We are all told to offer great client service. Right? But… are we ever told how to measure it? If you cannot measure it, how can you track improvements? So what IS great client service?
Category 1 - Setting Clear Expectations: Client satisfaction equals perception minus expectations. This gives you a huge advantage in meeting expectations, because you set them yourself. When should clients expect a return call? How often will you meet? Will you keep clients updated on money movements, check requests, etc? You can measure your response time, your meeting cadence and other standards. The best way to set expectations is to deliver a written set of engagement standards up-front. But… You need to constantly reset expectations.
Category 2 - Being Responsive to Client Requests and Messages: The responsiveness formula is that clients value availability, compassion and ability (expertise) in that order. Recognize that clients don’t have any way to measure your expertise or the value of your advice. Your willingness to respond promptly and ‘caringly’ is all they can evaluate about your service offering. It’s not enough to simply fulfill client requests. (After a check request has been handled, update the client with a phone call to make sure it was received.) This can be tracked as well. Monitor how long it takes to return calls, and the time required to handle check requests and other service opportunities. Proactive responsiveness might include periodic check-ins—and these can replace the annual meeting.
Category 3 - Creating Pleasant Client Interactions: The client interaction formula: It is not so much what you do, as how you do it. Understand clients’ communication preferences, contact them during the onboarding process to explain anything that might be unfamiliar, and again to see if they’re comfortable with how things were handled. Communicate in jargon less English. Meet clients, not in an office or a conference room, but in a living room-like environment. Measuring means creating CRM fields for communication preferences. Role-play client meetings to eliminate jargon. How is the phone being answered?
Category 4 - Providing High-Quality Professional Advice: The advice formula: Know your stuff + know how to apply it + always give advice in the best interests of the client. This is the most important aspect of your service. But… recognize that this is the hardest for clients to evaluate.
- Applications: Do you have a proactive way to stay on top of client issues? Constantly educate clients about possible market volatility. Provide out-of-the-box services: net weaving, helping with the loan application process on a new home purchase, etc.
- Measurement: collect data on how often clients follow (or not) your recommendations. Create a collaborative planning experience with significant input from the client on the appropriate recommendations. Maintain a culture of continuous leaning; document professional training.
Category 5: Exhibit Exemplary Conduct and Character: Being honest should be a given. Create a culture where client progress toward goals is paramount. The formula for mitigating the cost of a mistake: the cost of fixing a mistake increases dramatically over time. Mistake mitigation is a huge process challenge. The process for delivering a proper apology when a client becomes aware of a mistake. Measurement and improvement: create internal systems for reporting errors. Create error-checking processes for all client outputs.
Category 6: Visibly Care About Clients and Their Welfare: This is the differentiator between a merely satisfied client and an engaged client. This may be the single most important (and visible) of the service component. It means a ‘more than business’ relationship. Applications include active listening, celebrating client milestones, understanding the family and personal situation, and perhaps (new pioneering approach) replace annual/quarterly meetings with check-in calls—and when there’s a check request, turn it into a conversation. Send a travel book when clients are about to embark on a vacation trip. Measure and track your touchpoints with clients. Were they meaningful interactions? (Develop criteria.)
As you unravel the messy concept of ‘client service’ into well-defined components, you will see opportunities define appropriate metrics and track results over time. Collect client feedback on what aspects of your service they value most, and create more touchpoints around those aspects.
Meet Bob Veres, Editor & Publisher I Inside Information
Bob Veres is editor and publisher of the Inside Information guide to trends and innovations in the profession, author of The New Profession, and (most recently) A Behind the Scenes History of the Financial Planning Profession.
As a journalist/commentator, he has won several national awards, including the Jesse H. Neal Award from the American Business Media group, considered the most prestigious editorial honor in the field of specialized journalism, and the Azbee Award of Excellence from the American Society of Business Press Editors.
Over his 44-year career in the financial services world, Mr. Veres has worked as editor of Financial Planning magazine; as a contributing editor to the Journal of Financial Planning; as a columnist and editor-at-large of Investment Advisor magazine; and as editor of Morningstar’s advisor web site: MorningstarAdvisor.com. He is a sought-after speaker for many of the planning world’s most important professional conferences.
In addition, Mr. Veres co-produces the Insider’s Forum conference for independent financial advisory firms, and co-authors the annual T3/Inside Information Technology Survey.
Mr. Veres has been named one of the most influential people in the financial planning profession by Investment Advisor magazine and Financial Planning magazine, was granted the Special Achievement Award for service to the profession by the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, and the Heart of Financial Planning Distinguished Service Award from the Denver-based Financial Planning Association.
In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Veres has authored five novels: Song of the Universe, The Root of All Evil, Conversations With My Daughter, South of Maya and The Galactic Taxi Service.
