'Getting personal' is central to retaining clients
‘Intensely personal’ communication and the importance of ‘you’
Think of your own experience as a consumer; when you’re purchasing an item or experiencing a service, do you appreciate receiving personalised communications and suggestions? How about receiving tailored content and benefits that are specific to your needs?
Like most clients, maybe you’ve even come to expect it as a fundamental part of your service experience. The technological age has permanently raised client expectations to unprecedented heights – they are judging their interactions with all service providers based on the information, service and relationship offered being contextual, convenient, and most importantly, specifically relevant to them.
Clients have become accustomed to getting what they want, and they’re gravitating toward the experiences that recognise them as individuals with unique needs at every step of their journey.
Our extensive research that delves into the adviser-client relationship conducted in conjunction with political consultants and word specialists maslansky + partners, showed that in a conversation with advisers, 90% of clients’ most important topic of discussion was themselves. However, the research also showed that advisers spend 82% of the time talking in an initial client meeting.
Therein lies an opportunity for advisers, to create a platform for clients to voice their individual situation and needs. People by nature enjoy talking about themselves, so by making a conscious effort to provide space in the conversation to give clients the chance to open up, we can gather more insight into their life and tailor the conversation to them.
Simple but effective - the power of 'you'
One small action for advisers to be conscious of in every conversation is to actively use one of the most powerful words, that is also one of our simplest — ‘you’.
Every time Invesco Consulting tests the words “you/your” in our research focus groups, there is always increased enthusiasm from participants, all who are advised clients. Advisers should remember to wrap everything consistently in the context of “you,” the client.
It is worth noting that this simple pronoun cannot be overused, so including it as much as possible in conversation will go a long way to improving the overall positive emotional impact of the relationship in the eyes of your client.
The golden ratio
Invesco Consulting’s research found there is a ratio to balance out the use of “you/your” against the less favourable pronouns “me/I” in order to evoke a spike in emotional engagement from clients.
For every “me/I” used, “you/your” should be used 2 ½ times more. This is enough for clients to innately feel a strong emotional pull to their adviser.
Clients are more likely to want to begin and actively participate in a relationship with their adviser if they feel understood, listened to and the conversation and communications received are personalised and relevant. Client expectations carry a lot of weight; they know what they want, and there is a growing expectation on advisers to meet not only financial needs but increasing emotional needs.
The one way to ensure that these kinds of demands are met and exceeded, advisers must create intensely personal communications and experiences at every interaction.
Invesco Consulting is a unique resource that exists to help advisers in the three areas all advisers consistently focus on – winning new business, retaining existing clients and growing their wallet and market share. We focus solely on the importance of the client relationship, methodically researching the language of our industry and the emotions associated with it to create actionable and implementable practice management and business strategy programs, assisting advisers across Australia.
