Referrals are an essential aspect of accounting firm growth, yet they are often underutilized. Furthermore, they don’t just happen on their own. To fully maximize their impact, referrals must be meticulously managed and measured.
In this blog post, we’ll look at some best practices on how to methodically track referrals, properly incentivize referrers and use tools like ABLE CRM to drive measurable results. Keep reading to learn how to transform referrals into a cornerstone of your marketing strategy!
Why Referrals Are Essential for Accounting Firm Growth
In today’s skeptical world, potential clients crave authenticity and are increasingly tuning out generic sales messaging and marketing campaigns. This makes word-of-mouth referrals an especially critical avenue for accounting firm growth, since they come with built-in trust and social proof.
Think about it—when a trusted friend or colleague recommends a business, do you not assign more credibility to that brand? There’s a level of confidence that your contact genuinely had a positive experience as a customer. According to Nielsen’s 2012 Global Trust in Advertising survey, 92% of consumers worldwide trust word-of-mouth recommendations more than any other advertising method.
The key is to nurture and harness the power of referrals deliberately. Don’t just hope referrals happen organically—put systems and incentives in place to encourage your happiest customers to actively refer others in their network. Then, make sure you capture and track this referral data so you can optimize the process over time.
How to Manage Referrals
Managing referrals is pivotal for accounting firm growth and revolves around nurturing relationships.
Here are some tips and tricks:
- Build a formal referral program: Make it an official process with forms, rewards and guidelines rather than hoping referrals happen organically. This makes it easier for customers to participate.
- Track referral data: Make sure to document who makes referrals, who they’re referring and any resulting business growth. Review this data regularly to optimize your strategy.
- Provide referral resources: Equip customers to refer easily by providing branded materials, custom referral codes, social media graphics and tailored messaging.
- Automate follow-up: Set up workflows to immediately follow up on any received referrals with a thank you and information on next steps.
- Show appreciation: Find meaningful ways to show referrers appreciation like handwritten notes, loyalty rewards or public acknowledgments.
- Encourage two-way communication: Get feedback from referrers on what’s working and what could improve to make the program more enticing.
- Set goals and metrics: Define quantitative goals for the number of referrals, referral conversion rate and revenue growth to benchmark success.
How to Measure Referrals
To transform referrals into a scalable accounting firm growth channel, it’s crucial to monitor key metrics that quantify their business impact. Here are some of the most telling numbers to track:
- Referral volume—the total number of referrals received over a period of time
- Referral conversion rate—the percentage of referrals that convert to sales
- Total referral revenue—the total sales revenue generated from referral leads
- Cost per acquisition—total referral revenue divided by the number of referrals that convert to sales
- Lifetime value—project the long-term value of referral customers through metrics like repeat purchase rate and retention
Wrapping Up
Referrals represent a significant avenue for accounting firm growth, but you need the right systems in place to transform that potential into measurable results. This is where a purpose-built CRM like ABLE can be a gamechanger.
If you’re ready to unlock the power of referrals for accounting firm growth, schedule a free demo of ABLE CRM today. See firsthand how ABLE’s set of specialized tools can help you build stronger client relationships to optimize your referral channel. The results could take your growth trajectory to exciting new heights!