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There are times when all we want is for someone to tell us that everything is going to be ok. And there are other times, when ‘hearing it’ and ‘believing it’ are two very different things.
Last week I shared a video, after reading yet another social post on how to communicate with clients during uncertain times. It seems to have struck a chord!
In that video, which you can access below, I asked two simple questions. When things feel 'uncertain' and you reach out to clients:
- Are you leading with understanding or reassurance?
- Are you leading with empathy or expertise?
Because you’re the expert, it’s likely that your ‘go to’ strategy is to lean on that expertise, as a way to reassure your clients. That may mean sharing a video, article or market commentary, something you believe will reassure clients and that you can share efficiently.
But doing so assumes you fully understand how your client is feeling. What if you’re providing factually correct insights that don’t reflect the client’s underlying concerns? It may not hurt, but it probably won’t help.
Reassurance assumes understanding.
Your Action Plan
Today is all about taking action. One way to do that is to consider a framework we refer to as ‘reveal and respond’.
- Reveal how the client is feeling
- Respond with relevant support or insights
You can do that by inviting all of your clients to take two minutes to share how they are feeling via a quick ‘pulse poll’.
Make It Personal
I know that the idea of a poll can feel ‘cold’, particularly when we're trying to understand how people are feeling. But that doesn’t have to be the case if you help clients understand how their responses will help you provide meaningful support and both the invitation and questions are written in a way that feel “like you”. If the outreach is genuine, it won’t feel cold.
Ask the Right Questions
Simply by asking the right questions you’re demonstrating that you care, and providing clients with a way to reveal all the ways in which they are impacted or anticipate being impacted. That allows you to respond with relevant insights or outreach and creates real engagement.
Among the questions to consider:
- Confidence. As they think about their goals, how would they rate their current level of financial security, control, confidence and clarity about the future?
- Concerns. How would they rate a set of specific concerns? Those might include obvious concerns such as the impact of market volatility on their portfolio. But it might also include concerns such as losing a job, having to change their vision for retirement, managing the stress of general uncertainty, being a strong leader to their team when they may not feel strong or the fear of losing revenue, income or a business.
- Core Values. You can ask questions that remind clients about what is most important and how little those things are impacted by the markets. Consider the following. "What are the things that are most important to you? Do you believe those things will be impacted by the current uncertainty?"
If you are inviting clients to share how they are feeling, make sure you invite input from both partners in a couple (for obvious reasons).
A Caution
You can now reach out in a meaningful way, based on the true needs of your clients. Whatever you do, ensure there is a next suggested action. The only thing worse than not asking clients how they are feeling is to ask and then ignore the response.
At a minimum, consider the following:
- Invite them to book a meeting to discuss how they are feeling
- Proactively reach out to those who are very concerned to book a time to connect
- Share links to articles, blogs, videos or podcasts that tie back to the concerns you asked about
- Let them know you’ll add the input to the next meeting agenda
In the end, true reassurance starts with a clear understanding of the problem. Supporting clients means leaving assumptions at the door.