An ongoing effort

Johann Maree

Delivering service in such a way that your clients appreciate all your efforts is without a doubt one of the greatest challenges that financial advisers
face today.

Clients have become more demanding. Retention is often a key focus area for top advisers because they know that lost clients have a huge impact on bottom line profitability. It has been estimated that getting a new client can cost up to six times what it takes to retain an existing one.

If clients are unhappy, many advisers assume they will call. Unfortunately, clients speak with their feet. Therefore, it pays to learn how to grow your business using your most valuable resource – your current client base.

Developing a service audit is one very good way to identify client service issues before they become a problem.

The service audit has one major goal: to establish client loyalty.

A good service audit should not have more than 10 questions. Here are some questions that may assist you in obtaining client feedback:

• What do clients think of your communication?

• How often would your clients like to hear from you?

• How satisfied are your clients with their investments?

• Are they satisfied with the level of risk you have established for their portfolios?

• Do they think you handle their financial affairs with professionalism and intelligence?

• Are clients satisfied with the level of service they receive from you?

• Would clients recommend friends and family members to you?

The audit should allow also for clients to add any additional comments.

It is suggested that you divide up your year into quarters and send out the service audit three weeks before your face-to-face review meetings with your clients.

This client feedback helps you to identify the things that clients really value.

Client service relates to the infrastructure of the advisory business. As an adviser, do you have the people, checklists and systems in place to respond to clients with a cost-efficient, high-tech and high-touch service?

Client services, on the other hand, are the things you do for your clients. These consist of your service menu and your value proposition. They are the key to increasing market share and moving your advisory business to the next level of success.

In essence, the one feeds off the other, as regardless of business model choice, great client service is fundamental to your brand, your competitiveness in the marketplace and to your business survival.

Indeed, the new client service is more about continuing the sale, rather than closing the sale.

What follows are ways in which you can increase your client service proposition:

In this way, you can make more money and do much more in terms of valuable servicing in your back office. Recognising areas such as retirement, risk management or estate planning within the client base can be fertile ground for increasing services.

Rather than enticing clients with things like frequent flyer miles, develop a client appreciation day. Clients like to see other clients; they talk and see that they are not alone.

In this structure, each client receives a service level appropriate to its importance to the practice’s future.

In tiered service initiatives, you need to take your client segmentation model and assign a different level of service to each category.

Meeting them annually on a policy anniversary date is not good enough. Clients will think your only interest is in selling them another product. It is suggested that you at least stay in touch quarterly.

By developing a service schedule a year ahead, you can keep track of how many client reviews and other contacts you and your team need to make every year. This allows the team to forward plan and ensure that all clients’ financial physicals are spread evenly throughout the year. Regular contact helps you get reacquainted with clients.

Many advisers think they are delivering a much better service than they really are.

This is perhaps results from being in a comfort zone working for them, but may not for the clients at all. By creating experiences that clients will crave, you ensure that the experience will keep them with you and also give you more referrals.

It also makes the selling process so much easier because prospects will have their expectations met at every step in the six-step planning process. This creates lifetime relationships with happy, satisfied clients.

It takes time to develop a service audit and to re-engineer the service value proposition. In the end, it is well worth all the effort. Once you begin to shift your thinking, you will realise just how powerful it can be to look at your practice from the client’s perspective.

Soon you will be looking at your marketing material, the way you deliver financial advice, the manner clients are contacted, your offices, the reception clients receive, the meeting room and how clients are appreciated.

The further you develop your service proposition, the happier your clients will be and the better your practice will be for it.

The bottom line: having a well thought-out client service strategy that you execute well against your client segments is one of the key areas of excellence for top practices.

Johann Maree is principle member and Practice Management specialist at the Institute of Practice Management