The operating system for introducer-led growth
RQ helps professional firms send, manage, and prove referrals — with built-in compliance, clear tracking, and real visibility across the firm.
How is professional referral management different from customer referral programmes?
Category: General
Professional referral management and customer referral programmes sound similar but work in fundamentally different ways. A customer referral programme (sometimes called a refer-a-friend scheme) is typically used by consumer-facing businesses. A happy customer shares a referral link, a new customer signs up, and both receive a reward — often a discount or credit. These programmes are marketing tools designed to acquire new customers at a low cost. Professional referral management is different in almost every respect. It involves structured introductions between professional firms — an accountant referring a client to a financial adviser, a solicitor referring to a mortgage broker, or an IFA referring to a will writer. These referrals involve regulated activities, sensitive client data, and commercial arrangements (fee-sharing) that must comply with regulatory requirements. The key differences are: professional referrals often involve regulated activity (requiring consent, disclosure, and audit trails), the referral is between firms rather than between consumers, the commercial terms are negotiated and documented (not a simple discount code), the client's interests must be protected throughout, and the process must be evidenced for regulatory compliance. Software designed for customer referral programmes — tools like ReferralCandy, Mention Me, or Ambassador — cannot handle these requirements. They are built for a completely different use case. Professional referral management software like RQ is designed specifically for the complexity, compliance requirements, and commercial arrangements that professional services firms deal with.