1. business and industrial

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citywire.co.uk/adviser
27 September 2010
New Model Business
Consultant view
How to create a great client experience
The first in a series of tips for making sure clients you deal with have a good experience
looks at the usefulness of being able to judge how they view your business
Brett Davidson
How to see through your clients’ eyes
FP Advance
The bravest thing you can do in your business
is to stand back to look at it through your clients’
eyes. What is it they are buying? Why are you
the one to give them what they need? How are
you or can you be remarkable? What will make
them refer you to others without you having
to ask them?
Sadly the majority of advisers never ask their
clients what they want from the business. Data
from the latest FP Advance Business Fitness
Report shows that only 43% of firms have
formally asked their clients how they feel about
the services they receive.
Don’t be afraid to ask
It is a bit scary to ask clients to evaluate your
performance. You may be concerned that you will
be found wanting; but you need not be. In most
cases clients will appreciate being asked.
If you find out that things are not as they
should be, you can fix them. Strong customer
relationships are often created from addressing
a mistake or shortcoming openly and honestly, so
do not fear the feedback.
Score your performance
To get started on improving your client
experience, you have to ask yourself questions
and score your performance:
* How many of your top clients can articulate
what it is you do for them?
* Can they easily explain your magic to others?
* Have you segmented your client book and know
which ones you want to keep, the ones you can
grow and the ones you can lose?
Assess your client experience
What is your client experience like at the
moment? This experience is connected to how
you answer the phone, what your office looks
and feels like, your logo, your website, your space
on Unbiased, how you dress, how you handle
your first meeting, your documentation and
your results.
The first step in creating a great client
experience has to come from a harder look at
who you are and what you do, as seen and felt by
your clients.
Doing this work well will pay you back 100-fold.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
New Model Adviser®
a) Ask your clients and staff for feedback
Conduct a rigorous audit. Ask your staff for direct
feedback on the quality of what you do and some
ideas for improvement. The back office usually has
a better perspective than the advisers at the
coalface and can therefore be a great place to get
the ball rolling.
b) Put yourself in your client’s shoes
If you have more than one adviser in your business
take each other through your process from first
contact to annual review and see how it feels. If you
are the sole adviser, ask a spouse, friend or family
member to act as a client and give you feedback on
how it all feels for them.
Act as your own client. Work out how you feel
when the phone is answered, when you look at your
website and when you walk through the door to
your offices and decide to put your vast wealth in
your capable hands. Would you deal with you? How
confident are you that you are in the right place?
Would you say: ‘Wow! I just have to get some of
that?’
One or two clients may know of the value you add
but do all of your client ‘touch points’ add up to
that value?
c) Look at what others are doing
Do not just look at other advisory firms; they are
not a good comparison. Look at banks, lawyers,
accountants, supermarkets, top end retailers, on
and offline, Harrods, Paul Smith, Virgin, wherever
your clients are likely to be spending their hardearned cash.
This will give you a flavour of what you are up
against and what your clients and potential clients
are bombarded with every day. The choices are
becoming greater, tastes more exclusive, decisions
harder yet more immediate. This is where you have
to compete to succeed.
d) You have to look great
You have to have instant appeal. What you do for
your clients has to be obvious and unfortunately
the technical quality of your advice cannot be easily
recognised by clients. Instead they may compare
you to the private bank they deal with which looks
and smells great when judged by the external look
and feel of the business.
Most new model advisers have the substance,
but not the style, whereas many of your
competitors are just the opposite (lots of style but
not much substance). As a client, I know which one
I would rather deal with but I may never get the
chance if you cannot attract me to meet with you
in the first place and this is why you have to look
great (not just good, or very good).
Grab a pen right now and complete Table 1,
scoring yourself from 1 to 10. What’s ‘wow!’; what’s
working OK; what needs a complete rethink? Has
your client experience been designed for the
Financial Services Authority or the customer?
Score your performance
Your business
Score out of 10
Your brand (Is it just a logo?
Does it have a personality?)
Your first point of contact
Website
Telephone answering
Office
Advice process
Investment philosophy
Client follow up
Ongoing review service
Ongoing client communication
strategy
Networking, connecting,
engaging and PR
e) Enlist expert help
You cannot expect to do it all yourself. You would
not develop your own software, so why do your own
marketing and branding work? Design and
marketing is a craft, and where you see it done well,
you see firms soar.
By standing back and answering some of these
searching questions, you have a brief, which shows
what you need to work on. To succeed, you have to
make it a priority. By recruiting expert help, you can
move faster and be seen in the same light as other
top brands by your clients. If you can make yourself
look stunning, you become the obvious choice for
your hot prospects.
‘These days you have to stand out in order to be
outstanding,’ says Carrie Bendall, marketing
strategist at inspiredc.co.uk. ‘You have a lot of
competition. Not from other advisers but from all
the hard hitting and beautiful sales images your
clients are seeing every day. Your look and feel is a
huge part of your customer experience.’
45
4 October 2010
citywire.co.uk/adviser
Baby boomer Page 46 >>>
Why advisers need to be Qrops-savvy
Consultant view
Repeat after me: ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’
In the second of our series on improving customer experience, we look at the importance of letting
clients know just how hard you work for them – a seemingly obvious tip but one that is often ignored
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
Improving the client’s experience of what you do is
very different to improving what you do. The former is
about perception, while the latter is about actual
quality. Don’t be misled, it is just a given that you know
your stuff and do all your work to the highest
technical standards so it will stand the test of time.
However, to make people appreciate the quality, you
have to ensure that you don’t let your work go
unnoticed and this means telling clients what you are
doing for them regularly.
This tip is so painfully obvious that almost no one
actually does anything about it.
There are obvious situations in your client work in
which the client can understand exactly what you have
done. For example, you complete some paperwork to
purchase investments on behalf of the client and tell
them the whole process will take about four weeks to
complete. If the completion advice arrives at the
client’s home in about four weeks they can perceive
some value – you do what you say you will do.
Demonstrable value
Consider a situation in which this same four-week
time frame has been promised to a client but behind
the scenes there are major problems with getting
the funds released by the old provider. You and your
team work tirelessly, faxing new requested
information, calling senior people within the
organisation and then when the funds are released
get a fast-track completion with the new
provider because you want to meet the
deadline promised to the client. If the
completion advice arrives at the
client’s home in about four weeks
they can perceive some value –
you do what you say you will do
(but nothing more).
In both instances, the
client is probably happy
enough, but in the
second example an
opportunity has been
missed to create an
extra perception
of value.
Smart firms will
make sure they
have a steady
stream of
communication
with the client during
the implementation process
that keeps them updated. It could be
as simple as a two-sentence weekly update via
email,
a phone call from your administration team or
even access to a ‘Where is your job up to?’ area
on the website.
When there are problems, there is an even greater
opportunity for you to really demonstrate the value
you add behind the scenes. By letting the client into
some of the difficulties you face, you can (quite
legitimately) help them understand why they are better
off with someone helping them through the process.
When these things are being sorted out, the
business itself is constantly aware of where jobs are
up to and what has been done each day. For the
client, though, silence can feel like you are doing
nothing, so don’t go quiet. Mix up the communication
between emails and phone calls or even a quick text
to the client’s mobile. If your clients are time poor,
stress that your communication requires no
response, but is just to keep them updated.
A friend of mine purchased a bespoke suit
recently and the tailor emailed him every two weeks
to say how things were progressing. How is your
client communication throughout the
implementation process?
Some firms even email clients with a monthly
summary of all the behind-the-scenes work they do
on their behalf every month, just to make sure
nothing goes unnoticed. Here are a few examples of
the things they communicate to clients:
l Sorting out administration problems with
investment companies, wraps and life insurers – this
is self-explanatory.
l Liaising with the client’s accountants and lawyers
– a quick call to the client after you have attended
to some business with their other professional
advisers makes them feel like everyone is working
together on their behalf. If you make the call to the
client first (before the lawyer or accountant), you
get the kudos.
l Attending investment updates, technical days and
industry conferences – this can provide an
opportunity to communicate with the client
regarding a potential new strategy or approach. Why
not call some of your top clients after the seminar
to let them know you have seen something that
might be of value to them. By doing it as soon as you
discover it, you could have the jump on any other
advisers the client deals with who are not as good
on the communication front. They will perceive you
as cutting-edge and first to market.
l Correcting errors on statements for investments
or insurance policies – don’t just get them corrected.
Correct them and tell the client what value that has
added to them in cash (wherever possible).
l Researching new investment options – let them
know when the investment committee within your
firm meets and what the latest thoughts are, even if
these are ‘no change at present’.
l Researching new technical solutions as legislation
changes – when something happens that advantages
or disadvantages your client because of changes in
legislation, let them know as soon as possible.
Unsung efforts
If clients don’t know this is part of what you do for
them, they can’t value it. While many of these things
won’t make it on to the list of the greatest things you
ever did for your clients (in your mind), many clients
really value this sort of stuff because it makes
their life more pleasurable. Sorting out
problems with any large company can be a
real pain, especially when you do it once
in a blue moon. So removing this
hassle from the management of a
client’s financial affairs can be
more valuable than you might
imagine – particularly for the
time-poor client.
By making sure your work
doesn’t go unnoticed, you
increase the perception of
value for your clients,
which improves the
client experience. Even
more than that, it
becomes referable.
Brett Davidson is chief
executive of FP Advance
New Model Adviser®
42
citywire.co.uk/adviser
11 October 2010
New Model Business
Consultant view
The importance of keeping up appearances
The third of an ongoing series aimed at improving the customer experience looks at how creating a
perception of quality is vital when you are selling a service rather than a tangible product
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
Creating a great customer experience surely has to
sit at the core of any service-based business. When
you do not actually sell anything that buyers can see
touch and feel, the quality of your service experience
had better be good.
The vast majority of advisers still cling to the
notion that this is a people business and therefore it
is up to the efforts of the adviser. While you will not
hear any argument from me about the importance
of people in the financial planning process, there is
more that can be done to increase the client’s
perception of your quality and their experience of
receiving advice from your business.
Selling a service is different to selling a physical
product in four ways:
1) Intangibility
Services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or
smelled before they are purchased.
2) Inseparability
Services cannot be separated from their providers.
The person that actually deals with the client has a
major impact on the perception of quality.
3) Variability
The quality of a service may vary greatly depending
on who provides the service and when, where and
how the services are provided.
4) Perishability
Services cannot generally be stored for later use or
sale. The value of advice perishes regardless of
whether the client implements it or not.
These are all true for advisory firms. Most
advisers do a first meeting with a prospective client
that involves a face-to-face discussion about what
the client is looking for and how the adviser can help.
This is often conducted at the client’s home or
office (not the adviser’s) and a notepad is used to
draw some examples or concepts for the client.
Clients generally have no idea what they will get at
the end of that meeting. Their decision to purchase
will be based on a range of other factors that act as
a proxy for the firm’s quality. As a result, smart
service companies (and advisers) use a variety of
methods to increase the tangibility of their offering.
Branding
A strong brand image can be created by a marketing
and design team. The brand needs to have a style
New Model Adviser®
Industry example: ‘The welcome book’
Bloomsbury Financial Planning understands client
experience and is working hard to improve this
aspect of its business every day.
When a client first makes contact with
Bloomsbury they are screened for suitability on the
telephone. If they meet the criteria the firm has
established they are offered a first meeting at
Bloomsbury’s offices in the City.
After the meeting is confirmed the prospective
client is sent a ‘welcome book’ that contains all the
information they will need to understand
Bloomsbury. This will contain directions; biographies
of the team and what role they perform in servicing
clients; the company’s approach to planning; and an
overview of the investment philosophy, as a means
of starting the education process.
Industry data - why having a website matters
Key value driver
% of
Profit per
practices principal
Website presence
No
12%
£36,964
Yes
88%
£110,567
Source: FP Advance Business Fitness Report
and personality all of its own and one that reflects
you and your beliefs. Big brands spend so much time
on making their offices, website and marketing of a
high quality because, rightly or wrongly, clients
transfer the quality of those materials (in their
minds) into the quality of the advice.
Website
Once the brand image is established a website is a
cost-effective way to present this image for new
prospective clients. It also allows existing clients to
get a sense of where you sit in the advice landscape.
A more attractive website will send a message that
you are a better quality firm. This will almost
certainly affect your ability to push your pricing
upwards when a prospective client comes in.
Collateral
Any sales collateral should reinforce the same
quality message. There is no point having a great
website and poor collateral. Things such as a first
meeting storyboard (branded in PowerPoint),
brochures, reports, fonts, paper quality and email
signatures must be consistent with the brand image.
The welcome book is not sent out in a letter or as
a few loose leaf pages but is presented in a highquality binder that is strongly branded and sits
perfectly with Bloomsbury’s top-end positioning.
This achieves several outcomes:
lIt creates a positive first impression because of
the high-quality presentation style.
lIt answers any of the client’s obvious questions
and shows that Bloomsbury has thought about
its service.
lIt differentiates the business immediately from
the competition in that no one else sends out a
welcome book.
lIt establishes an expectation of quality and fee
levels before the client has even set foot in the
office, let alone met with an adviser.
Office
Your office quality should be a proxy for your advice
quality and is a key part of positioning your business
with the client before you even meet them for the
first time. Wherever possible, client meetings should
be held in your office rather than at their office or
home. This is a controversial view in some circles but
it is a key part of creating a good client experience.
(We will deal with this specifically later in the series.)
Naming
Another way to make your service more tangible and
differentiated from the competition is to ‘name’ key
pieces of technology or processes that you use. For
example, many firms are using cashflow modelling
software. One firm we work with calls it their
‘scenario planner’. Others have given it a name that
makes sense to their clients and makes it feel unique
to their business. Other firms have named the sixstep financial planning process to mark them out
them from the pack and create a sense of
something special within their business process.
Even wrap platforms are not referred to as such
in front of clients in the best firms and are given a
client-friendly language.
All of these things are a proxy for your quality of
advice. If they represent your brand at the level you
want to project to clients, they become a powerful
force for helping clients position you in terms of
quality and price. No one wants to pay good money to
a business that looks a bit lowbrow. Conversely, no
one believes that a truly great firm can deliver a top
quality service on the cheap – it just lacks credibility.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
47
18 October 2010
citywire.co.uk/adviser
Baby boomer Page 48 >>>
Public sector will need guidance on pensions
Consultant view
Always demonstrate your value in cash
The fourth of a series on how to create a great client experience recommends advisers take every
opportunity to tell customers how much money they can add to their bank balances
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
One way to enhance the client experience is to
demonstrate the value of what you deliver in cold
hard cash wherever possible.
Like most good ideas, this is an obvious one that
most advisers do not put into action and then they
wonder why no-one wants to pay them a decent fee
for their work.
Whenever you are speaking with a client or
prospective client, there arises the difficult issue of
explaining the value they will receive from your
future work.
As outlined in last week’s article, The importance
of keeping up appearances (page 42, 11 October),
financial advice is intangible. Successful advisers try
to make the value added more tangible by explaining
it in cash whenever they can.
Some advisers struggle with this, saying for
example: ‘What if I can’t show that I’ve added value in
cash?’ or ‘We do so much more than just put cash in
the client’s pocket’.
If you cannot demonstrate some value added in
cash, you are probably not looking hard enough at
what you have done.
And of course you do more than just put cash in
the client’s pocket. The client will gain peace of
mind and lots of warm fuzzy feelings but potential
clients may find it too esoteric for their liking if you
try to sell that as your value added at a first
meeting.
Tell clients a story
Advisers who understand the benefits of explaining
their value in cash find opportunities to tell stories
when speaking to clients and prospective clients.
Stories about what you have done for one of your
clients get the message across more effectively
than detailed explanations of processes and fancy
technology.
For example: ‘Only last month we did a job for a
The value added calculator
Demonstrating your value upfront for prospective
clients is important but it is also critical that at
each annual review meeting you remind the client
politely how you have added value (in cash) over the
past 12 months.
This hard-headed approach allows clients to
relax about your annual fees, particularly in times
of market turmoil and negative returns.
The best firms collect this information on a value
added calculator that sits in the client’s electronic
file. Every time a member of the team does
something that adds value, it is recorded
immediately in the calculator template for the client.
person in similar circumstances to yours. After we
finished we added up all the savings we were able to
make and it came to more than £23,000. He was
pretty happy at the end of the process, I can
assure you.’
Simple stories like this position your expertise, let
people know you work with people like them and,
most importantly, give a hard cash value to work
performed. When this adviser gets the client in and
asks for a fee, it will not be £62 an hour. They will be
able to charge appropriately for their work because
they understand their value and tell clients what it is
in cash.
Prepare case studies
Prepared client case studies perform a similar role
once the client comes in for the first face-to-face
meeting. Ideally the firm should have a couple of
case studies for every client segment they have
identified in their business. This level of preparation
ensures that 90% of new client situations will be
covered by at least one genuine case study example
from the past.
The case studies should show benefits in cash
wherever possible. Other soft benefits can be
included but details of some hard cash savings make
it easier for prospective clients to understand how
The work recorded includes tax saved, premiums
reduced, interest payments reduced, hours spent
on the phone correcting errors from providers,
investment fees saved, etc.
At annual review time it is easy to look up the
document and prepare a benefit statement for
the client showing ‘what has been done for them
lately’.
This does not replace the real purpose of the
review meeting, to see if the client is still on track
to achieve their future goals, but it does remind
them of why you are worth paying for. Sadly, clients
do forget sometimes.
valuable you are.
For example, the savings might be the hundreds of
thousands of pounds where some inheritance tax
planning has been done for a client. Most advisers
give this away for free or never raise it as a
potential benefit for new clients.
If you save someone £500,000 in tax how much
can you charge for it? Plenty.
Charging for specialist expertise
The fact that you have prepared case studies that
you can pull out immediately lets new prospects
know that you work in their space and have
specialist expertise. This fact alone should lead to
the ability to charge a little more than the next
adviser. By demonstrating clearly that you are able
to assist, you create the feeling that you are a safe
pair of hands.
Seeing benefits in hard cash terms allows clients
to compare the cost (your fees) against the value
(benefits shown in cash) more easily; something they
have not been able to do in the past. Advisers who
grasp this concept are charging significantly higher
fees for their work than those that do not.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
New Model Adviser®
51
25 October 2010
citywire.co.uk/adviser
Baby boomer Page 53 >>>
Mips could be answer to new pension limit
Consultant view
How to improve the quality of client contact
Pay attention to your key contact points from the moment a client first has dealings with your firm.
That is the recommendation in the fifth of a series on how to create a great client experience
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
The client experience begins the minute a prospective
client first notices your business. The best firms think
about this from start to finish by examining the key
touch points in the advice process.
Referral
If referral is your number one method of client
attraction, what do your existing clients say when they
refer you? Can you assist them in finding the right
words or stories to tell?
Website
Once a client hears about you, they will often seek a
secondary validation of what they have heard by a visit
to your website. The website should look good and
reinforce your positioning.
Some advisers say that not having a website (or
having a poor one) has not cost them any business.
How do they know? It is impossible to measure the
number of people who tried to check the firm out and
never called because they did not like what they saw or
could not find a website.
Initial contact
How are initial enquiries from prospective clients
calling by phone handled? What is said that can act as
a memorable hook? Do people feel they are going to
have a positive and safe experience? What stories do
you tell to get your marketing messages across?
What is sent out after the call? Is it done via email or
hard copy? Which method do clients prefer? Do you
ask? Asking them would send a strong message.
The initial advice process
Where is the first meeting with the client held and
what materials are handed out? What do your offices
look like when the client visits? Is fact finding fun? How
do you present information?
Successful advisers minimise the written materials
they give clients and try to demonstrate rather than
tell clients the benefits of strategic decisions or
actions. Using cash-flow modelling live on screen allows
the client to see:
l What happens if I keep doing what I’m doing?
l What happens if I follow your advice?
This is more powerful and client friendly than a
written report or letter.
At the plan presentation stage, some advisers pitch
in PowerPoint rather than using a written report, again
using a process that has been designed for the client
rather than to satisfy the Financial Services Authority.
CLIENT CONTACT POINTS
Step
Process
Collateral/technology
First contact/meeting
l Telephone screening
l Scripted conversation
l Initial meeting process
l Welcome book (before meeting)
l First meeting story board
l Questioning skills
l First meeting kit (after meeting)
Discovery
l Deep and engaging
l More than just the facts
l Finametrica
l Financial DNA
l Kinder/Bacharach questions
Advice presentation
l Strategic focus (not product focus)
l Presented simply (visually)
l Powerpoint
l Cash-flow modelling
l Master index presentations
Onboarding process
l Checkpoint
l Implementation
l Weekly updates (email, text,
telephone)
Ongoing review
l Internal service standard
l 10 contacts per annum
l Demonstrate value added in cash
l Reassure client on progress to real
objectives
l Service standards (external)
l Scorecard
l Worm
l CRM system
l Wrap
Every aspect of the advice process can be thought
about and enhanced to create something that is
educational, enjoyable and of the highest quality.
Implementation
Do you take the pain out of the implementation
process for clients? How regularly do you communicate
with them when nothing is happening? For most clients,
silence from you equates to nothing being done.
Successful firms send weekly emails and texts, and
make the occasional phone call to keep clients
informed.
Review
The review service is one of the highest value-added
parts of the process and needs to be designed to
achieve key objectives:
l To remind the client what you have done for them
lately (eg, in the past 12 months);
l To check everything is still on track and that the
client will achieve their life goals.
To make the process informative but
straightforward, some firms use a one-page
scorecard to provide the key information for clients
without overwhelming them. The main focus of the
review meeting is a chat with the adviser, but the
written communication is client friendly too.
The communication process
How regularly and in what format you communicate
with clients has a big impact on their experience. The
following are options:
l Return phone calls in a timely fashion.
l Call regularly throughout the year before the client
calls you.
l Target emails and newsletters to the client’s issues
(do not send generic materials that are aimed at noone in particular).
l Corporate hospitality; seminars; special events.
The unthinkable truth
Industry data from the FP Advance Business Fitness
Report shows just 8% of firms always proactively
communicate with their clients when bad news is
reported about the industry in general or their firm or
network/national in particular.
It seems unthinkable that firms would not have a
communications process for disseminating information
to all clients quickly if something major occurred. Yet in
our consulting work we found that most firms did not
contact their clients about the credit crunch at any
stage of the crisis, despite it being supposedly a oncein-a-century event.
Also 54% of firms contact their best clients fewer
than 10 times each year (and in this context contact
could be written, electronic, phone, etc). This statistic
seems crazy when you consider data that shows a
direct correlation between number of touches per
year and client referral rates.
Take a look at your key contact points with your
clients and see if you can improve them to improve the
quality of your client experience.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
New Model Adviser®
51
1 November 2010
citywire.co.uk/adviser
Babyboomer Page 52 >>>
Pre-nup test case gives advisers
a new remit
Consultant view
Why attention to detail matters to clients
The sixth of our series on providing a great client experience gives tips on paying attention to detail
to foster confidence that you will bring the same diligence to the bigger issues
Brett Davidson
Five tips on attention to detail
FP Advance
While so much of your client experience is about
big-picture issues, it is vital not to forget the
details. Getting the small things right sends a
powerful message to your clients that you will also
be able to deal with the big stuff when it arises.
A typo in a written report might not change the
quality of your advice, but it does erode the
client’s confidence in it and diminishes their
experience. Spelling a name or address wrong or
getting the client’s age incorrect can all start to
undermine their perception of your quality.
These things on their own may not lose you a
client but they will erode your pricing power to some
extent. It is hard to get on the front foot in a client
meeting if you arrive late, or have errors popping up
throughout the meeting in your written material.
Have you ever had to knock a little off the price
to make up for a mistake made by you or your
staff? The small stuff costs you money – and not
just a few hundred pounds here and there; the
cost can be phenomenal.
For example, many firms are still charging a
0.5% per annum (pa) ongoing service fee, while top
advisers are charging 1% pa. The reason given is
they don’t yet have confidence in their offering,
which often means a lack of confidence in being
able to deliver accurate work (the small stuff).
Once you have the bigger picture right, it is
attention to the small stuff that separates the
great from the good.
1. Systems and processes
Eliminating errors from the work people do
always comes down to having good systems and
processes, not a team of supremely gifted
individuals who concentrate really hard. The best
firms know this and systemise 90% of their work
so they can customise the other 10%, which is
when the client needs to see staff face-to-face.
Every time client data needs to be entered into
your systems, there is the chance of human error.
Try to make sure your systems can communicate
with each other so data only has to be entered once.
2. Serve great coffee and tea
Getting a great cup of coffee or tea is pretty
rare. If clients can get one when they come to see
you for a meeting, it becomes a referable event
when they are talking to their friends and
colleagues (aka your clients in waiting).
Don’t just buy the fancy cappuccino maker for the
office, get some training for the staff who are going
to use it. Send them off for some barista training and
turn them into coffee-making champions. This can be
their contribution to enhancing your client experience.
3. Have fresh flowers in reception
This is a small touch that can lift the atmosphere
for your staff as well as your clients, making your
reception area look and smell nice. In one firm we
have worked with, the receptionist brings in
flowers from her own garden when she can. She’s
taken on ownership of that part of the client
experience, which benefits the whole firm.
4. Quality of paper
What is your paper quality like? Does it send an
appropriate message about a quality service
when clients pick it up and feel it?
How are your reports presented (if you still use
reports)? What about your other tools and
collateral used with clients? Do your Power Point
presentations look fantastic? If not, find a 15year-old kid and get them to help you.
5. Office presentation
What is the décor like in your office? It’s so
important and usually so neglected. A good-quality
marketing team will deal with this as part of your
marketing plan. Your office should be the ultimate
positioning statement for your business and is a key
part of your branding. Does it reflect your quality
and does it reinforce your brand’s personality?
What about the meeting room where you see
clients? Are your chairs comfortable? Do you use
a round table, a couch or some other way of
allowing you to interact with the client without a
large barrier (desk or table) in the way?
Does the artwork you have chosen have a theme
that supports your branding and positioning? One
firm we know has classical music playing softly in
the meeting room when the client is shown in,
helping to relax them before the adviser comes in.
Good office design also separates the back office
areas, where the work is carried out, from the front
office areas where clients are greeted and seen.
The ‘front of house’ area that the client is invited
into always projects the best face of the business.
Industry data
Research has shown that:
l 88% of firms reported same-day turnaround on
A or B class client telephone messages and 82%
same-day response to emails.
l 14% stated the financial modelling tools in their
software were fully integrated with their client
relationship management functions as well as
their other applications (that is, data is only
entered once).
l 52% can set up and track workflows, such as
making appointments, plan preparation, document
signing and business lodgement, through an
automated workflow processing system.
Source: FP Advance Business Fitness Report
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
New Model Adviser®
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New Model Business
Consultant view
Tool up so you can anticipate clients’ needs
The seventh part of our series on how to create a great client experience explains how anticipating
your clients’ needs with an online tool kit can enhance service quality
What an online tool kit can do for your business
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
Several benefits can be achieved by using
PowerPoint live on a computer:
Doing what you say you will separates you from the
vast majority of businesses in all industries that do
not, but it is not enough to create a great client
experience.
Great businesses anticipate clients’ needs and
react proactively wherever possible before the
client has to ask; or when the client has a need, they
have a ready-made solution they can roll out quickly.
Ready-made does not imply low quality or one size
fits all, but gives the message: ‘I understand you’.
Anticipate needs
Try to anticipate clients’ needs and address them
before they are raised.
In your meetings with new or existing clients, use a
master index of presentations that has some readymade answers and explanations for all the common
issues that are raised.
A plumber who comes to your home to fix your
pipes will have tool kit. This might include spanners,
wrenches and oxy acetylene torches. Depending on
the nature of your problem they may:
l Decide that it is not something they can help with
and refer you to another tradesperson, in which
case they use none of their kit.
l See a simple problem and fix it using one of the
tools from the kit.
l Identify a major problem and use all their tools to
fix it.
Keep a tool kit
Financial planning businesses should have a tool kit.
Advisers sell intellectual capital and this can be
turned into an online tool kit for use in a variety of
situations (see box).
The master index is a series of PowerPoint
presentations that take the best explanations you
can find in your firm on a range of issues and turns
them into a piece of intellectual capital that can be
19390_FPB_PinkDiamond_NMA_40Strip.qxd
Best International
Wealth Manager
2009 and 2010
1. The tool kit can be carried easily.
2. More tools can be added, driven by client and
adviser needs. If a client asks a difficult question
not covered by your presentations, you can create
one that answers the question. Then you have
plugged a gap for your firm.
3. All information can be branded in the firm’s
corporate identity, increasing the perception of a
corporate solution. This will have a direct impact on
the value of your business and its ability to attract
new client referrals.
4. It is easy to click into one or multiple
presentations at any stage in the client relationship
(at a first meeting, or at a fact-find, presentation or
review meeting). The fact that you can access these
in a timely manner shows that you work with these
types of situations all the time.
duplicated for all advisers to use. Each presentation
is listed on a master index page so advisers can click
on a hyperlink to access it.
Adviser issues
You or your senior advisers might be capable of
handling all situations without some of these tools,
but that is not always true for the rest of your
advisory team. As it probably took you 20 years to
reach this point, you need ways of passing this
knowledge on to new recruits.
Using the master index approach allows everyone
in the business to look good in front of the client by
giving them access to the same answers as the
firm’s top advisers. As individual advisers develop
new and better ways of explaining an issue, these
5/8/10
16:45
Some advisers worry this will look off the shelf
rather than bespoke. But do not worry: the last
thing you want to hear a medical specialist say
about a serious health issue is: ‘Interesting. Never
seen this before.’ You want to hear that they see
these symptoms all the time and have a solution to
get you back to good health. Clients are no
different with their financial concerns.
5. Your presentations can also be used with your
professional introducers. Although they may have
some smarts in their chosen field, often they are no
more clued up on financial planning issues than the
average client. The fact that you can show them
these high quality answers to the common issues
provides them with confidence that you will be great
in front of their clients.
6. The best explanation of each concept can be used
by any advisers in the business, improving quality. If
you want to make new recruits effective quickly, the
master index approach will help. Do not make the
new advisers struggle along like you did for years.
can be rolled out to the rest of the team, improving
overall quality quickly.
Client issues
What are the key client issues that advisers spend
time explaining repeatedly? They might include: risk
and return; asset allocation; how pensions work; the
best way to own a life insurance policy; the time value
of money; the true cost of deferring an investment
decision; your investment philosophy; why rebalancing
adds value; effective ways to reduce IHT.
By anticipating your clients’ needs, you will greatly
enhance the client experience in your business.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
Page 1
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New Model Adviser®
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distinctly different
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15 November 2010
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Star profile Page 42 >>>
David Ferry of Ferry Financial in
Stratford-upon-Avon
Consultant view
Give clients a better service than they expect
Promise a lot and deliver a little bit more is the eighth suggestion in our series on how to
create a great client experience, and the pay off could be more client referrals
processes right, you will be able to deliver on
these promises as well, which is critical.
The best businesses that deliver a great
customer experience find ways to exceed their
clients’ expectations and to do it in a systemised
way.
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
If you get your packaging and marketing right, you
will be making some big promises to clients and
prospective clients. Creating a well-crafted
service standard allows clients to see the wide
range of services that you can deliver (see table 1
overleaf).
With many advisers now focused on having
quality client conversations about the clients’ real
life goals and developing financial strategies to
help achieve them, the promise is about as big as
it can get. That is how it should be in our
profession because we can help people to address
these big life issues. If you get your systems and
Little things that make a big difference
Some advisers send anniversary reminders to
husbands, flowers to spouses on their birthday
and cards on the anniversaries of loved ones’
deaths. Others accompany clients to meetings
with solicitors and accountants on important
issues, rather than sending them on their own.
These are small touches that can have a huge
impact on how your client perceives the quality of
their relationship with you.
There is an area where many firms fail to deliver
that little bit more and it is in some pretty basic
areas of service. Business Health conducts
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New Model Adviser®
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New Model Business
Consultant view
Table 1. Present your clients with a wide range of services
An annual review meeting
with your adviser, including:
A complete review of your financial strategy.
A 12-point financial health check.
‘A’ clients
Unlimited telephone and email
access to your adviser
l One annual review meeting per year – standard
agenda
Unlimited face-to-face
access to your adviser
between review dates
The professionals service
l One half-yearly review meeting per year –
standard agenda
Providing strategic updates to your accountant and any other
professional advisers.
Supplying end-of-year taxation information (as required).
Recommending suitable professionals as other needs arise.
(Ensuring that everyone on your financial team provides advice in a coordinated and professional way.)
The portfolio construction
service
Using a scientific risk-profiling methodology.
Design of a suitable asset allocation.
Portfolio design and construction.
The portfolio management
service
Table 2.
Client segmented internal
service standards
l Phone call from adviser in alternate quarters
to reviews (ie. two per year)
l Corporate hospitality (any of list below once
per year) (+ invite a friend)
Day at the races
Golf or golf day
Lunch (at annual review meeting appointment)
Christmas cocktail party
Rugby
Online access to portfolio valuations.
l Birthday cards + flowers for spouse
Portfolio monitoring.
l Targeted email communication (four per year,
event driven if possible)
Reweighting of asset allocation to benchmark.
Written portfolio valuations on request.
The priority response service
Phone calls and emails returned within 24 hours.
l Boardroom investment luncheon (+ invite a
friend)
The remove-the-hassle
service
Taking the complexity and hassle out of administering your financial life.
l Annual client seminar (all clients) (+ invite a
friend)
The second opinion service
Making ourselves available to consider new ideas from whatever source
they may originate.
The inheritance tax and
estate planning service
In conjunction with your accountant and other taxation advisers.
The Sipp service
Value-added strategies using Sipps.
Specialist advice for owning business premises.
Pensions advice.
Pensions review.
Pensions consolidation.
analysis of what drives profitability in adviser firms
all over the world. Its findings show there is a clear
link between number of client-adviser interactions
per year and referral rates.
Develop internal service standards
Having a service package for your client segments is
essential but the client-facing service standard is
just the packaging up of what you have always
delivered to clients when they asked for it or needed
it. Most of the items on the service standard can be
delivered at your client review meetings.
The next step for exceeding expectations is to
develop your internal service standard. Decide
what you will do throughout the year. By delivering
a comprehensive and high-value package of
contact throughout the year, you have the
opportunity to wow your clients.
This is called the internal service standard
because it is for internal use only, not for publication
to clients (see the example in table 2).
New Model Adviser®
‘B’ clients
l One annual review meeting per year – standard
agenda
The taxation planning service
The pensions service
l Further reviews at client or adviser discretion
Potential pay off for more interaction
Establishing this as your annual contact programme
for your client segments, you will be interacting
more than 10 times a year with each of your top
25% of clients, who probably deliver between 60%
and 90% of your earnings each year. This will have a
significant impact on the perceived quality of the
relationship and on client referral rates.
Even ‘C’ class clients will receive what for them
feels like a step up in service and some form of
contact every two months on average.
By creating these simple internal service
standards, you formalise the process of creating
relationships. More importantly, you exceed the
expectations of most clients in a softly, softly way.
And because the interactions vary from month to
month, they do not overwhelm even your most
genteel clients.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
l One half-yearly review meeting per year –
standard agenda
l Phone call from adviser, one per year
l Corporate hospitality ((any of list below once
per year) (+ invite a friend) for some top B
clients only
Day at the races
Golf or golf day
Lunch (at annual review meeting appointment)
Christmas cocktail party
Rugby
l Birthday cards + flowers for spouse
l Targeted email communication (two per year,
event driven if possible)
l Boardroom luncheon (+ invite a friend) for
some top B clients only
l Annual client seminar (all clients) (+ invite a
friend)
‘C’ clients
l One annual review meeting per year – standard
agenda
l Client newsletter (four per year)
l Annual client seminar (all clients)
36
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22 November 2010
New Model Business
New Model Business
In this section:
Consultant view
•
Adviser workshop
•
Best of the blogs
•
Top 10
•
Star profile
•
Company profile
Education is essential to a quality client service
Part nine of our series on creating a great client experience explains how educating your clients in
money matters will give them added trust and confidence in you, and make them easier to work with
Brett Davidson
Key areas of a continuous education programme
FP Advance
The vast majority of clients do not have genuine
expertise in money. Their knowledge of and
comfort around money, investing, ownership
structures and the like can vary from little or no
knowledge to a sophisticated understanding.
Advisers should remember, however, that
information is not knowledge and knowledge is not
wisdom. Do not be fooled or intimidated by a client
who seems to have a lot of information.
In the vast majority of cases your knowledge
and the ability to use it effectively in creating
coherent financial strategies will exceed that of
your clients, sometimes by a little and often by a
huge amount. One of your key roles in creating a
great client experience is to play the role of
educator. This should not be done in a patronising
way but by providing as much information as the
client wants or needs in clear and concise
language.
Promoting trust and confidence
If your clients not only receive great service from
you, but also feel like they are gaining a better
understanding of what is being done and why, they
start to gain real confidence and trust in you and
your business. That is a referable trait.
The more understanding that clients develop,
the easier they are to work with. Successful
advisers do not fear helping their clients to
become more educated.
Do not be afraid of them learning as much as
you and then disappearing; that is highly unlikely.
Even sophisticated clients who do know a lot will
happily pay for someone they respect and trust to
take over an area of their lives that theoretically
they could run themselves. Although they are
capable, usually they are time poor and better off
spending their limited time pursuing their own
profession.
The clients who say they do not want to be
educated, need to be educated. This can be done
bit by bit and face to face.
Beware anyone who abdicates total
responsibility to you; more often than not they are
a huge risk, not a good client.
New Model Adviser®
1. Ongoing review meetings
The best place for education is in one-to-one, faceto-face ongoing review meetings, where you can
answer any direct questions clients may have, or
address issues they raise inadvertently in the
questions they ask.
It is important to remember that a key tenet of
any education programme is repetition. Telling clients
a piece of information once may not get the message
through. On some fundamental issues, like asset
allocation and portfolio rebalancing, clients may never
understand completely, so re-explaining the concept
and why it adds value to their affairs is essential.
2. Client seminars
Holding seminars for your clients at least once
every year provides an opportunity to continue with
the education theme. Secure a quality speaker who
can reinforce some of the key concepts you want
clients to understand. Prepare sessions presented
by you and your team at these events to educate
clients or remind clients of why you do things in a
particular way, especially if this is topical or has
created real benefit for clients in the previous 12
months.
3. External seminars
If you see seminars being organised by reputable
external organisations that might be suitable for
How to do it
Focus on continually educating clients in a way that
works for them. Some clients want just enough
education to understand what you are doing for them
and no ambition to know it all. Others want to know the
ins and outs of everything you do, so they are
comfortable that their financial affairs are under
control; you can provide them with more in-depth
knowledge.
One of the key roles a successful adviser plays is in
identifying what matters while helping clients to filter
out the noise that often surrounds money issues in
the media. Most of this extraneous information is
largely unhelpful for your clients. It is the context
around the information they see and hear that has all
your clients, pass the details on. Promote the value
of attending to those who want to learn more.
Having a credible third party say the same thing as
you increases your stock with your clients.
You may even consider paying for your A and B
class clients to attend or go with them to the
event.
4. Client communications
Make sure your client communications continually
educate and reinforce your closely held beliefs. By
repeating the same information in a variety of
formats, such as written, face to face and at
seminars, you demonstrate consistency and
credibility. If the story changes too often, clients
become confused.
5. In the media
Your views can be expressed continuously in the
media: radio, TV, print, internet, Twitter etc. Clients
and prospective clients who see or hear you can be
educated via these sources. Hearing you speak in a
public forum demonstrates the importance of your
message and how strong your beliefs are. This
adds significantly to your credibility.
According to our research, only one in three
firms (34%) uses the media to promote good news
stories or successes that might build their
external profile.
the value, and that is what you can provide through a
continuous education programme (see box).
You can segment your clients based on their need
for ongoing communication and education. For
example, are they low involvement clients with a low
preference for education; or high involvement clients
who want to be educated to a high level? Once you
know their preference, you can tailor their
communications and information accordingly.
By thinking more deeply about your approach to
client education you can greatly increase the quality of
the client service experience.
Brett Davidson is chief executive of FP Advance
28
citywire.co.uk/adviser
29 November 2010
New Model Business
Consultant view
The right place for a quality service is in your office
The 10th and final part of our series on how to create a great client experience explains how to meet
your client in a professional and well-designed environment by inviting them onto your turf
Brett Davidson
FP Advance
Seeing clients at your offices is a must
if you are trying to create a great
client experience. Your work premises
become part of your service and
present an image that must support
the positioning of the business.
Why do the large accounting and
legal firms inhabit such opulent
premises? To position their offering as
absolute premium. This makes perfect
sense when you think who their clients
are: other large companies.
What message do your premises send
to prospective clients? If you are
deliberately seeking to work with clients
of modest means, your premises should
reflect that. If you want to work with
high-net-worth clients, your premises
should reflect that. The décor you use
will vary according to the positioning
message you want to send and the
premises become a proxy for the quality
of your advice.
Disadvantages of visiting clients
Advisers who visit clients at home or
work miss a golden opportunity to
make their service more tangible. It
does not make sense to go to
people’s houses or places of work to
give them advice if you are trying to
position yourself as a high-end
financial planner. That is not what top
firms do and it could confuse your
marketing messages.
Then there is the time issue. Travel
time is largely unproductive even if you
can make a few phone calls. You
cannot write or work on your
computer while you are driving.
Sometimes advisers make the case
for seeing business owner clients at
their place of work so they can see
the business and get a feel for the
client. That is fine but you should not
do this for the first client meeting;
they must visit you on your turf. Have
the second meeting (the discovery or
fact finding) at the client’s premises if
you must and then present the plan at
your office.
Business clients need to get out of
their environment to concentrate
New Model Adviser®
100% on what you are talking about.
More importantly to make a first
impression you need to make sure
they see and experience the best face
you can present.
A first meeting with a new client is
more of a performance than a meeting.
In 99% of cases what they say will not
be new or mind blowing to you, but you
will have to react as though it is. The
way you explain some basic concepts to
clients and answer their questions may
be things you have said hundreds of
times before but it will not feel like that
to the client. This has far more in
common with a performance given by an
actor than we would sometimes like to
admit. If you want to deliver a top class
performance every time, you have to do
it on your home turf. If you visit the
client, you cannot control the staging.
How to persuade clients to visit you
If you have always seen clients at their
home or work, you will have to work
through a period of change. First, you
will have to find a reason for people to
visit your premises.
The simplest and most truthful
explanation is to say something like
this: ‘Mr/Mrs Client, if a tradesman
comes to your home they can carry
their tools with them. Our tools of
trade are things like data, research,
information and technology that we
have here at our fingertips in the
office. I need these things to do a
professional job and will use them when
you come in to see me. What time suits
you best: next Tuesday or Thursday?’
Do not be put off by clients who
resist; stick to your guns. If they are
genuinely keen to obtain advice or have
an issue resolved, they will find the time
to visit you. Other professionals do not
visit clients at home or work (at least
not the good ones).
You can use a variation of this script
for existing clients, especially if you are
doing cash-flow modelling live with them
each year as part of the review process.
Some advisers worry about elderly
or infirm clients. If elderly clients need
a home visit then so be it but do not
take it for granted that this is what
they all want. One adviser we work
with discovered that his elderly clients
enjoyed an excuse to get out of the
Ask an interior design
team to assist in creating
the right image
house for the day as long as they did
not have to travel during the morning
or afternoon rush hours.
The office environment
If you do not have decent offices,
make a plan to correct this at the
first available opportunity. If your
offices are just average, ask an
interior design team to assist in
creating the right image for your firm.
It does not have to cost a fortune. The
best marketing firms will do it for you
as part of a brand overhaul when they
consider the new logo, website,
brochures etc.
If your clients who are spread across
the UK for historical reasons, you can
still control the environment by renting
space in the nearest town or a location
that is close enough to your clients.
This not only enables you to see them
on your own turf, but also means that
on a road trip you can schedule backto-back meetings in one location to
maximise use of your time.
The only exception to this rule might
be for employee benefits and group
work for which you tend to see the
finance director or managing director
at their workplace. However, if one of
the senior people at the company wants
individual advice, make them come to
you for all the reasons outlined above.
Brett Davidson is chief executive at
FP Advance
Industry data
Key value driver
% of practices
Profit per principal
Less than 50% of meetings on-site
32%
£105,910
More than 90% of meetings on-site
24%
£175,839
Use your offices:
Source: FP Advance Business Fitness Report