The customer is king for every business. Retaining the customer is often more challenging and herculean than acquiring one. The latter becomes futile if you cannot succeed at the former. Most corporations today invest in customer relationship management so that they can effectively oversee their relationship with the customers at every point.

Acquiring new customers is very important for our business to grow. And it involves a lot of time and money. And there are existing customers as well, some have invested in SIP, some in debt funds and then there are the ones who have invested in lump sum ELSS'. The challenge here is to manage all previous, new and prospective customers effectively.

As an advisor, you can follow the following techniques to manage your client relationships better:

1. Conduct Regular Meetings: Meet your customers regularly. It is very important to meet your customers at regular intervals. This will enable you to build on relationship and also get to know more about the customer, to review investments and find new business opportunities. You would be able to effectively judge whether he is happy or otherwise and an opportunity for you to communicate effectively to address any concerns or important updates. Typically one should personally meet all clients at least every year but this frequency can go up to six months or even quarterly for your preferred / important clients.
2. Manage Leads Effectively: Don't ever take leads lightly. Every new lead is a prospective long term relationship. It is very important to track and manage all the leads properly. Your relationship with the lead is very fragile at this stage and effective tracking and timely communication techniques can help nurture leads and get better conversion ratios.
3. Communicate productively: You should very timely communicate all important information related to client's portfolio and investments like policy / SIP renewal, FMP maturity, etc. Communications for product awareness / promotion should ideally also be done by targeting the right customer groups. One way of communicating effectively is by sending custom e-mails to clients so that he/she feels that you have thought about the customer before sending the email. There are today multiple means on communication and use of digital tools should be done effectively. It is important that the relevant info reaches the client on time, since it will lose its significance beyond a particular point.
4. Know Customer Insights: The importance of customer insights cannot be overlooked. Right information about the preferences, product exposures, interests, family background, professional info, etc. go a long way in finding right solutions and business opportunities for your clients. As a business practice, a financial advisor must maintain all such info such that it is readily available whenever you need it.
5. Keep a personal touch: The power of personal touch can't be overlooked. Wishing your client on his birthday or anniversary may seem trivial but can contribute enormously to building relations. A personalized message for each customer each year can nurture your bond with him. But doing this for a large customer base can be challenging. Hence proper tools should be used for reminding and also for sending your best wishes with a personal touch.

We understand the importance of customer relationship management and also the techniques which can help us build relations with our clients. However, with changing times and increasing customer database, it might become troublesome to cater to all the clients and follow all ideas narrated above for each client. There is a tendency to mess things up even if well started. So how can we be better organized and empowered to have better customer relationship management practices? How can I manage all this work and information easily? What tools should I use?

NJ CRM
The answer to this is technology in the form of NJ CRM. With NJ CRM, you can manage almost all your customer relationship management related activities easily and effectively. NJ CRM offers many exciting features and tools that empowers you to practice time management, lead management, communication management and sales management related work on a single window. NJ CRM is integrated with your NJ business in your Partner Desk, is simple to operate and is designed keeping in mind your requirements. Please do visit your Partner Desk and start using NJ CRM to better manage and grow your business from today!

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Financial Planning is not a 9-6 job, your after office hours are inseparable from your office hours. Your day is usually too long and hectic. Your job as a financial advisor is much more than managing investment portfolios or closing sales. You at times compromise your personal commitments in order to meet your business demands. We have made an effort to help you better organize your routine and simplify your day. We have featured certain points which you may integrate in your schedule and make your lives easier.

You must maintain a diary or a software which shall include all your business details, work in pipeline, status on leads, etc. We have laid down a routine for your entire day, you may alter the time and activities according to your business requirements and convenience:

As a planner you can make the most of your mornings.

7 AM: Checking your e mail, whatsapp and sms shall form a part of your morning ablutions. Check if anything is urgent and respond accordingly.

9 AM: Start with planning for your entire day. You shall refer your diary for anything that shall be carried forward from the previous day. Check your calender for any client meetings. Pen down everything, client meetings, phone calls to be made, following up, meetings with NJ Sales Team, seminars, etc.

10 AM: Start calling people and fix up meetings, respond to all queries, follow up with leads, respond to missed calls or any important messages. Write down if you can't get through any call, you can call them back later. Making cold calls will also be more fruitful, since people are more responsive in the mornings.

11 AM: You shall work on removing any operational backlogs so that you can proceed smoothly. If you have a team, meet them in the morning, review their work, look into their problems and delegate responsibilities.

12 AM: You shall start executing your routine tasks, meeting new clients, meeting prospective clients, meeting NJ salespersons, etc. Before execution, you should however, keep in mind that you should be prepared for these tasks. Eg, before meeting a client, you should have all the questions and the flow of conversation framed in your mind.

2 PM: You must develop the practice of a mid day review. It will help track your progress, if your day is going as per your plan. If not, it'll guide you to be back on track.

Lunch

You may continue with your routine tasks post lunch as well. You must also include the following activities in your day

2 – 4 PM: Since your afternoon's are relatively less engaged. You can exploit this time for more passive and vital exercises.

• You shall review your client's portfolios and figure out if any modifications or additions are required.
• Work on devising strategies to enhance your business, new client meetings, technological upgrades, marketing strategies, plan for seminars, kiosks, etc.
• You should never stop learning. You should acquaint yourself with all the upcoming financial products and study their pros and cons. Grab the latest money magazines, or websites and read articles related to your business. An advisor is expected to know more than the investor and regular education will enable you to stand up to expectations.
• You shall also prepare for your evening meetings during this time.

5 – 7 PM: Most of your clients must be free by now, and they'll have time for you. You shall meet new and existing clients for new business or with the view to build relationships. See if there are any customer queries and try solving them on a daily basis. Before calling it a day, you should write down the important minutes of the day, so that you can start your next day by following up on them. Make a habit of writing client queries, the commitments you made to people, the meetings you scheduled, any relevant article or information you came across, any event or seminar that you scheduled, etc. in your diary everyday. This will help you remain much more organized.

Though, we have laid down an ideal routine but every new day in an advisor's life is as thrilling as never. Some meetings get canceled, some new meetings unexpectedly pop up, some meetings just last forever, some meetings get rescheduled. Your wife might need you for 2 hours during the day. Traffic is insane, your car breaks down and many other instances jumbles up your day and things don't go as per plan. But you can include these tips in your schedule to the extent possible and organize your business better.

We often talk about customer relationship management, and propagate the importance of keeping the client at the center. It is indeed extremely important to be sensitive towards your client needs, to listen to your client, to display care and maintain a personal touch with your client. Wishing your client on his birthday, anniversary, festivals can help you build your relation with the client on a more than professional level. Sending them the latest industry updates or calling them for communicating an important news, or about new financial products will build confidence and trust in your clients, that you are there for them always. But at times, the advisor in the process of maintaining personal touch, goes overboard. We start to annoy the client, and the worst part is we are not even aware of this fact. And the lack of knowledge that we are actually annoying the client can be fatal for our business, because who would want to work with a person who is constantly nudging him and irritating him.

So today's article is not the usual what to do rather it's about What not to do and Where to stop. We are restricting this article only to the boundaries you need to stay in, in the process of cultivating Personal Touch with your client.

Understand what the client wants: Do you all remember an Ad from IDFC which shows a man walk into a bank to open an account. He tells the banker "mujhe aapke bank me account kholna hai", and the banker replies "mujhe pata hai! Kyunki hum samajhte hain aapko, hum samajhte hai rishton ki ahmiyat ko" Again the poor customer tries to talk and gives his documents "ye mere documents hai". The banker takes the documents and goes on... "humko pata hai aapke sapne kitne maiyne rakhte hain... aapke aj ke sath hum khade hain, kal, aaj aur kal". And then the client loses his cool, he gets up and go.

The banker just lost the client. Why? Because the client was in no mood to listen to a lecture on relationships, he was clear that he wanted to open an account without wasting much time and when the banker started getting on his nerves, he got annoyed and preferred to leave.

This Ad is a reminder for our advisors, that in most cases our speech on relationships work, but in others it may work otherwise. So, when you meet a client, gauge his preferences, his situation, he might have extended his lunch break by half an hour just to meet you and do a tax saving investment, because he is almost near his deadline of submitting his proofs. So what he is expecting from you is a quick brush up on the available products, a small financial performance comparison, and a genuine advice. A speech on relationships won't be welcome at this point of time.

Your Good Morning and Good Night messages can be annoying: Yes, we do advise to "Keep in Touch" but there is a limit to it. You get annoyed but you cannot disown your relatives and friends, so max what you do is put these groups on silent. But remember, a financial advisor is neither a friend nor family, in the initial stages at least. So, remember if your client is reading but not responding to your "Keep in Touch" messages, take it as a hint, he is not liking it, so restrict your messages to festivals, anniversaries and important financial updates only.

How do I know what's the limit?

So, the answer to this is you need to build the ability to study human behaviour. Study the client's reactions: Study your client's body language, his expressions. When a smile on his lips transforms into a frown on his forehead, or a response to your 15 minute speech is a "hmmmm", this indicates he is being turned off, so you need to stop right then. Give him some space, let him talk, understand this is not the right moment, may be your relationship building would take some more time, you may need another ice breaker.

Study his responses: Carefully review his response to your messages, e-mails or calls, then decide how you have to proceed. If your client reciprocates to your Good Morning's with a Good Morning and a smiley, when he appreciates your calls and is all ears to you, this means you are going in the right direction, your technique is working here, but remember there are limits here too, don't try to intrude in his personal life too much. On the other hand, another client of yours is not responding to your wishes, and is irritated to the extent that he doesn't even bother to call you back when he misses your call, you must realize that your dedication towards maintaining Personal Touch is not working here. You really need to give him space and restrict your touch to work only.

So, the bottomline is maintaining Personal Touch with your clients is essential to build a connection and trust. But then there is a limit to how much a seer wishes to see. Understand the client, his preferences, his openness to relationships and then draw a customized relationship line for every client. Also react as per the situation, sometimes a social butterfly may also not be in a mood or doesn't have the time to eat the side dish, they may be interested in the main course only. So you need to know when you have to offer the soup, the starters and the sides along with the main course.