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Satisfaction Is Not Enough
“Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.” ― Ken Blanchard
Your client service promise must provide an end-to-end client experience that ensures nothing falls through the cracks so that your client has an overriding sense of financial well-being. The first steps are to define and implement your six-core client-facing processes:
- Intake Process
- Financial Planning Process
- Risk Management Process
- Investment Planning Process
- Client Service Process
- Client Planning and Review Meeting Process
Every client you are willing to accept to your practice needs to receive an appropriate version of these processes based on their needs, the deliverables they deserve, their value to the business, and the fees you charge in compensation for the value you deliver.
Client loyalty and retention based on “delighting” clients has significant value.
The Kano Model points out that which pleased and even delighted the client yesterday becomes a basic expectation today. Delighting clients and solidifying their loyalty takes more and more effort and cost over time.
Opportunities to delight the client come from at least three sources:
- Improved execution
- Enhanced financial services.
- Enhanced non-financial services.
Generate Client Loyalty and Advocacy
The Client Service process represents a summary of many of the deliverables which are intended to be presented formally to your clients as your “promise” to them of your services—hence, your “Client Service Promise.” This promise is a key part of generating loyalty and advocacy from your client, as well as differentiating you as a financial advisor. The set of deliverables is rarely put together in a formal, written manner and your written promise is also rarely presented formally to the client by FAs.
There are five functions in your Client Service Promise that address client deliverables:
- Planning
- Investing
- Communications
- Extended Services
- For Internal Notation Only— These are service reminders for the FA such as occasion cards, meal functions, gifts, etc.
The primary pushback has been a concern about putting the promise in writing. We agree that if the advisor does not intend to deliver some component of the promise it should not be included. However, if it is included, it needs to be delivered. Clients would have some expectations for the fees they pay, some or all of what you promise may have been discussed in your sales process.