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Here are 14 tips your client service team can implement today and make your clients fall in love with your firm.
1. Know Your Value Proposition
One of the biggest mistakes in a value proposition is that client service teams are unable to communicate the message. Practice your message daily until you can recite it in one or two sentences - who you serve, what your business does, and why it is valuable.
2. Be Available
When a client calls, be available. Return phone calls as soon as you can even if you don’t have answers to their questions. Let clients know you are working on a solution and provide a timeframe for the answer.
3. Be Adaptable
Each client is different and faces unique challenges and needs. Be aware their needs may change from week to week. Proactively ask clients if any changes have taken place that you should be aware of.
4. Let Clients Get to Know You
Develop relationships with clients. When the timing is right, identify common interests and share information about yourself without becoming too personal. Let them know about an upcoming trip or organizational engagement. This provides another way for clients to connect with you and strengthen your ties.
5. Practice Active Listening
Have you ever had a conversation and wondered if the other person was listening to you? Listening has a significant impact on the relationship quality you have with your clients. Improve your listening skills by acknowledging with a nod of your head or a simple phrase stating, “I hear you.”
6. Define the Lifecycle of Each Client
Identify each stage a client will move through with your firm and assign responsibility to each phase. Communicate the transitions clearly to clients so there are no surprises when they move from working with an advisor to a client service associate.
7. Follow-Up After a Problem is Resolved
A quick phone call or an email is an excellent way to let clients know you’re on their side and to ensure clients are satisfied with your service.
8. Provide Lots of Ways to be Contacted
Cater to your clients by providing a means for them to connect with you based on their preferred method of communication whether it be email, phone, skype, or in person.
9. Ask Clients, “How Can We Do Better?”
Make it a part of regular conversation to ask each client how you can do better. Create an easy way for clients to give you feedback through a client service survey or a form on your website. Clients appreciate the opportunity to chime in and, in turn, it shows you value their opinion.
10. Share Interesting Content with Clients Every Day
Clients rely on your knowledge about the products and services you offer. Stay abreast of industry news and share updates with your clients on a daily basis. Go a step further and send an article just for fun that will resonate with your clients.
11. Maintain Relationships and Ask For Their Opinion
Check in with your top clients on a monthly basis. Inquire about their week, how they are feeling, or ask their opinion on a gift you are contemplating buying for a friend. You will learn more about things they like.
12. Commit Random Acts of Kindness and Deliver
Do you know the origin of random acts of kindness? Anne Herbert is said to have once written, “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” on a place mat in a restaurant.¹ Random acts of kindness are a means by which we deliberately attempt to brighten another person’s day. Do something thoughtful for a client; send a handwritten note, call them on their birthday, or congratulate them on their anniversary.
13. Share Your Client Service Expertise with Your Peers
When you find something new that helps clients, write it down and share it with your team.
14. Always Say, “Thank-You”
Have you ever left a place of business after making a purchase only to have no one say thank you? Oh boy, I have, and it leaves you feeling like the business just did you a favor! Always, always, always, thank your clients. If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t have your job.
1-Wikipedia, Random act of kindness; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness