Keeping clients happy and engaged is critical to the survival of any financial advisory practice. Which is why advisors place so much emphasis on the client experience. Despite all the hype around driving client experience, many practices fail to deliver a quality experience consistently to every client. The inconsistencies can occur across a practice, with one client receiving a stellar experience while another is continually overlooked. Inconsistencies can also occur throughout the relationship of each client when they receive irregular communication and a different experience with each meeting.
Across the board, that lack of consistency undermines the client’s trust and impacts their overall impression of the firm. The result is decreased loyalty, dissatisfied clients, missed opportunities to the firm, and a lack of referrals to drive organic growth. Even if the practice has different tiers of service for different client segments, it’s important to properly set and meet expectations for the client each and every time. Clients should know how often they will hear from you, what to expect when they do, how a meeting will go, and what to do if they have questions or concerns to share. They should never be left guessing as to when they will hear from you and what to expect when they do. The experience should be the same with every team member as well, so that even if a client is serviced by more than one advisor, they still receive the same experience no matter who delivered it.
The key to delivering a consistent quality client experience lies in the systems and processes that drive the engine of the practice. Systems are the things you use to run your practice. Things such as technology like CRM and financial planning software, as well as your HR and staff development mechanisms serve as systems for your practice. The processes are the things you do to make the systems run. This includes having a process for onboarding clients, having a process for communicating with clients, utilizing checklists and theme meetings, and other key processes. Many practices operate without a core set of systems and processes. Others have these items, but they aren’t being utilized by all members of the practice, either because they don’t know about them or because they weren’t properly trained and held accountable for their use. In either case, the result is an inconsistent experience for every client.
This happens for many reasons. For one thing, advisors excel at the client relationship, but not all have the practice management know-how and experience to create the necessary systems and processes to run the practice. Advisors are also very busy, often wearing many hats especially as they transition from a solo advisor to the leader of an enterprise. That is why many advisors leverage the expertise and resources of a practice management consultant. Not only can they provide the know-how to establish the right systems and processes to drive a consistent client experience, but they can also provide the manpower to get the systems up and running and train your staff on how to use and maintain them. Some consultants can also provide the accountability framework necessary to keep systems working and ensure that everyone is delivering and performing at the same level.
A happy client is the foundation of a successful practice. To keep them happy, make sure that you have the right systems and processes in place to deliver a consistent client experience. If you don’t have the expertise and resources in-house to develop, implement, and manage those systems, then leverage a practice management consultant. In either case, investing in the mechanisms that deliver your client experience will pay you back with loyal clients, stable income, and more opportunities to grow.
Deliver a Superior Client Experience
Our Client Experience service is designed to help you develop the systems and processes to meet and exceed client expectations. When you work with Key Management Group, you not only get our library of best practices, you get a dedicated Practice Management Coach to help you implement the new processes with your team.
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