Monday Morning Jumpstart with Dan Richards
10 minutes to drive your week
Topic for October 12, 2009: Building deeper bonds with clients
- It's often the little things that build deep bonds with clients. One way to do that is to tap into important events in client's lives and let clients know you're thinking of them, essentially hitchhiking on the good will that accompany these events.
At the beginning of September, the New York Times published a series of nine short articles titled: "College advice from people who've been there awhile", featuring advice from some of America's best known and most respected educators. You'll find links to those articles below.
If you had clients with children heading off to college or university this fall, consider emailing these tips, both for them to read and perhaps to pass on to their children
- In early September, the Globe and Mail published an article by a psychologist about a conversation with teens going back to high school; this might be especially appropriate for parents of 13 to 15 year olds.
- Recently, I talked to an advisor who makes note of cases where her clients have children going off to university. For particularly important clients, she has her assistant go online to that university's bookstore and order sweatshirts for her clients with that university's crest on them – when they arrive, she attaches a note of congratulations and sends them off.
- Suppose you have a client who's a successful business owner who never took a lot of time off – and for the first time in years is taking off two or three weeks to go on a cruise with his or her spouse. One advisor arranged to have a bottle of champagne in their room with a note of congratulations.
- If you have a client taking children or grandchildren to Disneyworld. One advisor sends those clients a book called Everything you need to know about Disneyworld.
- I've talked in the past about a client who acknowledges the birth of a client's child or grandchild by sending the birth announcement blown up and in a frame.
- To take advantage of opportunities to build deeper bonds with clients:
- First, look for opportunities that come up consistently in your client base and decide on two or three that you will focus on.
- Next, be alert for these opportunities – and ensure your staff are as well.
- Finally, try to make it easy to take advantage of these opportunities. The advisor who sends clients the book about Disneyworld keeps copies in his office, so that it's simple to send them to clients.