.

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By AndrewV12
06th Dec 2016 12:44

'bad clients rarely make good referral partners'.

Its true where I once worked, trust me like attracts like.

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