Call centre creates flood of client referrals
The number of calls to MLC’s Client Gateway call centre has increased 20 per cent in the 12 months to September 2010, resulting in a significant number of referrals to its adviser base.
General manager of business development at MLC, Peter Greenaway, said the increase in calls had assisted its Connect for Growth strategy as part of its new business start-up program. Some 20,000 phone calls came through the call centre boosted by TV advertising last year, about 5,000 of which resulted in client referrals to MLC’s aligned advisers, he said.
Greenaway said the calls ranged from those looking for basic information or simple advice to those with complex needs that needed to sit with an adviser. These clients represented a wide demographic, those from a low socio-economic background to those with significant wealth. All those manning the call centre were licensed advisers, who could handle simple advice enquiries and deliver Statements of Advice, or refer those with complex needs onto an adviser, said Greenaway.
“We’ve got this really alive and well program of feeding client introductions to our planners,” said Greenaway, adding that because of the telephone service the advisers know quite a bit about the clients’ circumstances, while the client understands the charging structure they can expect.
“So it’s a nice warm introduction,” he said.
The Client Gateway call centre has been operating for five years and Greenaway described it as the embryonic stage of limited advice.
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