Referral Partner Network

Most financial services firms have a referral network they would struggle to describe. There are accountants who send work, a couple of attorneys who send probate and matrimonial cases, a commercial broker who passes protection inquiries, and a mortgage adviser who reciprocates. Nobody can say how many introductions came from each of them last year, how many converted, or which of them has gone quiet. The relationships are real and the revenue is real, but the channel is not managed - it is remembered.

The mechanics are the problem. An introduction arrives as a forwarded email, a phone call, or a name mentioned at a networking event, and lands with whoever happened to take it. Sometimes it is logged, sometimes it sits in an inbox for four days. The prospect is contacted late, having been told by someone they trust that they would be contacted promptly. Nobody tells the referring partner what happened - not when the client was first contacted, not when they engaged, and not when they declined. The partner, who put their own reputation behind the introduction, is left to ask. Most do not ask twice; they simply stop referring and nobody notices, because there was never a baseline to notice against.

Four specific leaks. Slow first contact kills conversion on introductions that arrived warm - the trust transferred from the partner has a short half-life. Unattributed referrals mean the firm cannot tell a partner who sends six good introductions a year from one who sends twenty unqualified names, so it invests the same effort in both and reciprocates on instinct. Silent partners churn invisibly, and re-establishing a lapsed professional relationship costs far more than maintaining it. And the compliance position is weakest exactly where the money is: introducer arrangements, remuneration disclosure, the basis on which client data moves between two regulated firms, and what a partner is permitted to say about the services they are introducing are all things that need to be documented, and an informal channel documents none of them.

Pipelines and stages

Two pipelines, because a partner and a referral are different objects with different lifecycles. Conflating them is the most common way this build goes wrong.

Pipeline A - Partner Onboarding. One opportunity per professional firm, not per individual contact at that firm.

• Identified - a firm worth approaching, with a reason recorded.
• Initial Conversation - a meeting has happened.
• Due Diligence - checks on the firm's regulatory standing and professional indemnity position.
• Agreement Issued - the introducer agreement is out for signature.
• Agreement Executed - signed and stored.
• Onboarding - Briefed - the partner and their team know what to refer, how, and what they may and may not say.
• Active - live and referring.
• Dormant - no referral within the agreed window.
• Offboarded - closed with a reason.

Pipeline B - Referral Intake. One opportunity per introduced prospect, with the partner attached.

• Referral Received - logged, clock started.
• Consent Confirmed - the prospect has confirmed they are happy to be contacted and that their details were passed on.
• First Contact Attempted
• Appointment Booked
• Fact Find Complete
• Engaged - the prospect has become a client.
• Not Proceeding - closed with a reason code.
• Out Of Scope - the firm cannot help, or will not; closed with a reason and the partner told honestly.

Calendars

• Partner Introduction Meeting - 45 minutes, business development owner only.
• Partner Team Briefing - 30 minutes, group booking, for the partner's own staff who will actually make the introductions.
• Referred Prospect Discovery - 45 minutes, adviser availability, with same-week slots held open specifically for referrals. A warm introduction that cannot be seen for three weeks is a wasted introduction.
• Quarterly Partner Review - 45 minutes, recurring invitation to active partners, with the partner's own figures prepared in advance.

Custom fields

On the partner firm record:

• Partner Firm Name, Partner Type - Accountancy, Legal, Mortgage, General Insurance, Employee Benefits, Other.
• Regulatory Status Confirmed - yes or no, plus Regulator Reference and Status Last Checked date.
• PI Cover Confirmed and PI Expiry Date - for the re-check reminder.
• Introducer Agreement Signed Date, Introducer Agreement Version, Agreement Review Due.
• Remuneration Basis - text describing the arrangement type the agreement records, with no amounts held in the platform.
• Disclosure Wording Version - the version of the approved disclosure the partner has been given to use.
• Permitted Scope - free text stating exactly what this partner introduces.
• Primary Contact, Secondary Contacts, Partner Relationship Owner.
• Referrals Last 12 Months, Conversions Last 12 Months, Last Referral Date - maintained by automation, not by hand.
• Dormancy Threshold Days - number, per partner. A busy accountancy practice and a sole-practitioner attorney should not be measured on the same clock.
• Reciprocity Notes - what the firm sends back, so the relationship can be seen from both sides.

On the referral record:

• Referring Partner Firm and Referring Individual - both, because credit belongs to a person inside a firm.
• Referral Date, Referral Route - Partner portal form, Email, Phone, Event, Partner link.
• Referral Reason - free text in the partner's own words.
• Prospect Consent Confirmed - yes or no, plus Consent Confirmed Date and Consent Method.
• First Contact Due and First Contact Made - timestamps. The gap between them is the number that matters most in this build.
• Outcome and Outcome Reason Code - engaged, not proceeding, out of scope, no contact, already advised elsewhere.
• Partner Updated Date - when the partner was last told what was happening.
• Attribution Locked - yes or no, set at engagement so later activity cannot reassign the credit.

Tags

• partner-active, partner-dormant, partner-offboarded - mutually exclusive partner state.
• agreement-current, agreement-expiring, agreement-lapsed - drives the re-papering workflow. A referral from a lapsed agreement is held, not processed.
• referral-new, referral-consent-pending, referral-sla-breach.
• referral-high-value-scope - the introduction falls in a category the firm routes to a senior adviser.
• partner-briefing-outstanding - the firm has an agreement but the partner's team has never been briefed on what they may say. Referrals are accepted but flagged.
• do-not-sms, do-not-email, vulnerability-declared - respected absolutely on prospect records.

Forms

• Partner Referral Submission - on the partner portal, behind a login. Captures the prospect's name and contact details, the reason for the introduction in the partner's own words, the urgency, anything the partner thinks the adviser should know, and - the critical field - a mandatory confirmation that the partner has told the prospect their details are being passed on and that the prospect agreed. The form will not submit without it.
• Prospect Consent Confirmation - sent to the prospect, not the partner. Confirms in the prospect's own words that they are happy to be contacted and understand who has introduced them. This is the firm's own record, independent of the partner's assertion.
• Partner Due Diligence Questionnaire - regulatory status and reference, professional indemnity cover and expiry, the individuals who will make introductions, and the firm's own complaints and data-protection contacts.
• Introducer Agreement - issued for e-signature, versioned, stored on execution.
• Partner Briefing Acknowledgement - the partner's named individuals confirm they have read the approved wording, understand the limits of what they may say, and know they must not give advice on the firm's services.
• Quarterly Partner Feedback - two questions and a free-text box. Short enough to actually get answers.

Partner portal

A members area, one account per partner firm with individual logins, holding: the referral submission form, a live list of that firm's own introductions and their current status, the approved disclosure wording and introduction script, a short briefing module on what the firm does and what it will not take on, the executed agreement, and the partner's own quarterly figures. Partners see only their own referrals - never another firm's, and never a prospect's substantive financial information.

BO's role and guardrails

BO handles intake, acknowledgement, consent confirmation, scheduling and status updates. BO talks to partners more freely than to prospects, because a professional partner asking about process is not a consumer asking for advice - but the line on advice does not move.

• With a partner, BO may confirm receipt of a referral, report a status from the pipeline, answer questions about the referral process, book a review, and point to the agreement or the approved wording.
• With a prospect, BO may introduce the firm in approved wording, confirm consent, explain what the first meeting covers, and offer appointment slots. Nothing else.
• BO must never give financial advice, recommend a product or provider, comment on whether the firm can help with a specific situation, discuss tax treatment, estimate returns, or indicate what the firm would charge.
• BO must never discuss a prospect's circumstances with the referring partner. A partner may be told the stage; they may not be told what the prospect disclosed. That distinction is the whole basis on which the prospect's data is being handled, and it must be hard-coded, not left to tone.
• BO never quotes or discusses the remuneration arrangement with anyone, partner or prospect. Those questions route to the relationship owner.
• Approved disclosure footer on every message, in the wording the firm's compliance function signed off.
• No automated contact with a prospect before Prospect Consent Confirmed is yes, except the single consent-confirmation message itself.
• Every BO conversation retained against both the partner and the referral record.

Numbers and channels

• One dedicated number for referral and partner service messaging, registered for application-to-person traffic, separate from marketing.
• A separate inbound line or extension published to partners only, routed to the relationship owner during business hours. Partners who have to go through the main switchboard stop calling.
• Email from the firm's authenticated domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
• Quiet hours in the prospect's time zone. First contact on a referral is a phone call during business hours wherever possible - an introduction from a trusted professional deserves a person, and the automation exists to make sure that call happens fast, not to replace it.
• A tracked partner link and co-branded landing page per partner firm, so a self-serve inquiry still attributes correctly. Co-branding is a compliance item: the partner's logo on the firm's page implies a relationship, and the page wording needs sign-off.

One introduction, end to end, from an accountancy practice that is already an active partner. The firm's internal standard is first contact within four business hours.

1. Tuesday 11:20. A partner at the accountancy practice submits the Partner Referral Submission form from the portal: a client selling a business, wants to talk about what to do with the proceeds. The partner ticks the mandatory confirmation that they have told the client their details are being passed on and the client agreed. Without that tick the form does not submit.
2. Tuesday 11:20, within seconds. A referral opportunity is created at Referral Received, attached to both the partner firm and the named individual who referred. First Contact Due is set to Tuesday 15:20. referral-new and referral-consent-pending applied. The reason text is stored verbatim. Because the reason matches a high-value scope rule, referral-high-value-scope is applied and the referral routes to a senior adviser rather than the general queue.
3. Tuesday 11:21. The partner gets an immediate acknowledgement naming the adviser who has it: "Thanks [partner first name] - received, and it has gone to [adviser name]. We will have made contact by the end of today and you will get an update tomorrow morning." The partner now knows the firm has it and when they will hear - which is the single thing most referral relationships never provide.
4. Tuesday 11:22. The prospect gets the one permitted pre-consent message - the Prospect Consent Confirmation: "Hello [prospect first name]. [Partner firm] has suggested we get in touch about [reason, in the partner's words]. Before we do anything else, we would like you to confirm you are happy for us to contact you. [Yes, happy to be contacted] [No thank you]. [Firm name], [approved disclosure footer]." Nothing else is sent until this is answered.
5. Tuesday 12:05. The prospect confirms. Prospect Consent Confirmed set to yes, Consent Method recorded as web form, Consent Confirmed Date timestamped, referral-consent-pending removed, stage moves to Consent Confirmed. The adviser is notified that the referral is now cleared for contact.
6. Tuesday 13:40. The adviser telephones. No answer, so they leave a voicemail and log the attempt. First Contact Made is timestamped against the attempt, stage moves to First Contact Attempted. Had 15:20 passed with no attempt logged, referral-sla-breach would have fired and the relationship owner would have been notified - because a missed internal deadline on a referral is a problem with the firm, not with the prospect.
7. Tuesday 13:45. A follow-up email from the adviser, personally signed, offering Referred Prospect Discovery slots held open for referrals this week and next.
8. Wednesday 08:30. The partner's automated update: "Morning [partner first name] - quick update on [prospect first name]: they have confirmed they are happy to be contacted, [adviser first name] called yesterday afternoon and has offered times this week." Stage only. Nothing about what the prospect said, what they own, or what they want. That boundary holds for every update in this build.
9. Wednesday 15:10. The prospect books Friday morning. Stage moves to Appointment Booked. Confirmation to the prospect with the agenda and what to bring; a short internal pack to the adviser with the partner's verbatim reason, the partner relationship history, and the consent record.
10. Thursday. Reminder 24 hours before, then two hours before. The partner is not reminded - partners get outcomes, not a running commentary.
11. Friday. The meeting happens. The adviser does the regulated work. The platform's only job here is to have made the meeting happen fast.
12. Friday afternoon. The adviser marks the meeting attended and the fact find complete. Stage moves to Fact Find Complete. The partner gets a brief, boundaried note: "[Prospect first name] met [adviser first name] on Friday and we are taking it forward. Thank you for the introduction."
13. Two weeks later. The prospect engages. Stage moves to Engaged, Attribution Locked set to yes so no later campaign can claim the credit, Conversions Last 12 Months increments on the partner record, and Last Referral Date is already current so the dormancy clock is reset.
14. Same day. The partner gets the outcome and nothing more: "[Partner first name] - [prospect first name] has come on board. Thank you. If you want to talk about anything similar, [relationship owner first name] is on [number]." If the prospect had not proceeded, the partner would have been told that too, with an honest reason, because partners stop referring to firms that only report wins.
15. End of quarter. The partner's figures are compiled automatically - introductions made, how many converted, median hours to first contact - and the Quarterly Partner Review invitation goes out with those numbers attached and a two-question feedback form. The firm walks into that meeting knowing exactly what the relationship produced, and so does the partner.

Eight workflows across the two pipelines. Two rules apply to all of them and are not negotiable in the build: no automated message reaches a prospect before Prospect Consent Confirmed is yes, and no message to a partner ever contains anything about the prospect beyond the pipeline stage. Every template carries the firm's approved disclosure footer, and every workflow checks do-not-sms, do-not-email and vulnerability-declared before sending.

1. Partner Onboarding and Agreement Execution

Trigger: partner opportunity enters Due Diligence.

Actions, in order:

1. Email the Partner Due Diligence Questionnaire to the primary contact: "Hi [first name], great to speak. Before we set anything up formally we need a few details for our records - regulatory status, your PI position, and who at [firm] will be making introductions. [Complete the form] - about five minutes."
2. Wait 4 days. If not returned, reminder. Wait 5 days. If still not returned, task the relationship owner to call. A professional firm that will not complete due diligence is telling you something.
3. On submission: write Regulatory Status Confirmed, Regulator Reference, Status Last Checked, PI Cover Confirmed and PI Expiry Date. Create a review task for the compliance owner - the automation records the answers, a person decides whether they are acceptable.
4. Branch - compliance owner approves: move to Agreement Issued, send the Introducer Agreement for e-signature at the current Introducer Agreement Version, and set Agreement Review Due twelve months out.
5. Branch - compliance owner declines: move to Offboarded with a reason. Send nothing automated; the relationship owner has that conversation personally.
6. Wait 7 days. If unsigned, reminder. Wait 7 days. If still unsigned, task the relationship owner and stop automated chasing.
7. On execution: move to Agreement Executed, write Introducer Agreement Signed Date, store the signed copy, apply agreement-current and partner-briefing-outstanding, and fire workflow 2.

Exit: executed, or offboarded with a reason.

2. Partner Briefing and Portal Activation

Trigger: partner opportunity enters Agreement Executed.

Actions, in order:

1. Create portal accounts for every named individual the due diligence form listed. Each gets their own login; shared logins break attribution and access control at the same time.
2. Welcome email: "Hi [first name], you are set up. Your login is here: [portal]. Inside you will find the referral form, the wording we have had approved for introducing us, what we can and cannot help with, and a live view of your own introductions. Please book 30 minutes for your team so everyone making introductions has heard it from us: [Partner Team Briefing]."
3. Wait 5 days. Branch - briefing not booked: reminder, and a task for the relationship owner. The briefing is the control that keeps partners inside the advice boundary; a partner referring without it is a known risk, not an administrative gap.
4. On the briefing being held: send the Partner Briefing Acknowledgement to each attendee. Write Disclosure Wording Version to the partner record.
5. On all acknowledgements returned: remove partner-briefing-outstanding, move to Active, apply partner-active, set Last Referral Date to blank and start the dormancy clock from today.
6. Wait 14 days. Branch - acknowledgements outstanding: escalate to the compliance owner. Referrals from this partner are still accepted but are tagged partner-briefing-outstanding on the referral record so the adviser knows the introduction may have been made without the approved wording.
7. Wait 30 days from activation. Branch - no referral yet: a single friendly check-in from the relationship owner: "Hi [first name] - all set up at our end. Anything you need before the first introduction, just call." One message, then nothing. Nagging a professional partner costs the relationship.

Exit: partner active and briefed.

3. Referral Intake and Attribution

Trigger: Partner Referral Submission submitted, OR an inbound email to the referrals address parsed by the intake rule, OR a form completed on a tracked partner landing page.

Actions, in order:

1. Create the referral opportunity at Referral Received. Write Referring Partner Firm, Referring Individual, Referral Route and Referral Date. Store Referral Reason verbatim.
2. Set First Contact Due to the referral timestamp plus the firm's standard, counting business hours only.
3. Apply referral-new and referral-consent-pending.
4. Branch - the partner has agreement-lapsed: hold the referral at Referral Received, notify the compliance owner and the relationship owner, and send the partner only: "Thanks [first name] - we have this. Our agreement with [firm] is up for renewal, so [relationship owner first name] will call you today before we go any further." Do not contact the prospect. Processing an introduction under a lapsed agreement is the kind of thing that is only ever discovered at the worst possible moment.
5. Branch - the reason matches a high-value scope rule (business sale, inheritance, retirement, divorce settlement, corporate scheme, or whatever the firm defines): apply referral-high-value-scope and assign to a senior adviser by the routing table rather than the general round robin.
6. Branch - the prospect already exists as a client or an open opportunity: do not create a duplicate. Notify the relationship owner and the existing owner, and tell the partner honestly: "Thanks [first name] - as it happens we already know [prospect first name]. [Relationship owner first name] will give you a call so we do not cross wires." Nothing further is disclosed, because the existing relationship is the prospect's business, not the partner's.
7. Acknowledge to the partner within the minute, naming who has it and when they will hear next.
8. Notify the assigned adviser immediately by internal message with the verbatim reason and the contact deadline.

Exit: one run per submission; duplicates are caught at step 6.

4. Prospect Consent Gate

Trigger: referral opportunity enters Referral Received with referral-consent-pending.

Conditions: this is the only workflow permitted to message a prospect before consent, and it sends exactly one message per channel.

Actions, in order:

1. Send the Prospect Consent Confirmation by email: "Hello [prospect first name]. [Partner firm] suggested we get in touch about [reason, in the partner's words]. Before we do anything else we would like you to confirm you are happy for us to contact you, and we will tell you exactly what we would do next. [Yes, happy to be contacted] [No thank you]. [Firm name]. [Approved disclosure footer]."
2. Wait 1 business day. Branch - no response AND the partner supplied a cell number: one SMS, in business hours, prospect-local: "Hello [prospect first name] - [firm name] here, following an introduction from [partner firm]. Happy for us to get in touch? [link]. Reply STOP and we will not contact you again."
3. Wait 2 business days. Branch - still no response: stop. Set Outcome to no contact, move to Not Proceeding, and tell the partner: "[First name], we have not been able to get confirmation from [prospect first name] that they are happy for us to make contact, so we have not pursued it. If you hear from them and they would like us to, send it through again." Two attempts and then silence - an unresponsive prospect who was introduced without their full knowledge is the exact situation the gate exists for.
4. Branch - prospect declines: apply do-not-email and do-not-sms, move to Not Proceeding with reason declined contact, and tell the partner only: "[First name], [prospect first name] has asked us not to make contact, so we have closed it off at our end." No reason is given, because the prospect did not give one to share.
5. Branch - prospect confirms: write Prospect Consent Confirmed, Consent Confirmed Date and Consent Method. Remove referral-consent-pending, move to Consent Confirmed, notify the adviser that the referral is cleared, and fire workflow 5.

Exit: consent confirmed, declined, or two attempts exhausted.

5. Speed-To-Contact Enforcement

Trigger: referral opportunity enters Consent Confirmed.

Conditions: internal enforcement. The prospect-facing part of this is a human call.

Actions, in order:

1. Create an adviser task "Call [prospect name] - referral from [partner firm]" due at First Contact Due, with the verbatim reason attached.
2. Wait until 1 hour before First Contact Due. Branch - no contact logged: remind the adviser.
3. Wait until First Contact Due. Branch - no contact logged: apply referral-sla-breach, notify the adviser's manager and the partner relationship owner, and reassign if the adviser is unavailable. The breach is logged against the firm, not excused.
4. On a contact attempt being logged: write First Contact Made, move to First Contact Attempted, and send the adviser's follow-up email with Referred Prospect Discovery slots: "Hi [prospect first name], [adviser name] here from [firm] - I called just now following [partner firm]'s introduction. Here are some times I have this week and next: [booking link]. If none of those work, reply with a couple that do."
5. Wait 2 days. Branch - not booked: second adviser email. Wait 3 days. Branch - not booked: one SMS if consented. Wait 4 days. Branch - not booked: stop automated contact, task the adviser for a final call, and after that set Outcome to no contact and close. Four touches on a warm introduction is already generous; a fifth damages the partner's standing with their own client.
6. On booking: move to Appointment Booked, confirmation to the prospect with agenda, reminders at 24 hours and 2 hours, and an internal pack to the adviser with the partner's reason, the consent record and the partner relationship history.
7. Branch - no-show: one rebook offer, then a task for the adviser. Notify the relationship owner, because a no-show on a referral is something the partner may be able to help with.

Exit: appointment attended, or closed with an outcome.

6. Closed-Loop Partner Feedback

Trigger: any stage change on a referral opportunity.

Conditions: stage information only. Every template in this workflow must be written so that it cannot interpolate a field containing prospect circumstances - build it that way and then test it by trying to break it.

Actions, in order:

1. Branch - entered Consent Confirmed or First Contact Attempted: queue a next-business-morning update at 08:30, batched into one message per partner per day. "Morning [first name] - update on your introductions: [prospect first name] - we have made contact and offered times. [prospect first name] - confirmed happy to be contacted, [adviser first name] calling today." Write Partner Updated Date.
2. Branch - entered Appointment Booked: include in the next daily batch as "meeting arranged." Nothing about what will be discussed.
3. Branch - entered Fact Find Complete: "[Prospect first name] met [adviser first name] and we are taking it forward. Thank you for the introduction."
4. Branch - entered Engaged: send within the hour, individually, not batched - good news should not wait for tomorrow's digest. "[First name] - [prospect first name] has come on board. Thank you, genuinely. If you have anything similar, [relationship owner first name] is on [number]." Set Attribution Locked to yes, increment Conversions Last 12 Months.
5. Branch - entered Not Proceeding or Out Of Scope: send within one business day, with an honest reason at the level the firm has agreed it may share - typically "it was not the right time for them," "they are already being advised elsewhere," or "this falls outside what we do, and here is the kind of thing we are the right fit for." Firms that only report wins train their partners to assume silence means failure.
6. Branch - Out Of Scope specifically: also create a task for the relationship owner to consider whether the partner needs re-briefing on Permitted Scope. A pattern of out-of-scope introductions is a briefing failure, not a partner failure.
7. Increment Referrals Last 12 Months and set Last Referral Date on the partner record at intake, so the dormancy clock is always accurate.

Exit: runs per stage change; terminal stages fire once.

7. Dormancy Detection and Agreement Maintenance

Trigger A: scheduled, weekly on Monday at 06:00, across all partner records tagged partner-active.

1. Branch - days since Last Referral Date exceeds Dormancy Threshold Days: move the partner to Dormant, apply partner-dormant, remove partner-active, and create a task for the relationship owner to make personal contact within 5 business days. No automated message goes to the partner. A templated "we have noticed you have stopped referring" is the fastest way to end a professional relationship.
2. Branch - days since last referral exceeds half the threshold: no action beyond including the partner in the relationship owner's weekly list. Early warning, visible, unactioned by the machine.
3. On any referral arriving from a dormant partner: immediately restore Active and partner-active, and notify the relationship owner so they acknowledge it personally as well as automatically.

Trigger B: scheduled, daily at 06:00, on agreement and PI dates.

1. 90 days before Agreement Review Due: apply agreement-expiring and task the compliance owner to review the version in force against the current template.
2. 30 days before: if a new version is required, issue it for signature and email the partner: "Hi [first name] - our introducer agreement is due for its annual refresh and we have an updated version. Nothing changes about how we work together; it is a paperwork exercise. [Review and sign]."
3. On the due date with nothing signed: apply agreement-lapsed, remove agreement-current, and notify both owners. From this point workflow 3 holds any new referral from that partner rather than processing it.
4. 30 days before PI Expiry Date: request updated evidence. On receipt, update PI Cover Confirmed and PI Expiry Date. If nothing is received by expiry, task the compliance owner to decide whether the partner stays active - a decision for a person, not a rule.
5. Every 12 months from Status Last Checked: task the compliance owner to re-verify the partner's regulatory standing and update the field. Standing changes, and nobody is notified when it does.

Exit: both triggers are self-contained.

8. Quarterly Partner Review and Channel Reporting

Trigger A: scheduled, first business day of each quarter at 07:00, per partner-active record.

1. Compile that partner's own figures: introductions made, conversions, median hours from referral to first contact, out-of-scope count, and what the firm referred back per Reciprocity Notes.
2. Email the primary contact with the figures and a Quarterly Partner Review booking link: "Hi [first name], a quick summary of how things have gone this quarter: [figures]. Worth half an hour to talk about what is working? [Book a time]. And the two-question version if you would rather not meet: [Quarterly Partner Feedback]."
3. Wait 10 days. Branch - neither booked nor feedback submitted: task the relationship owner. Do not send a second automated prompt.
4. On feedback submitted: route to the relationship owner, and if the free text is negative, route to the practice principal the same day. A professional partner who takes the trouble to write a complaint is worth a telephone call before the end of the day.

Trigger B: scheduled, first business day of each month at 07:00, to the relationship owner and the principal.

1. Channel report: referrals by partner and by referring individual, conversion rate by partner, median and worst hours-to-first-contact, every referral-sla-breach in the period with the adviser named, consent confirmation rate, out-of-scope rate by partner, dormant partners with days since last referral, and reciprocity balance per partner.
2. Branch - exceptions block, at the top: referrals with no Referring Partner Firm attached, referrals sitting in Referral Received for more than 2 business days, active partners with partner-briefing-outstanding, partners tagged agreement-lapsed with held referrals, portal logins belonging to offboarded partners, and any referral where a prospect was contacted with Prospect Consent Confirmed not set. That last one should always be empty, and checking that it is empty every month is the cheapest control in this build.

Exit: both triggers run to completion.

The channel becomes visible. Before, "referrals" was a feeling about which professionals were helpful. After, it is a list of firms with introductions, conversions and dormancy against each one, and the firm can see within a quarter which relationships are worth the lunch and which have quietly stopped.

First contact gets fast and stays fast, because the deadline is a field with a timestamp rather than an intention. An introduction that arrives at 11:20 has a documented contact deadline of 15:20 and an escalation if it is missed, and the thing that most often kills warm referrals - four days in an inbox - stops happening.

Partners get closed loops. Acknowledgement on submission, an update the next morning, an outcome at the end, and quarterly figures. The firm reports losses as well as wins, with a reason. That is the difference between a partner who refers once and a partner who refers repeatedly, and it costs nothing but having built the plumbing.

The compliance position moves from informal to documented. Every active partner has a current agreement with a version number, a confirmed regulatory status, a recorded permitted scope, a briefed and acknowledged team, and a dated review. Every referral has the partner's confirmation that the prospect agreed, plus the firm's own independent consent record from the prospect. Nothing automated reaches a prospect before that consent exists. If anyone asks on what basis a third party's client data arrived and was processed, there is an answer on the record rather than an account of custom and practice.

Watch these:

• Median hours from Referral Date to First Contact Made, and the count of referral-sla-breach events. These two are the health of the whole build.
• Conversion rate by partner firm and by referring individual. Individuals matter: one partner in a practice often generates everything.
• Referral volume trend per partner against that partner's own Dormancy Threshold Days.
• Active partners with no referral in the period - the dormancy list. Reviewed monthly, worked by a person.
• Consent confirmation rate, and median time to confirm. A low rate usually means partners are submitting without having had the conversation, which is a briefing problem and a compliance problem at once.
• Out-of-scope rate per partner. A partner sending a high share of introductions the firm cannot take is a partner who needs re-briefing, not one who needs chasing.
• Partner-updated lag - median days between a stage change and Partner Updated Date. This is the number that predicts partner churn.
• Agreements expiring in 90 days, and any agreement-lapsed partner with referrals held.
• Reciprocity balance - introductions received versus introductions sent back, per partner. An unbalanced professional relationship ends, politely and without warning.

Decisions to make before you build

• What counts as a referral. A name mentioned in conversation is not the same as an introduction with the prospect's knowledge. Define it, because it determines what gets logged and what the attribution means.
• Your internal first-contact standard. Four business hours, one business day, something else. Pick a number you will actually resource, and set the escalation to match. A standard nobody meets is worse than none, because the breach report becomes noise.
• Permitted scope per partner type. What you want an accountant to introduce is not what you want a matrimonial attorney to introduce. Write it down per partner so the briefing is specific.
• High-value scope routing rules. Which reasons route to a senior adviser, stated as keyword or category rules rather than left to whoever triages.
• Dormancy thresholds per partner, and what the firm does when one trips. Automated nudging of a professional partner is usually the wrong answer; a task for the relationship owner is usually the right one.
• What a partner is told. Agree the exact boundary - stage only, with no substantive client information - and write the update templates against it before anyone builds a workflow that interpolates a field it should not.

Integrations

• E-signature for the introducer agreement and the briefing acknowledgement - DocuSign or equivalent - with the executed copy stored and the signature date written back.
• Two-way calendar sync for the relationship owner and every adviser who takes referrals, with referral slots genuinely held open rather than nominally reserved.
• Document storage under the firm's own retention policy for agreements, due diligence records and consent records.
• Accounting sync if referral remuneration is processed - QuickBooks or Xero. Keep the amounts in the accounting system; the platform holds the arrangement type and nothing more.
• Website and landing page hosting for the per-partner tracked pages, with the tracking parameter written into the referral record so a self-serve inquiry attributes without anyone typing a name.

Numbers, messaging and the portal

• Provision a dedicated service number and complete application-to-person registration under the firm's legal entity - 10DLC brand and campaign registration in the United States. Register partner messaging and prospect messaging as separate campaigns if their content differs materially, and submit sample copy that matches reality.
• Opt-out on every channel: STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT honoured immediately and permanently, unsubscribe on email, written confirmation back. A referred prospect who opts out must be suppressed instantly and the partner told the introduction will not be pursued - without being told why.
• Quiet hours in the prospect's own time zone, with no exceptions for referrals. Urgency is the firm's problem, not the prospect's.
• Portal access control: per-firm accounts with individual logins, each partner seeing only their own referrals, and an offboarding step that actually revokes access. A former partner with a live login is a data-protection incident waiting to be discovered.

Compliance, and where the real risk sits

Referral arrangements concentrate several obligations in one place, and the automation touches all of them. Settle each with your own compliance function before launch:

• Introductions and the advice boundary. What an unregulated or differently-regulated introducer may say about your services is limited, and in many regimes a partner who steps past introduction into recommendation creates a problem for both firms. Your briefing material, approved wording and the acknowledgement form are the controls. Version them, and re-brief when the wording changes. The automation enforces that the briefing happened; your compliance function decides what it says.
• Remuneration disclosure. Where your rules require a client to be told that the firm pays or receives a referral fee, the disclosure has to reach the client at the point your rules require, in the wording your compliance function approves - which usually means it belongs in the first prospect communication and in the engagement documentation, not in a footnote later. Hold the arrangement type in the platform and the amounts in the accounting system. BO discusses remuneration with nobody.
• Data protection and the basis for transfer. A third party passing you a client's contact details is a processing event that needs a lawful basis, and the partner's assertion that the client agreed is not by itself your record. That is why this build takes an independent confirmation from the prospect and sends nothing else before it arrives. Confirm with your own counsel what basis applies in your jurisdiction, what the prospect must be told and when, how long you keep the details of a referral that never proceeded, and what your agreement with the partner should say about each firm's responsibilities.
• Record-keeping. Agreements, versions, due diligence, briefing acknowledgements, consent records, and the automated communications and BO transcripts themselves are generally retainable. Configure retention before go-live rather than discovering the gap during a review.
• Conflicts and suitability. A referral arrangement creates an incentive, and the fact that a client arrived through a paid introduction does not change the suitability work owed to them. Keep the two separate in the file: the attribution record and the advice record should not be the same document.

None of this is legal or regulatory advice. Whether an arrangement is permitted, what must be disclosed and when, what a partner may say, what basis supports the data transfer, and what you must retain are determined by your regulator, your permissions and your jurisdiction - and they differ considerably between them. Get your own compliance function's and counsel's answers first, then configure the build to match rather than the other way round. To scope the build around those answers, book a call at bookings.appbo.io.