Client and business letters
Referral thank-you note examples
A referral is somebody spending their own credibility on you, which is a larger thing than a purchase and should be acknowledged differently. The note has to make clear you understand that, and it has to arrive before the referred work is finished rather than after.
Written by Autopen Australia · Updated
The standard note
[FIRST NAME], [REFERRED NAME] called this week and mentioned you had put them onto us. Thank you. Passing somebody on puts your own judgement on the line and I do not take that lightly.
To a professional who refers regularly
An accountant, a broker, a solicitor. The relationship is ongoing, so the note should sound like part of a conversation rather than an event.
[FIRST NAME], thanks for sending [REFERRED NAME] across. That is the [NUMBER] this year and every one of them has been a good fit, which says more about how well you read them than about us.
Where the referral came from a client
[FIRST NAME], [REFERRED NAME] told me you had recommended us. Thank you, genuinely. It is the most useful thing a client can do and the one we are least entitled to expect.
Where you could not take the work on
The note almost nobody sends, and the one that keeps the referrals coming. Somebody who refers and hears nothing back assumes it was unwelcome.
[FIRST NAME], thank you for sending [REFERRED NAME] over. We could not help on this occasion - it was outside what we do rather than anything to do with them - and I have pointed them at somebody who can. Please keep thinking of us.
[FIRST NAME], [REFERRED NAME] got in touch. Wrong timing at our end and I was honest with them about it, so I wanted you to hear that from me rather than from them. Thank you for the thought.
Getting it right
- What to mention. The name of the person they referred. An acknowledgement that recommending somebody carries a risk for them. Nothing about the value of the work.
- What to leave out. Mentioning what the referral was worth, which turns a favour into a transaction. Asking for more referrals in the same note, which is the fastest way to stop getting them.
- How long. 25 to 50 words.
- How personal. Direct and slightly understated. Overdoing the gratitude makes the next referral feel like an obligation.
- When not to send one. Where the referral has not worked out. Thank them anyway, but do it by phone where you can be honest about it.
Personalising more than a handful
The fields that earn their place here: [FIRST NAME], [REFERRED NAME], [NUMBER].
Confirm the referred person is happy to be named before you merge their name into a note to somebody else. In professional services that is occasionally a confidentiality problem rather than a courtesy one.
Before any run, read the piece with the longest value in your data, the shortest, and the empty one. If all three read as English the merge is sound. Personalising direct mail at scale covers the rest.
Sending these at volume
A business with a working referral network sends these constantly and in ones and twos, which is the pattern that most reliably lapses.
Autopen Australia writes each piece individually with a real ballpoint, personalises every piece from your list, written into the sentence rather than dropped into a gap and hand-addresses the envelopes.
Referrals arriving faster than the thank-yous go out? See the handwriting first
Keep reading
Client thank-yous
What to write in a client thank-you note, with examples by occasion and tone, how long it sho…
B2B prospecting
Prospecting letters that do not read as a printed email, with versions for a genuine trigger,…
Reactivation letters
How to name the gap without apologising for it, with letters for a client who left, one who d…
Client letters
Thank-yous, prospecting, proposals, welcomes and reactivation letters, with wording for each …
Prospecting
Prospecting letters and B2B outreach written with a real pen. Why cold mail lives or dies on …
Writing more of these than you have evenings
Tell us roughly how many and what they say. We will come back with an exact price and a production window.