Survey Says!

Marketers have long known that Client Surveys are a good thing. They are an effective tool that positively influences customers and clients.

In a seminal study by Paul Dholakia and Dr. Vicki Morwitz, published in Harvard Business Review, 1000 customers of a large financial services company were tracked for one year…following a simple 10-minute customer survey that was conducted over the telephone.

Here’s what Dholakia and Morwitz found:

• Survey participants were 3x as likely to open new accounts with the firm,
• Survey participants were less than half as likely to defect,
• Survey participants had a significantly higher profitability profile as compared to the control group, and
• Moreover, Professors Horwitz and Dholakia believe that the positive spillover of the client survey last anywhere from 3-8 years.
  

Unfortunately, there is some evidence that not all financial advisors have not yet embraced client surveys and the positive impact they have on client profitability and loyalty. Recently, our firm, ClientWise, polled a large group of top-performing financial advisors…and discovered that only 20% were surveying their clients on a consistent basis.

This is a missed opportunity. In fact, we think that individual financial advisors can implement a very personalized client survey that is even more effective than the previously discussed results of Horwitz and Dholakia. We call this the “ClientWise Conversation” …a series of 5 straightforward and thoughtful questions that get to the heart of the client-advisor relationship.

Recently, one of our coaches reported on the learning that one of his clients gained through a ClientWise Conversation with his top clients.

Among other findings, the financial advisor discovered:

1. That several of his clients were concerned that he wasn’t on a team, and (without knowing his succession plan) wondered what might happen if he left the business unexpectedly,
2. A surprisingly large number of the advisor’s clients asked why they hadn’t been approached for referrals. (Because they hadn’t been asked, they had assumed that the advisor wasn’t looking to build his business.)
3. Some retiree clients were concerned about the account fees, while noting that the accounts did not have much trading activity. In their minds, they had been asking themselves, “Where is the value?”
4. Yet, most all of the clients felt great about the overall relationship, and were delighted that their financial advisors cared enough to ask them how things were going.

Without engaging his clients in the deeper discussion that we call the "ClientWise Conversation", this advisor would have been oblivious to these important issues; some of which were putting his clients "at-risk", and others being obvious opportunities to grow.

by Chris Holman