As an award winning people tracing company we’re asked to find people all over the world. One of the countries we’re most successful in is South Africa. This amazing country has many people living in whose history in connected back to the UK at some point. As a consequence we are often asked to locate addresses, old documents and information on the whereabouts of both living and deceased people in South Africa. It’s actually one of my favourite places to carry out searches in. Unfortunately I don’t get to travel to South Africa every time we are asked to find someone in South Africa but I do get to check our online systems for information and slowly build up a picture of the person we are looking for. It’s certainly the best part of my job, to uncover things, to speak to our overseas teams and get to the bottom of where someone is or what happened to them.

We have an amazing team in South Africa who help us by providing locally sourced information. This means we can offer our award winning customer service and still maintain our 92% success rate. So if you’ve lost touch with someone in South Africa we can help you. Should you wish to do that click here to fill an enquiry form in or call us now on 0113 2825900, we’d be happy to tell you more about what we do and how we do it.

Our South African people finder team have access to really good information and better still they have the skills to read it and understand it. As well as finding living people in South Africa they can also help with genealogy searches in South Africa too, so if you were looking for an old birth record or potential marriages details but were struggling then again we can help.

Finding people in South Africa from the UK is almost impossible so we’re grateful to have the support of such a wonderful team.
There are several websites that can help you find people in South Africa yourself. These are centred more on genealogy than finding living people but are a good place to start. There is a National Archives of South Africa.

Because of the history between the UK and South Africa (The beginning of relations between South Africa and the UK began on the 31 May 1910 when the Union of South Africa was founded as a Dominion of the British Empire) we are often asked about finding people in South Africa so it’s a big part of the work we do at FinderMonkey and something that we are doing at least a few times every week.

This short article on finding people in South Africa was written by David Oates. Head Researcher at FinderMonkey and BBC1’s Family Finders.

David has been finding people for over ten years and has many successful searches in South Africa under his belt. To have David and his team find someone in South Africa for you simply call us now on 0113 2825900. We’ll be happy to tell you more about what we do and how we do it.

Good luck with your search to find someone in South Africa.

When Leigh contacted us to find his birth mother, he was nervous, scared and unsure of what to do. Once he had found her he used the words Brilliant, emotional, unbelievable and surreal. This is the story of why he wanted to find his birth mother and what happened when he did…

FinderMonkey Case Study

Leigh (Son) Carol (Mum)

I would like to know, what feelings initially drove you to begin a search? Why did you want to find your birth mother and what answers/information were you looking for?

My story started in 2014 at the age of 52. The Brother I grew up with was terminally ill and although we didn’t have a very close relationship at all I went to see him as I was made aware that he didn’t have long to live. It was perhaps the most meaningful conversation we had ever had, touching in places when we reminisced about our childhood. During this conversation he told me that my real mum wasn’t my birth mum. Three days later, my Brother, passed away. I thought quite often, what if I was abroad or away on business and I didn’t get the chance to have this final conversation with him? I still would have been none the wiser. The next year was a real battle as my emotions ranged from not wanting to know who my birth mother was to absolute curiosity and anxiety as to whether I should find out.

Had you done any searches yourself prior to approaching us?

Nothing that I could call actual searches. I researched some companies, looked at their details but, on the whole, it looked too complicated or too process driven which put me off.

I would also like to know how you found out about us and why you made the enquiry with us.

I have to be honest and say I didn’t. Having now accepted my past, my story became quite a talking point and intrigued those that would listen.

My partner was no different except for the fact that, quite quickly, she told me that “we have to find your Mother”

Fast forward 3-years and unbeknown to me, my partner contacted FinderMonkey and made contact with a lady called Sue.

Speaking to my partner as to why she chose FinderMonkey, she told me that she did so because that they were linked to the BBC and she had watched ‘Family Finders’ and thought that this was best organisation to use.

Once you had made the enquiry, what made you decide to go ahead and use us and did you have any doubts at this point?

I know my partner had zero doubts as to whether to proceed with FinderMonkey or not. Once she had spoken with Sue a few times she had all the reassurance she needed to go every step of the way.

Then how did you find the process with FinderMonkey?

The process was extremely easy but again it was Sue that made this possible. My Partner told me everything that Sue had done, and said, and she couldn’t have been more impressed. In short, Sue made a process that can be riddled with emotion, easy and even enjoyable. This was achieved through regular communication updates on anything that was relevant to the case.

How did you feel when we told you we had found your Mum?

Well, of course at this stage, I still had no idea that Sue and my partner had actually found my Mother. I know how it made my Partner feel as, when the time came to tell me what she had been doing without my knowledge, she broke down in tears (happy tears) and that very moment was unbelievably emotionally charged. Knowing what an incredibly special thing that my partner had done and then seeing a picture of my Mum for the very first time, well, it was simply very, very special.

How did your family react when you told them we had been successful in the search?

I have 2 teenage boys and up until my Mother was found, I had no other family beyond them. But anyone that has 2 teenage boys will know that emotions other than playing computer games or socialising with friends rank quite low. But in fairness to both of them, they were keen for me to find my Mum and were genuinely very happy to find out that their Grandmother was still alive and well.

How did you feel waiting for a response from your initial contact?

I was of course quite nervous especially as the ‘unknown’ was about to be revealed. And perhaps this is a more appropriate place to highlight the questions I wanted to ask and gain information that would help me understand more about what happened. At this stage I had no idea who my Father was as his name was not on the Birth Certificate. Many questions were racing through my mind and waiting for them to be answered was, once again, taking me on that emotional rollercoaster again. But I needn’t have worried as, once again, Sue from FinderMonkey was just brilliant. She guided me through every stage with compassion and total understanding. She made it very easy for me and made everything I did ‘acceptable’. What I mean by acceptable is that, in situations like mine, I had no idea of what the protocol was, how I should be, how I should ask questions etc. FinderMonkey provided the necessary support and guidance and without them I could have made a real mess of things.

And…….eventually what was it like when you first spoke?
Brilliant, emotional, unbelievable, surreal. No amount of adjective’s can really do this first moment justice. After all, I was speaking to my Mum for the first time in 55-years.

We recently had some great press coverage after we found Ann’s long lost sister for her. Ann came to us to find her sister after many years apart.

Ann grew up away from both her sister and her brother, she had unanswered questions about where they were and what they were doing. Over the years the feelings of loss and sadness about her siblings grew stronger. Ann decided enough was enough and set out on a journey to find them both.

After many years of searching she eventually tracked down her brother. This breakthrough gave Ann many of the answers she had been looking for but still she didn’t feel complete without her sister. Cut forward to late 2016 and Ann decided to call in the experts and ask us to trace her sister for her.

Once Ann had paid our search begun. Our initial search of the UK brought up no results but Ann did tell us that she had a feeling that her sister was in the United States of America. We conducted some searches of the States and found a possible match but there was nothing more we could do from the UK, so what next?

Over the years at FinderMonkey we’ve built up an amazing team of researchers who specialise in different areas of the tracing arena. We have researchers who specialise in Forces information, in Land and property records and overseas research. In this case we were straight on the phone to our researcher who lives in America to explain Ann’s situation and see if he could push our search forward stateside.

After many more hours of research that moved across the whole east coast of America our US researcher tracked down Ann’s sister to The Sunshine State, Florida.

We wrote up all our researchers’ findings as well as our own research and contacted Ann to give her the wonderful news, to say she was delighted was an understatement!

Ann quickly contacted her sister and was warmly welcomed. Shortly after Ann took the trip of a lifetime to meet her sister and it could not have gone any better.

Here is what Ann had to say…

“The whole trip was fantastic and it was as though we had known each another all our lives. Strangely a number of Angie’s friends & a relative even thought we had some similar mannerisms and phrases we used.

From all of us a big thank you for making this reunion possible.”

The story made the press in both the UK and in America.

A young man in India. A missing parent and a life alone. Until a friend made his dreams come true.

I would like to know, what feelings initially drove you to begin a search? Why did you want to find Patrick and what answers/information were you looking for?

I wanted to find Patrick for my friend Richard. He’d grown up without knowing his parents in India. Let me explain.

During August 2015, I was staying at the Grand Oberoi hotel in Kolkata where I met Richard Malone, a young chef who unlike all the other staff members at the hotel, did not have an Indian look about him. On chatting to him, i asked if he was on placement from Europe, it transpired that his father was of Irish descent and his mother was half Indian and half German. So Richard looked more Caucasian than Indian. Richard told me that his father had moved back to England when he was very young and he has been looking for him all his life.

On my return to England, I kept in touch with Richard and provided him with the necessary support, mentoring him through WhatsApp and got to know him better. He was very much alone from a young age and had been pushed from pillar to post all his life even living on a railway platform for 9 months of his life at the age of 7 years old and sleeping on park benches. Richard lived off scraps of food that he would find and at times he was lucky enough to get food given to him by the railway police. In desperate measures, he would resort to eating mud, which sadly resulted in him developing worms in his stomach! He was rescued from the platform by a priest who was visiting from South Africa, who took care of him for almost four years and made him a church boy. This gave him the opportunity to attend boarding school where Richard was able to receive free ‘quality’ education. After he had graduated from school, he was made to join the Indian army as he was one of the four best sportsmen in the school. He stayed in the army for almost two years until the day he was accidentally shot in the arm during training. It was then that he was given the opportunity to leave if he wished.

Richard left the army and was helped by the principal of the boarding school to start a course at a college in Kolkata after which he went to work as a chef at the Grand Oberoi in Kolkata.

During all this time, he had been in search of his father but he did not know where to begin. He tried to the best of his ability by writing letters to the address that had been given to him by his mother, in Blackheath, England.

Had you done any other searches on Richards behalf prior to approaching us?

About four years ago, we contacted a few tracing companies but no one could help. During August 2016, I visited Kolkata again and by this time I had learned more about Richard’s story and spent more time getting to know him. It was at this point I realised that he really had no one to help and support him and he was struggling to find his identity. No one cared for him! I wanted to help him as he had proven to be such a delightful character, full of care and respect, someone who had blossomed despite the tumbles of life. Therefore, on my return home, I searched the telephone directory, electoral registers and Facebook for Patrick but there was no success. I tried to Google his name too but again, there was no luck. It was then I decided that I would seek help from the experts. There was this reluctance about how good these ‘Finder’ agencies would be and how genuine too.

I would also like to know how you found out about us and why you made the enquiry with us?

I searched the internet for companies and obviously the success rate and testimonials together with the cost were the crucial deciding factors. For this reason, I chose FinderMonkey and I somewhat really liked the company name. It was a little cheeky, just like Richard.

Once you had made the enquiry, what made you decide to go ahead and use us and did you have any doubts at this point?

The success rate displayed on your website and the introduction video together with the team members being introduced were my main deciding factors for choosing FinderMonkey.

Then how did you find the process with FinderMonkey?

The FinderMonkey team were highly professional during every step of the way making me feel as if I was the only one they were searching for. The time and attention, together with regular feedback and updates of their progress in the search were commendable. I never felt rushed whenever I spoke to any of them and it felt as if I was speaking to a member of the family…there was so much warmth in their responses.

After much research we did find Patrick but unfortunately he had passed away some years ago but here’s what followed…

How did you feel when we told you we had discovered that Patrick had sadly passed away?

Obviously, I was very upset for Richard as I knew that he had longed to see his father, even a picture of him as he didn’t have one. Although I had prepared him for the worst case scenario I was quite gutted. At the same time, I tried to console myself and thought that at least he died 20 years ago and not last week, in which case I would have felt extremely awful as Richard could have seen his dad had I done something earlier.

The great news was Richard has been blessed with a beautiful family of a mother, brother and sister.

How did you feel waiting for a response from our initial contact with Patrick’s wife?

I was a little nervous of course as I didn’t want to mix my words and accidentally say the wrong things. I know Richard was really worried too as he felt that his step-mum could have easily rejected him.

And…….eventually what was it like when you first spoke to her?

When I eventually spoke to Janice, she was such a warm, beautifully caring person who was shocked with this bolt from the blue. Although she knew nothing about Richard, she was worried for him and his wellbeing. She was willing to hear him out and give Richard a chance to get to know his brother and sister if he could prove through a DNA test that he was truly related. Fortunately for Richard, the DNA test proved the relation and the family are now interacting with each other, getting to know each other.

A truly amazing story and we are very proud to be a part of it. It just goes to show that with determination, trust and some expert help you can get the answers you are looking for, don’t ever think it’s not possible.

We just received a lovely update from Kevin Risebrow. We traced Kevin’s birth mum, Angela in early 2016. Kevin and his mum got on immediately and started to make up for lots of lost time. They kindly agreed to film their experience of using FinderMonkey to find each other. The video has been viewed over 10,000 on various social media sites and our own website.

Kevin was recently in touch with us again to give us a brief update on his story.

Hello Dave, Jake and all the team

I finally saw the video about us on your website last week. I thought this had been done so well that it bought a tear to my eye yet again. I do hope that even one person who sees the piece of me and mum and decide to look for a missing loved one would be all worth the while.

I thought you’d appreciate a little update on how things are going?

Back in October I had my first birthday with mum, it was really special. I then had my first Christmas with mum which was even more special. A great time was had by all and then we celebrated mums 74th birthday earlier this month to be followed by Mother’s Day in just a few days.

We will then be up to the year when I first made contact with yourselves, and what a year. Myself and mum can’t thank you all enough, I really can’t. It has been a whirlwind of a year and long may it continue. I have a new family now and it is really going well, especially with my new brother.

Many Thanks to you all and if anyone is reading this wondering if it’s the right thing to do then Dave, Jake and all the team at FinderMonkey are the best people to do this for you.

Kevin Risebrow March 2017.

We know that every search starts with a single first step. Call us now on 0113 2825900 to discuss who you’re looking for and how we can help.

This is part 2 of Lori’s amazing story. You can read part 1 here

Lori contacted us just 3 months ago to find her mother for her. Our amazing research team carried out the search for Lori but found out that Lori’s mother had passed away, there was however a light at the end of the tunnel. Our Senior Researcher Sue takes over the story…

“Lori came to us to find her mother back in early December. We carried out our initial research. Ordered some documents that related to Lori’s mother and the family she never knew. This gave us some great leads and we sadly found out that Lori’s mother had passed away. This is always a difficult conversation to have with one of our customers but over the years I’ve learned that it’s best to be upfront and then supportive. It’s my job to make sure we look after our customers and Lori was no exception. She was obviously upset but we were there for her. We also found out that she had a sister. Lori was unsure what she wanted to do next. After a few days thought she decided to move ahead with a search for her sister and then use our intermediary service to make that initial first contact with her. I always recommend using our intermediary service as we can deal with that initial response from people. The initial response is sometimes one of shock, surprise and it can bring up some old memories. Consequently this initial reaction can be one that the person might regret, its best to use us to make that first contact and then the person can come round to what’s happening and we find that this gives us many more happy endings.

In Lori’s case, her sister George was more than happy to hear from her and I was delighted to hear that they planned to meet up almost immediately.

Of course I supported them both throughout the whole process but the meeting was down to them both and I was on tender hooks over the weekend at home waiting to hear how their initial meeting had gone. Luckily it went brilliantly.

What I love most is getting these happy endings for as many people as I can. I’ll work with you, I’ll support you and I’ll do everything I can to get you to the end of the process with a smile on your face.

Lori came back to me to tell me how it had gone and as she talked I could tell she was smiling.”

And this is what Lori had to say about meeting her sister for the first time…

“I was so nervous and looking back now I’m not really sure why! As soon as we met we hugged and cried. At no point did I ever think of George as a stranger, being sisters we instantly connected. We spent all day together which wasn’t long enough, we had so much to catch up on. George said within about 5 minutes that I reminded her of mum which was comforting I think for us both. We text each other all the time and are going to meet up next month. Finding George really has filled a huge void in my life as she was able to tell me all about our mum.”

Thank you to Lori for letting us tell the world about her story. Good luck to both of you in the future and thank you for choosing FinderMonkey to carry out this important work for you.

To start your own search call our caring team now on 0113 2825900.

If you’re looking for someone this story might help you see the power of what we do. It will also help you see the effort we put into each and every search we do.

We don’t expect anyone we work for to feature in a blog post or be on TV. We work for you. For many people this is such a private matter.

This is such an interesting story. Our client has provided a photo but all names have been changed.

John our client lived in South Africa. When he placed his initial enquiry we thought he was asking us to find someone in South Africa but this was not the case. He came to us to find his biological mother and believed her to be in the UK.

Our initial UK enquires were fruitless. We just couldn’t locate anything for his mother in the UK. When performing searches we’re always looking for a fact or a piece of information that we can hang our hat on. Something that provides us with something conclusive that we can build our search around. We just couldn’t find anything.

Finally we contacted a neighbour at her old address. Tthis address was literally from the 1960s. He couldn’t remember much but had a feeling she went to live in Australia.

We have access to some amazing overseas researcher and are now firmly established as a global people finder service. We can locate people here in the UK but can also perform the following searches…

We can find people in Australia, Canada, South Africa, USA and most European countries amongst other less required countries.

As we have a specialist family researcher who can find people in Australia, we moved the search over there.

The Australian researchers found one of her sons, Neill and his wife in Melbourne, Australia. The investigation then came back to us and via Sue (our intermediary specialist) she contacted Neill. He was aware of our client’s existence but said the whole situation was very difficult especially for his mum Gwenda as it was a traumatic time that she didn’t really want to go back to.

At first he was very reluctant to confirm whether Gwenda was also in Australia.

Neill finally informed us that yes she was in Australia but that she was not ready to have contact with John directlybut he did agree that John could contact him via Facebook and would see where that took them.

After months of working with Sue and working through a few issues and problems, Neill made Sue aware that Gwenda was returning to the UK in November this year to live. Once that was happening things snowballed quickly and by January 2017 John our client had flown from South Africa to the UK to meet his birth mother.

“I thought this day would never come. If anyone is thinking of finding a missing loved one I’d urge them to call FinderMonkey. They made me complete.”

The search had covered the globe, had taken over 30 hours of research. Had involved over 7 separate researchers and more than 20 phone calls across the globe. Most importantly when they met it was all about just 2 people and that’s the power of what we do.

To start your search and begin your journey call us now on 0113 2825900.

Here is a brilliant interview by Sue our Senior Researcher with a customer of ours called Lori Smith. Lori used us to search for and then contact her birth mother. Things don’t always work out the way you would hope but Lori got the answers she was looking for.

We would like to say thank you to Lori for sharing her story. We understand that this is not something everyone would want to do and are very grateful to Lori for doing so.

Lori Smith

Sue Harrison – Senior Trace Researcher

Hi Lori. Thanks for doing this. I would like to know what feelings drove you to begin a search

It’s something I’d thought about for a long time but always put it off. From my own experience I always felt like there was a missing piece of the puzzle from my life. Not knowing what your parents even look like and wanting to know more about them and where you came from.

Why did you want to find your birth Mum and what answers/information were you looking for?

Finding my birth mother meant

so much over the years. I finally decided I was mentally and emotionally ready to start the search in the hope I would get some answers. What always put me off before was the fear of rejection and my mum not wanting to know me. I’m sure it’s something that unless you’re in that situation it’s very hard to explain to someone. Also, I had no idea if anyone would know about me or whether I was kept a secret. To start a search where you’ve got no idea what to expect is actually quite daunting.

Had you done any searches yourself before approaching us?

I would do searches myself on the internet but didn’t have a lot to go on. I would look on social media sites but with such limited information I didn’t know where to begin.

I would also like to know how you heard about us and why you made the enquiry with us.

I googled ‘find birth mother’ and you were the first people to come up on the search. Although I was initially sceptical about everything.

Once you had made the enquiry, what made you decide to go ahead and use us and did you have any doubts at this point?

I decided it was now or never and that if I left it too late I wouldn’t get the answers I was hoping for. The older I got the more important it was for me to find my birth mum. I wanted to let her know that I was OK.

I had loads of doubts! In fact it took over my life at one point! I felt nervous throughout the process and questioned whether it was the right thing.

So how did you find the process with FinderMonkey?

Fantastic! From the minute I made the first contact. What I loved about everyone I dealt with is that I felt valued and looked after. You must deal with thousands of people but it never felt that you didn’t have time to listen to me.

Whenever I emailed asking for an update someone came back to me straight away. Even if it was to say you were still waiting for documents to arrive.

The news about your mum wasn’t good though…

When you phoned me to tell me my mum had passed away I broke down. I didn’t cope well with the news that it had happened just a year before. But you were able to help me and it felt like there was always a friend on the other end of the phone .

How did you feel when we told you the news about your birth mum and that we had identified and could search for a sister?

Not finding my birth mother was hard. The news about her passing still hurts and will do for a long time knowing I had left it too late. I did a lot of crying. I’m still coming to terms with the fact I’m never going to meet her, talk to her, hug her and let her know anything about me or her grandchildren. This was hard but I know deep down that its better to know and what happened next made it all worth while.

You phoned me and told me that mum had another daughter. At that stage I wasn’t ready to say I wanted to trace her. I really wasn’t in a good place on finding out about mum, but again Sue you were brilliant. After many chats I was able to think more positively about the situation…..I have a sister! There was someone who could tell me about mum, who could provide a photo which for 43 years I hadn’t had.

Also, Sue you were able to help me see things from my sister’s point of view, she was an only child who had lost her mum. If I could find her she wouldn’t be on her own, but at the same time I was nervous about whether she would know about me.

How did your family react when you told them we had been successful in the search for Georgina?

They were over the moon! They could see how important it was to me and how happy I was. I showed them photos and what was lovely is they could see the resemblance between us.

How did you feel waiting for a response from our initial contact to Georgina?

Really really nervous! I was worried that she wouldn’t know anything about me, and wouldn’t want any contact with me. I was wrong on both accounts! When you phoned me to say Georgina had been in contact and would love to hear from me I cried…but happy tears this time.

And…Eventually, what was it like when you met for the first time?

Well that’s happening soon so watch this space!

Lori has agreed to give us some feedback on the very first meeting with her sister. We’ll be doing a follow up post in the coming weeks.

If you’re ready to start your search for a missing loved one or old friend call us for an informal chat on 0113 2825900.

We understand what your search means to you and we’ll do everything to help you get the answers you need.

Update: To read part 2 of Lori’s story click here

If you’re considering finding your ‘someone’, it’s more than likely that you’ll have so many questions in your head. Questions like, is this the right thing to do? How would my family feel? Have they ever tried to find me?

Sometimes you might frame these questions negatively, why should I look for them? They should be looking for me!

On other occasions you might take things a little deeper and ask, why did they go? Where are they now? Are they even alive?

It’s our job to get you these questions answered. We are amazing at finding people. What makes us different from any other service and what we really understand is…

Finding your ‘someone’ is only the start of your journey and not then end of it.

This is a potentially life changing event. One that you should have been thinking long and hard about, probably for years.

Your hopes and dreams are in our hands.

So we’re here for you when the time is right. We support you.

We’ve just completely revamped our intermediary service where we make that initial contact with your someone. This works so wonderfully well and is such a big part of what we do now. We deal with the initial reaction and then work with both you and your ‘someone’ until everyone is happy and ready to move forward. It really separates our service from any other.

You know that we don’t get everything right. For one, we probably send too many emails, pestering people to go ahead. That’s because we know we can make a difference. We know we can support you through this life changing event. If you choose us to find your ‘someone’ then it will change your life. It’s our job to make sure that at the end of this process you feel it’s changed for the better no matter what the outcome and those questions that you had going round and round in your head? Well they’ll have gone forever.

Of course it might not be plain sailing

Yes your someone might not want contact with you – In truth this is a rare occurrence and if it does happen we’ll get you answers as to why. We work with them to find out their reasons. We work with you so that you feel ok about that and understand. We don’t just drop the bombshell and leave you to pick up the pieces.

Yes they might have passed away – but by leaving it any longer only increases the likelihood of that happening and you’ll still have those questions. If we find this has happened we’ll let you know when they passed and we’ll help you find and contact any other family if you wanted. At least you will have an answer and again, we’ll support you throughout.

Yes they might be perfect! – They might have tried to look for you, and they might be instantly ready to meet you for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. This happens significantly more often than people not wanting contact.

Maybe it’s not the right time but when will it be? We can spend a lifetime waiting for the right time only to find that it’s gone and now there is no time.

The truth is until we start a search we just don’t know what’s around the corner. What we do know is that we’ll support you, we’ll look after you and we’ll make sure those questions going round and round in your head get answered.

David Oates is Head Researcher at FinderMonkey. Author of People Tracing Guide and recognised expert on BBC1 TV Series Family Finders. He is an expert in his field and has had stories featured in The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Telegraph, The Independent as well as been interviewed on Radio 2 and BBC Radio Leeds.

To instruct David and his team to find and contact your someone, whilst supporting both you and them throughout the whole process, call 0113 2825900 now and arrange your complimentary Discovery Call. Your Discovery Call is a chance for you to talk to David’s team about how we can help you and give you a clear price for the work involved.

There is no obligation to go ahead after the Discovery Call but at least you’ll know what we can do and how we can help.

I was speaking to one of our oldest clients, he’s an independent financial advisor and first used us to track down old clients back in 2010. He has a good system so he doesn’t lose touch with that many but when he does, we’re his ‘go to’ team.

So what do we do for him?

Quite simply we find addresses and telephone numbers for old clients who have moved. He can then contact them to see if their needs are being met.

I was chatting to him about our services and asked why he used us, “it’s just easy” was the answer. I asked him to elaborate a little…

“I send you a batch of names and addresses of previous clients. You cleanse the data and I get my team to phone and write to the new names and address. It’s a great way to re-engage with an old customer”

It got me thinking. Is this a service that would appeal to other IFA’s?

Well as these things do we had an enquiry from a few weeks ago from a larger IFA based in the North of England. Long story short they decided to use us to do the same type of work, the first batch was 120 previous clients to find. They passed us over the information in an excel spreadsheet and added the fields into the spreadsheet that they wanted us to fill in for them…

• Current Address
• Current name
• Any new telephone numbers
• Any other information

It worked really well, we found 118 out of 120! Don’t worry they didn’t pay for the 2 we didn’t find as we provide this service on a no find no fee basis. If we can’t find your previous customers new address you don’t pay a penny.

So both myself and the two clients realised that this is a service that is cost effective to provide yet massively helpful for them. It’s so easy for a customer to move address, change their telephone number or name. Suddenly you have no way of contacting them. That’s where we come in, we can discreetly, legally (this is important!) and cost effectively trace the previous customer and find their current address, contact details and name.

We have access to all the latest systems to find people and we find people for councils (Burnley), Solicitors and even religious organisations.

So if you’re reading this and feel like we might be able to help you. Call James now on 0113 2825900 and we’ll be happy to put a quote together for you. We can find 10 previous customers or 10,000, what’s important to us is that we help you.

We are easy to work with and can tailor the service to your exact needs. All searches are guaranteed to be correct and remember it’s no find no fee, so if we can’t help on a particular search you don’t pay us anything. So if you need to track down old clients please do get in touch and let’s see if we can help you.