Where did this buyer come from?
A lot of residential survey work comes by recommendation: a mortgage broker who suggests your practice, an estate agent who mentions you to buyers, a conveyancing solicitor who keeps your details on file. Your partners take these contacts for lunch, send them updates and try to keep the relationships warm.
But when someone asks which of those relationships actually produce bookings, nobody can say. Enquiry forms ask 'how did you hear about us' and get 'Google' or nothing. The office sometimes notes the broker's name, sometimes not.
Why referrals are hard to see
- Most enquiries do not record their source at all.
- When recorded, the source is free text with many spellings of the same firm.
- Buyers may search for your name after a recommendation and appear as search traffic.
- Enquiries and bookings are in different places, so conversion by source is unknown.
- Any referral arrangements are tracked in a separate spreadsheet, if at all.
What not knowing costs
Business development time spread evenly across partners who differ greatly in value. Good referrers not thanked, or not given the service that keeps them sending work. Referral arrangements, where you have them, handled inconsistently. And decisions about marketing made without knowing how much work already comes through relationships.
| Question | Answer today | With referral tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Who referred this enquiry? | Often unknown | Captured at enquiry |
| How many enquiries did a partner send? | Guess | Counted by partner |
| How many became bookings? | Unknown | Conversion by partner |
| Which partners send higher-level surveys? | Unknown | Survey types by partner |
| Are referrers kept informed? | Ad hoc | Updates sent with the client's permission |
The referral tracking we build
- Each referral partner gets their own link or code to your quote form, which they can pass to buyers or add to their own emails.
- The quote form asks, in a simple list, whether a broker, agent or solicitor recommended you, with a searchable list of your partners.
- Enquiries by phone are logged by the office with the same list, so every enquiry has a source.
- Each enquiry is followed through to booking and fee, so conversion is visible by partner.
- A monthly summary shows enquiries, bookings and survey types by partner.
- Where the client agrees, the referrer gets a short update when the survey is booked and when the report is issued, which is what many brokers and solicitors want to know.
Any referral arrangement you have must meet your own obligations and those of your partners, including disclosure to clients. We build the tracking. The arrangements are for you and your advisers.
Business development with numbers
Partners can see which relationships produce booked surveys, and spend their time accordingly. Good referrers get thanked and kept informed. New relationships can be measured from the first month. Marketing decisions are made knowing how much work comes by recommendation.
It also shows the quieter side of relationships. A broker who used to send work regularly and has gone quiet appears on the monthly summary, which is a prompt for a phone call before the relationship drifts to another practice.
Estate agents can be tracked separately from the buyers they send. An agent who regularly recommends your practice to buyers on properties they are selling is a different relationship from one who asks you to value their own instructions, and the summary shows each.
Is your referral work invisible?
- Most enquiries have no recorded source.
- You cannot say which broker sends the most bookings.
- Referrers are not updated when their client books.
- Business development time is spread without evidence.
- Referral arrangements are tracked in a spreadsheet.