CONTRARY to what many planners may think, clients often don’t believe they have a relationship with their adviser, according to consultant and trainer Steve Lesser.
“Individuals and institutions tend to talk a lot about client relationships, but if you ask the client, the answer is always that they don’t believe they have a relationship, or if they do it’s not defined the same way,” Lesser says.
Presenting on “Client Focus”at theFPAConvention, Lesser says while planners are under pressure to “do more in less time,” he argues this results in clients feeling they are being sold to or having certain solutions forced upon them.
“I don’t think advisers always take time to understand the client’s needs. We need to understand how people not only want the respect of others but control of what’s important. I think in a lot of advisory situations, they feel like control has been taken away from them,” Lesser says.
To reverse this situation, Lesser suggests advisers listen to their clients more — quoting the old adage “you’ve got two ears, two eyes and one mouth and you should use them in that proportion” — but also look long-term and open the lines of communication to adjust the strategy as client needs change.
“Advisers should have their own account plans in place to look at the opportunities to go back to their clients and look at how they use personal information, so they can start to have a strategic approach to managing the relationships on a long-term basis, not just an immediate result approach.”
While information systems play an important part in monitoring these relationships, Lesser warns against becoming rigidly tied to processes at the expense of communication.
“Typically in the market up to 65 per cent of people change job function, title or similar in a year, 43 per cent change phone numbers and 35 per cent change e-mail addresses, so there are a lot of customer contact opportunities within a year. How you manage those has a lot to do with how successful you’ll be.”
