In the last two years, you must have increased your focus on completing the KYC formalities of investors and completing your KYD owing to regulatory directives. These activities must have been time-consuming but necessary for your practice. However, you need to ensure that the KYC and KYD efforts do not take away your focus from the most important ‘D’ that is delighting your customer.
In the advisory business, the client is your main brand ambassador. Happy clients are likely to continue your service as well as refer you to their friends and family. In the article, we share a few tips on wowing your customers and keeping them delighted.
Give a personalised experience
The client should view you as a friend not just an advisor. One way to do that is giving your clients a quick call regularly to ask them how they are doing. You should also remember their key likes; if you come across any articles that they may enjoy, you can quickly forward them to your client. When you connect with your clients without any business related work and demonstrate that you remember the information they have shared with you, the client starts viewing you as a friend as well as an advisor.
Unexpected gestures, which bring a smile
You can wow the customers by sending small-personalised mementos. For example, many of your clients might be investing for achieving a goal. Sending them a small hand-written note to celebrate the day they committed to invest for the goal or sending them a small gift to congratulate them on achieving their goal builds a positive recall.
Reward loyalty
It is a well-known fact that acquiring new clients is more expensive than servicing existing clients. Hence, it is important to let your long-term clients know that you value them. To communicate your appreciation you can take them out for a coffee, wish them on important dates such as anniversary, birthday, send a thank you note to them commemorating the day they became your client. Such small tokens of appreciation make your client realise that you value them.
Resolve their queries quickly
Quickly solving client problems goes a long way in creating a positive client experience. Ideally, solving client queries within two business days demonstrates efficiency. However, some require a significant amount of work. In this case, you need to communicate to your clients that you are working on the resolution. Additionally, you can share the approximate time it would take to resolve the issue. Once your clients have a rough time-frame they do not get agitated wondering why their problem is not resolved yet.
Anticipate their needs
Anticipate the likely future needs of your clients and make investment suggestions accordingly. Being a family advisor, you might be acquainted with the family. You can use this information to predict the client’s future goals and proactively advise him to start investing towards these goals. You should also keep track of any likely financial commitment of your client such as payment of college fees and accordingly advise them to start rebalancing the portfolio.
Paint a realistic picture
As an advisor, your role extends beyond giving investment advice. You also need to manage client expectations. Extreme markets be it a rally or a slump invoke strong investor emotions. You need to help your clients understand that markets are cyclical. While recommending an investment, share returns in different market scenarios. This helps them have a realistic understanding of risk and returns. Moreover, your clients do not panic in case of any unexpected market movement.
Take regular feedback
Regular client feedback helps you understand what are you doing right and what you are doing wrong. This gives you an opportunity to grow on your strengths and improve on the weak areas. You can ask clients to share a quick feedback by email. Alternatively, after a client meeting you can ask them if they have any problems with your services.
