POLL: Advisers, what do you wear to client meetings?
I just listened to the latest episode of the Upfront podcast where financial adviser and host Emmanuel Asuquo chats with personal branding expert Jennifer Holloway. It was a fascinating discussion about how the choices you make with attire ultimately influence the level of trust your clients have in your service. The interesting part to me, at least, was not whether you should or shouldn't wear a hoodie to meetings but how consistent wearing said hoodie is with your brand. So I want to know from the advisers here – what do you wear to client meetings and what impression do you think clients have of what you're wearing? Do you have any stories of mistaken first impressions?How do you ensure a consistent client experience?
In follow up to my article No adviser is an island, I'd love to know what practices are doing to keep the client experience front of mind for everyone in the team? How do you ensure the clients receive a cohesive experience from everyone they encounter in your practice?Creating your vibe
You need one thing above everything else, to create a vibe which is genuine and personal for your clients – you must truly know your clients. Unfortunately, it’s our experience that very few practices are taking full advantage of their CRM functionality to capture the information they need to create that key personal, relationship building information. And, even if it’s being collected at the onboarding stage, few practices deliberately maintain this information. Simple info such as their children’ names (and their occupation or education level), details of the client’s preference for morning or evening meetings, coffee or tea, in-person or virtual meetings, wine or the ballet or both (will allow you to provide interesting content for your communications, plan events which appeal and so on), what the client is planning to do once the retire, when’s their next major holiday and so on. In other words - the ‘life stuff’. What info do you collect (and maintain) to build meaningful, long term relationships with your clients?AMA: I’m Jessica Lamb, director of Practice Dynamix, Ask Me Anything!
With over 15 years of experience in the financial planning industry and experience working with over 350 advice practices around Australia, I help bring businesses into the future. On Wednesday 24th April from 11am to 11:30am, I will be available to answer any burning questions you might have. Whether it’s about utilising the power of technology in the advice process, integrating sound business processes or uncovering Xplan’s hidden gems – start popping in your questions below and Ask Me Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions down below or in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at Jessica-Lamb .What are the top 3 things you do in your practice to provide a great client experience?
I loved Kim-Payne 's latest video on Baselines, blind spots and black holes in the client experience. It can get so overwhelming to know where to start sometimes, focusing on those moments that really matter is a great approach. Have you watched the video? I'm keen to hear what top 3 things you do in your practice to excite and delight your clients?
Overlaying key life events against portfolio balance reports
We have been discussing as a team if it would be more meaningful for clients for us to overlay key life events (the purchase of a house, paying for a child's wedding, receiving an inheritance etc) over a Portfolio Balance report so the clients have some context as to the drops and peaks in their portfolio balance over a period of time. Obviously we could capture key life events as a data point moving forwards and to some degree populate them looking backwards as well, but thought it would be an interesting addition for our clients. Interested to hear of any other firms taking this approach, and how you go about it?
Client reviews
G'day All There is always a lot of focus on new client engagement and SOA production. Given most practices have way more ongoing clients than new, how are you finding the process of arranging review meetings and preparing review documentation? Could this area and the report we provide clients at review time do with some focus?
