5 Ways to Create, Strengthen and Retain Client Relationships (Part 2)

In the second instalment of this mini-series brought to you by Zurich on 5 key components to establishing, building and retaining client relationships we explore ways to manage the ‘first contact’ with clients and how to use the world’s second largest search engine to enhance the first experience a client can have with you and your business.

(Click here to read the first instalment in this series and click here to read the third and final instalment.)

First Contact! Managing the interaction

The scene: a potential new client has made contact with your business by phone or, for example, a ‘Contact us’ email from your website. That’s a great start but what comes next is crucial to transforming an enquiry to a fully-fledged client.

So ask yourself – do you have a process to manage this aspect of your business’ operations?

Think about these questions in relation to your business:

• When a potential new client phones your office who will she speak to about making an appointment to see you? Is that person your receptionist – your assistant – or does the person speak to you to make an appointment – or – is it whoever picks up the phone?

• Will this person get a sense that your business (at the end of the day, you) cares about them and is prepared to understand their needs in providing professional advice?

• Or do they get a sense that you are too busy for them or that you are really only interested in making a ‘sale’?

• Is the process formal yet welcoming? Or is it so casual that it conveys an impression of a carefree approach to the way you conduct your business?

• When they make their appointment, do you follow-up with written information to keep building on the contact they have had with your firm so far?

• Do they know what to bring to the meeting?  Do they know what to expect in the meeting or will a lack of information make them apprehensive about the first meeting?

If you have handled your initial interaction well, by the time they first meet with you the client should feel like they know you already something more about you than just your name. When they attend the appointment, overall, the discussion should be much less about you and much more about them.
The manner in which you conduct that first meeting in person will be the major influence on whether or not the potential client formally engages you as their adviser.  Please note – it is this first meeting that will set the tone for the remainder of your professional relationship if there is to be one.
During this meeting, your primary objective should be to ask meaningful questions and listening – very carefully – to the answers.  And of course, a good listener knows that the answer to one question very often leads to another question and so on.  Enabling your client to comfortably and securely explain their situation and needs is critical to creating an atmosphere of trust.

Questions – answers – listening – questions . . .

You should be aiming to get to know their financial situation on terms much deeper than their balance sheet and taxation return. Questions, listening and more questions will allow people to feel safe in disclosing more about their goals, their fears and their personality than your website or LinkedIn profile can.

As you might have experienced, some people have not actively considered what they want from life and what they truly want to achieve with their financial resources. A successful first meeting – for the client – should be that your questions and listening helped them to more easily articulate what it is they want to achieve.

Some advisers conduct their initial meetings with clients in a way that explores their personal values and lifestyle more than simply their financial affairs.  Some advisers use systems such as the American Bill Bacharach’s ‘Values-based’ financial planning techniques and yet there are others who do not follow a ‘script’ but who do keep their initial meetings with clients to qualitative aspects of the client’s life, in addition to their financial details.  Such advisers do not ‘sell’ themselves or go into solution mode at that point; they are simply taking in all the information – the spoken and unspoken – the client is providing and beginning to build a deep understanding of the client.

Listen – hear! Seven listening tips

1. Don’t speak when the client is speaking
2. Put the client at ease with your body language – e.g don’t fold your arms – open the palms of your hands – lean forward a little
3. Show you want to listen – look at the person speaking not through them
4. Remove things in your environment which can distract you from what clients will say – e.g. visual and auditory distractions (people walking past your office, noises/voices outside your office)
5. Show empathy with your eyes – some clients have difficult situations and events in their lives and they need to see that you have heard them
6. Be patient – take your time in listening and allow the information to come forward
7. Ask questions and keep listening to what is being said

The Family Tree

A method used by some advisers to stimulate discussion with clients and assist them to more fully understand their potential new client is to write the client’s family tree on a whiteboard in your office.  A whiteboard for some or written notes for others – the medium is not that important.  Rather, the manner in which you ask questions and what you do with the information are the critical issues.
Such a conversation should move the discussion beyond the level of superannuation held and the value and type other assets and liabilities, important though they are, to other important things in their life, like family. List the names and ages of all members of the family and, through delicate, considered, questions try to gain more insight into the client.
The information that emerges from that type of enquiry might allow you to foresee financial issues that could arise in the future such as parents going into a nursing home, risk insurance needs of children or siblings, perhaps even financial implications of becoming care-givers to grandchildren or nieces/nephews

Branching out

Let’s look at this example of a family tree – the clients here are husband and wife, Bob and Mary have three children and their siblings and parents are as follows:

Take a few moments to look at the family tree – what sort of potential life events or issues can you foresee with Bob and Mary?

Quite noticeably the family’s youngest member is Liz’s daughter Molly and the question here is who would care for her if Liz were to die? As a single parent, Liz would likely hope that her parents, Bob and Mary, would support Molly along with the financial implications such a situation would entail. This is clearly something for which the family might prepare in terms of managing the financial risks. While Bob and Mary might decide they could financially support Molly they might also need to implement an insurance policy on Liz’s life.

With Mavis aged 81 the question is what is her health like? Is she still living at home or is she in a nursing home or is that on the horizon? Similar questions apply to Dot and Jim and then there is Lewis and his younger wife.  What plans are in place to care for Joshua if something was to happen to Lewis and Ayla? Who would take care of him? And what are the financial implications of such events?
By drawing the family tree with the clients it enables a discussion around issues which the family might have not previously considered and opens up additional avenues to get to know your clients better and for them to get to know you better through the way in which you listen to their answers.  Importantly, it can help to identify possible future issues and the association risks that might require contingency planning.

If you have asked the right questions and carefully listened to the answers provided, by the end of the first meeting, you should have a good sense of whether or not you can help them and make suggestions as to how to progress the advice process from that point.  Similarly, by the end of that meeting, the client will have seen and heard enough to help them reach a decision on whether or not you are the trustworthy professional person they were hoping you would be.

We’re ‘engaged’ – now what?

If the client says, or you get the sense from their comments, that they wish to engage you, it might be appropriate to seek to arrange the next appointment prior to them leaving your office. Note that it is at this point vital to have a process in place to ensure that you – or the designated staff member – can gather any outstanding information that you will need to prepare your recommendations – the Statement of Advice – and to do so in a timely manner.
During the intervening period between appointments, what processes do you have in place to keep the client connected? If it we look to post implementation phase, what communications process do you have in place to reduce the chance of ‘buyer’s remorse’ emerging?  And looking even further ahead, how will you build on the relationship such as it is at that point?
In the early stages – the time before the clients formally engage your firm as advisers – it really is quite important not to rush the development of the relationship.  Never assume that you have a fully-fledged new client until such time as the agreement, or engagement document, is signed by the client.  In those early meetings and conversations it is wise not to use words that ‘jump ahead’ to an assumption that the client will engage you. The decision is entirely the potential client’s to make – not yours – and as a professional person you need to give them the time, space and authority, to engage you when and if they are happy to.  Read – take it slowly.

If you are looking for an enduring professional relationship with clients it is important to design your processes so that your potential clients get to know you in a series of meetings and contact points.

This brings us to the third element of building a deeper connection with your clients – video.

It’s powerful, it’s massive and it’s very effective

You might be surprised to learn that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and for financial services businesses it is another very powerful medium that you can use to enhance client engagement, especially at the point of first contact. There are over 800 million unique users of YouTube each month and as an initial marketing tool, YouTube videos can help ‘break the ice’ for people who want to know more about you before they meet you.
In initial marketing, you can enable clients to get to know you and do their research in a visual medium that is far more effective than just reading words. As part of your ongoing relationships with your clients, you can also use video to connect with them in a personal way between your meetings and phone calls.

Using video in your initial marketing

When people search for information on businesses or individuals, they will often start with Google then click on the YouTube video links in the search results.
As mentioned earlier, people are looking for a financial adviser with whom they can feel comfortable and can trust and as such it follows that they might respond well to a medium in which they can use their auditory and visual senses to process information rather than simply cognitive in reading the written word.  A potential client will likely gain a better insight to you by watching and hearing you speak than just through reading information about you and your business.
However, if you choose to create a promotional video, be careful not to simply record a copy of your marketing brochure, or the like, as we have seen on some occasions.  The very best promotional videos about you focus on who you are and why you do what you do with a very low emphasis on what you do.

Using video post engagement

You can also use video to enhance your relationships with your clients after they engage you. The most powerful time for you to build your relationship with your client is the time you spend face-to-face. And yet the human brain can only take in so much at any given time. Your clients could be totally engaged in what you are saying, and engaged with their financial plan, but when they leave the office, other aspects of their lives take precedent and before you (and they) know it, it will be twelve months since you last met with them.
Some advisers are using video to help keep clients engaged between meetings. For example, you might choose to record some technical or educational videos to help clients understand some of the strategies you are deploying for them. Many advisers have great ways of explaining certain concepts and find themselves sometimes repeating the explanation several times. While some clients prefer an in-person explanation, others might – if given the opportunity – prefer to be able to view the information in a format such as video which they can replay from home.
By recording your explanation on video it will both enable your clients to refresh their understanding of the technical concepts of the recommendations explained by you.
On a more personal level, you can also record messages to individual clients using video. Imagine your client has just left your office after having their financial planning review meeting – a meeting that was heavy with content and detail and you have additional matters to work on before they return to your office for the next meeting.  In regard the detail at the most recent meeting, one option is to video record yourself presenting the information again – to camera – recapping briefly what you discussed in the meeting, explaining what happens next and remind them of what they need to do before the next meeting.
You can do this very simply using a webcam or an inexpensive video camera in the same office you met with them.

Remember this

In a study at the University of Texas, Metcalf, T. (1997) concluded that the level of information retention in human being is largely dependent upon the sensory receptors, or combination thereof, through which they gain the information.

In the study Metcalf identified that the highest level of retention was achieved when people received information both aurally and visually – hearing and sight.  This research suggests that the use of video presentation is a perfect match for increasing the level of information retention by both potential clients and actual clients.

In our third and final article in this mini-series, we will guide you through how to produce your own to-camera videos and where to post them so potential clients can find them. We’ll also take a look at social media and how it might help you and we’ll finish off with ways to ensure your clients can receive service that really is about them.

Note: The accreditation for this CPD article is no longer current. Please visit our CPD section for current CPD quizzes.