(June 2008) A client service standard is a powerful and underutilized tool. In earlier columns, I talked about creating a strong brand for your business — one created by consistently meeting your client’s expectations. One way to make those expectations reasonable, and the goal of meeting them attainable, is to create and implement the use of a client service standard.
A service standard demonstrates or outlines, in black and white, what clients can and should expect from you. Many companies use this concept to differentiate themselves. A familiar example can be found in the car maintenance business — there are hordes of mom-and-pop garages out there, but there is only one “Midas Touch” program that offers a multi-point visual courtesy check, inside, outside, under the hood and under the vehicle before technicians offer you a written report. The magic of this program is that it sets expectations.
This is a sample client service standard:
As your primary financial advisors, we recognize that we must continue to meet and exceed your expectations. If at any time you have an issue, concern or question, feel free to call us immediately! With the Sally Advisor team, there is no such thing as an unimportant question.
Here is our client service standard:
1. We commit to listen to your needs, wants and concerns. We will not make a recommendation until we fully understand your problem.
2. We will always explain your financial planning options, costs and our relationship with suppliers when making recommendations to you. We want to ensure that you feel we are putting your interests ahead of ours.
3. We will always explain our recommendations in plain language so that you always understand what we are talking about.
4. We will contact you to set regular meetings, to review performance, and to discuss future planning opportunities.
5. We provide all clients with the option of a comprehensive financial plan so that you understand all of your risks with regard to investment returns, retirement income, tax, insurance, wills and estate planning.
6. We endeavour to fully understand your lifestyle and retirement needs so that we properly balance the risk in your portfolio with your expectation of returns.
7. We will measure your investment performance against written goals and benchmarks rather than rely on historical performance.
8. A large component of our role as your advisor is to educate you about new ideas and opportunities. We commit to bringing you new and relevant ideas as they are introduced to the marketplace.
9. We commit to fully explain all fees and costs associated with the implementation of your plan.
10. We have a 24-hour “return call” policy. If you call us with a question, concern or issue, we will get back to you with the answer as soon as possible.
“The Sally Advisor team replaces emotion with discipline.”
Before discarding this idea, ask yourself, “How do I build a brand and referable business when I am not first setting expectations?” Recognize the difficulty your clients have when evaluating your ability to meet and exceed expectations when these expectations are open-ended.
The key to establishing and maintaining trust is to provide consistent, continual and predictable service. Clients like familiarity; they don’t like surprises.
Surveys suggest that today’s prospective client will interview more than one advisor before settling on a new one. If your goal is to secure new clients, it is vital that you separate yourself from the other candidates. This is similar to a job interview. The candidate who wins will be the one who can best demonstrate his or her ability to remove the stress clients are feeling about their current situation.
The following is a list of common stressors mentioned by clients in focus groups I’ve conducted across Canada:
“I want an advisor who listens and understands my situation before proposing recommendations.”
“I want objectivity. I want to know that the recommendations are in my best interest.”
“We want to be spoken to in a language we understand.”
“We want to know when we will have reviews and future discussions.”
“I want to know the best way to reach my advisor — either by phone, face-to-face or using e-mail.”
“We want to know if we have access to a comprehensive financial plan.”
“We need to understand the relationship between our lifestyle and our expectation of returns.”
“We want to know how you measure performance.”
“We need to know that you are always scouring the landscape for relevant ideas or opportunities.”
“I don’t mind you getting paid, but I prefer to know about the fees, costs and your compensation.”
“If I have a burning issue, when can I expect a response?”
When you review this list, you will quickly realize that each stressor corresponds with a point covered in the sample service standard provided.
If this tool appeals to you, I have one word of caution: Introduce only service standards that you can meet. The merit of having written standards evaporates quickly if they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.
Shawn O’Brien is vice-president, Atlantic Canada, at Connor Clark and Lunn. For more information, contact Shawn at sobrien@cclgroup.com.
(06/23/08)