Source/Contribution by : NJ Publications
We are all in the race to grow our business, add more clients, earn more money and take our financial advisory business to another level. With the view to stay ahead in the race, we implement numerous marketing tactics, advertisements, product campaigns, online marketing, and whatnot. Many times in the rush, we forget the basic, “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”
It's good that we are passionate about expanding our business, we do our best executing business strategies and marketing techniques, yet the best strategy of all should always be at the center: creating a happy and pleasant investing experience for the client.
The recipe to creating a happy investor is the blend of two magic ingredients: Returns and Service Quality.
Returns: Talking about Returns, the higher the better. Investors are the happiest when their investments yield superior returns, since the sole purpose of investing is profiting from it and when the investment holds true to this aspect, investors are happy. But practically you can't do much about returns, so if a client is invested in a mutual fund, the fund's performance is not in your hands. But there is something certainly under your control, and that is optimum product selection for optimal returns. Again there are two dimensions to product selection:
1. Suitability: If someone has Vitamin B deficiency, you won't take him out in the sunlight to feed Vitamin D, no matter how great is Vitamin D for the human body. The same logic applies here, product category selection should principally depend upon the investor's needs, and not on the product's caliber. The fundamental attributes of the product must equate with the investor's requirements. Select according to the client's investment horizon and risk appetite.
2. Quality: The quality of the product can be measured in terms of it's past performance, management, future prospects, etc. And recommending a good quality investment product is a primary role of the advisor. Let's say you have to look for a diversified equity mutual fund for the investor, so you must ensure that you have done a thorough research on the sector, made a comparison between all contestants and finally suggest one of the best performers to the investor. When the underlying character of the product is promising, it reflects in results, ultimately leading to customer satisfaction.
Service quality: Returns may or may not support you in winning the client's trust, your service will. A customer is happy when he is taken care of in ways he didn't expect.
1.Keep in touch: Be in constant contact with your clients, make it a point to meet/call them at regular intervals, seek feedback and suggestions on your service quality, and improve continuously.
2. Don't lose his hand when it's raining: A financial advisor plays the role of a friend, a guide, a pillar of support for the investor. And it's heartbreaking for the investor when the advisor leaves his hand in difficult times. That's the time when your investor needs you the most, your service will stand the test of time when you support your client at the time when he will have doubts on your knowledge, your choice, at the time when he'll have questions, the answers to which are very difficult, at the time when the most convenient thing to do is to switch off your phone and avoid the embarrassment. But that is also the time to prove your genuineness, to fulfill your commitments.
3. Custom Service: Each investor is different, they will have different threshold limits and hence some investors may be able to digest losses without much difficulty, while others may have extreme reactions. Not just losses, it applies to other aspects of the advisor-client relationship as well. Some investors may appreciate his advisor's efforts to keep a constant connect, while others may not be looking for too many meetings or calls, investors have different priorities, different approaches to investment and different personalities. So, there isn't any standard service format that works for all, and the advisor shall tailor the service quality according to individual needs of the client.
So to conclude, keeping the customer happy is the key to any happy business, and the same logic applies to financial advisory as well. The above extracts aim to aid the advisor in achieving his goals. And if you are also one of the advisors who's seeking to grow your business. The solution is simple: Create a happy investor.
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