Improve Your Client Experience With These Thoughtful Engagement Strategies
With so many financial resources available at investors’ fingertips today, clients are looking for their advisors to provide more than investment advice. In fact, 60% of clients believe more frequent and personalized communication with their advisor would give them more confidence in their financial plan.
Clients need to feel heard, cared for, and included in the conversation, and that requires a lot of positive and personalized communication.
But what often gets overlooked here is the fact that positive client engagement isn’t just good for clients, it’s essential for advisor well-being and success too. Without productive conversations, advisors may not have the information needed to serve their clients to the best of their abilities.
Transforming your firm’s client engagement responsibilities from what feels like a burden into a mutual benefit requires a shift in strategy – but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Read on to explore challenges to positive client engagement, strategies to overcome them, and tools to help you along the way.
Challenges to Positive and Sustainable Client Engagement
With an understanding of why client engagement is important for both you and your clients, let’s consider what potential challenges are standing in the way from the perspective of both parties.
As an advisor, you are probably busy. You tend to work long hours in the office, juggling many tasks, while trying to please multiple clients. As you stretch too thin, you may become easily stressed, burnt out, and feel too busy to take on another recurring responsibility. The result: Non-essentials like client engagement and proactive check-ins tend to fall on the back burner, and you focus on more immediate and tangible tasks.
You may also find it difficult to identify clients’ specific concerns before they escalate into an urgent phone call or email, especially if they haven’t prioritized proactive communication in the past. In turn, clients may not feel particularly inclined to share information or reach out beyond their annual or quarterly meetings.
Related: 5 Client Personas Every Financial Advisor Eventually Encounters
If the lack of positive communication continues over time, it can crack the foundation of trust in your relationship. As a result, the partnership may even end prematurely or otherwise detract from your clients’ overall experience working with your firm.
3 Ways to Make Client Engagement a Positive Experience for Everyone
1. Communicate on Your Schedule
One thing’s clear: Your clients want to hear from you more.
Anytime you’re able to let your clients know you’re thinking about them and their financial or personal well-being, you’re building up your credibility and exceeding their expectations. Those small moments compound over time to create a concrete foundation of trust, and they’re what help build a long-term successful relationship.
Of course, dropping everything and turning your attention to a client when they feel stressed can be difficult. Rather than wait for clients to approach you, try taking a few proactive measures to ensure you’re communicating on your schedule.
Provide regular check-ins to anticipate issues and answer your clients’ questions before they’re even asked. This will satisfy your clients’ craving for regular communication without sacrificing your productivity.
2. Focus on Quality
When it comes to communication, quality is just as important as quantity.
Yes, you should be communicating often, but those communications should be personalized and value-driven (as opposed to sounding impersonal or irrelevant). As technology has advanced in recent years, clients are now accustomed to receiving personalized communications, meaning the days of generic mass emails are gone.
Consider tailoring your message to address each client’s specific needs, goals, and risk tolerance. Creating those real moments of connection with your clients will likely feel more meaningful and purposeful for you, too!
Related: Steal These 5 Client Engagement Examples
If you could use some help creating and sharing hyper-personalized communications, the Nitrogen platform empowers you to send targeted emails and messages based on how your client lists are segmented. That way, you can leverage client data to personalize content and ensure your communication resonates with each individual.
3. Automate Your Processes
The great thing about using a platform like Nitrogen to boost your client engagement efforts is that you can automate certain aspects of your operations. In fact, technology can be an incredibly effective tool for prioritizing client engagement.
While you’re focused on serving your clients, automated processes and workflows can operate in the background of your firm to handle things like:
- Portfolio spot-checks
- Risk tolerance assessments
- Simple client communications or alerts
- And more
Related: Why and How to Automate Client Engagement
How Nitrogen’s Client Engagement Tools Make a More Enjoyable Advisor Experience
If you’re committing to regular check-ins with your clients (as you should!), Nitrogen’s Check-ins feature serves as a built-in early warning system to help you closely monitor your client’s thoughts and concerns about the markets, their financial goals, or anything else on their mind. With client communication tools and engagement features, Nitrogen helps you build stronger client relationships and create a positive and engaging experience for everyone involved. See for yourself how Nitrogen powers positive client engagement by scheduling a demo today.