Proof
Many advisors make the mistake of assuming that if they simply manage assets properly, their clients will be satisfied. Accordingly, they spend most of their time and effort trying to ensure satisfactory investment performance.
Unfortunately, industry research tells us this assumption is off the mark. While investment performance is certainly important to keeping wealthy clients happy, it’s not enough.
- After seeing their mailing for the educational sessions to previous customers go into a tailspin, ABC Financial now sees over 100 attendees per session… the difference? They simply attached a handwritten note.
Marketing Report 8/22/05 - 6% of clients felt their financial advisor fell short of their expectations and only 59% felt their advisors met expectations. A miniscule 35% felt their advisor exceeded expectations.
Investment Executive’s Research - At the midpoint of satisfaction where clients are neither dissatisfied or highly satisfied, the client retention level was only 20%. Bottom line: Satisfied clients leave, highly satisfied ones stay.
Harvard Business Review - Four different studies show that the most satisfied clients, those most happy with their advisor, have the most contact. One of the studies also concluded that the top reason for people leaving their advisor is having too little contact.
- Studies of top producers show that they get twice as many referrals as mid producing and ten times as many referrals as low producing advisors. It is not enough to just ask for referrals. The top producers all had a formal referral system in place and made it a priority in their practice.
- There are 2.7 million individuals in North America with investable assets exceeding $1 million. Together, these high-net-worth individuals control $9.3 trillion in assets. The report estimates these assets will grow more than 10% annually over the next several years and reach $14 trillion by 2008. The successful advisor just needs to capture a tiny slice to become highly successful.
The Capgemini/Merrill Lynch 2005 World Wealth Report
Why Clients Leave
It is clear when looking at the reasons wealthy investors give for switching advisors. One study, based on Prince’s survey of 449 wealthy clients who had changed advisors, found 87% left beause of a poor service relationship. A mere 13% switched because of investment return.
Some of the reasons given were:
“I wasn’t sure if he really knew who I was when I called.”
“I never heard from him. It always seemed like I called him.”
“I didn’t have a personal relationship with him or her.”
Most advisors would like to work with the wealthy but most investors are not satisfied with the level of service they get. According to research, most investors in the upper-middle and above income brackets are decidedly unhappy with their current advisors but are likely to remain with those advisors until someone they perceive as better comes along. It appears that upwards of 70% of wealthy investors would be in the market for a new advisor if they could find one more attuned to them and what they want.
Studies Agree on Importance of Communication
According to another study, only about 25% of wealthy clients rate their advisors as excellent. Such clients not only remain with their advisors but also provide them with both additional assets and referrals. The remaining three-quarters are likely to leave their advisors at any time.
1,417 investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets were interviewed by Prince & Associates. They also interviewed 512 financial advisors asking them how well they felt they served their wealthy clients and their view of their professional services. Though the majority of investors said they were satisfied, they were clearly not fans. They are not about to recommend you to their friends and quite possibly are about to reduce their investments with you or leave you all together. Nearly one half of those that said they are satisfied also said they were likely to take $100,000 in assets away from their primary advisor in the next 12 months. Nearly a quarter of the “satisfied” investors said that they were very or extremely likely to remove assets from their primary advisor over the coming year. "Satisfied" doesn’t cut it anymore!
- A study commissioned by Registeredrep.com found that despite all the money and effort the big brokerage houses had spent to create their wealth management divisions, investors are not impressed. Affluent clients, according to the study, still regard traditional reps as “salespeople” with hidden, “vested interests” who push the product of the day. Indeed, nearly 60% of those in the study said they used two or more advisors because of their view that advisors are salespeople. Nearly 80% said that they are still looking for a “true wealth manager.”
- According to a recent study by Sandford Institute: 78% of respondents said the real reason they changed companies was that they “didn’t feel appreciated” and that their business was taken for granted.
- John Nersesian, a managing director for Nuveen Investments stated, “The reasons that high-net-worth clients leave financial advisors are poor service, inadequate communication, and lack of proactive advice.”
- Cassara Associates research indicates that eight out of ten clients leave their current advisor because of poor relationships with them rather than because of the product performance. Most advisors focus on product and sales issues but investors always look for those advisors that care for them and their interests.
- According to top advisor coach Steve Moeller, the criteria that investors valued the most are all tied to emotional feelings about the manager. Most clients don’t leave their investment advisors because of poor performance. They leave because of poor service, lack of attentiveness, and the felling that the advisor doesn’t really understand what’s important to them.
- Steve Moeller, one of the foremost experts on marketing financial services to the wealthy, says that what wealthy investors really want is a long-term relationship with an expert, a trustworthy financial advisor who understands their goals, empathizes with their problems and helps them get what they want.
- The Talvest Report 2000 reports that the #1 reason investors leave their advisor is lack of communication. 69% of all investors interviewed said they would leave their current advisor if they ran across an advisor that communicated better, showed more interest in them or didn’t make them feel taken for granted.
- A study by the Rockefeller Foundation on lost customers found that:
- 68% left for no special reason
- 14% left because their complaint was not handled satisfactorily
- 9% were pulled away by competition
- 9% left because they moved
The surprise here is “no special reason.” How close do you think they were to their advisor?
Experts Agree on the Value of a Handwritten Note
Harvard MBA Lauren Marrus sees that new technology very often enhances rather than eliminates the old technology. And, she is a big fan of the short note. Harvey MacKay, author of best selling “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,” is a big fan of the short note. He details in his book how beneficial the personal note can be. Mr. MacKay says, “ Never underestimate the importance of the personal gesture, and right at the top of the list of effective gestures sits the handwritten note.” Ellen Drummond, president of Polished Presentations International and frequent note writer has received handwritten notes from people tops in their field like Herb Kelleher (CEO Southwest Airlines), Harvey MacKay (Best selling business books author), Katie Couric (Today Show), and many others. Ellen states that a handwritten note is worth ten times more than an email. Tom Peters in his book “In pursuit of WOW!” encourages more handwritten notes because frankly the average person does NOT do it.
One of the most sincere and least costly business building techniques is the vastly underrated personal note, not the email, not a phone call, but a handwritten note. A handwritten note indicates you took time out of your busy schedule to recognize them. Such notes aren’t soon forgotten.
A charismatic CEO once taught me the value of sending notes to folks you don’t even know. Don’t be surprised when they call you back. I’ve seen it happen time and again.
Techrepublic.com
If your house is like mine, you get piles of mail every day. What are the first pieces of mail you open? I’ll bet it’s the card sized envelopes that are personally addressed and, even better, personally written.
Emails are too easy and too common. A handwritten note shows extra effort, attention to detail, and is a huge competitive advantage. Here’s how personal notes separate you from your competition:
- It is perceived as taking time and, because of this, its value as a competitive tool far outweighs the effort.
- Personal thank you notes reduce buyer’s remorse.
- Keeps you and your services foremost in their minds so when they need additional services or someone they know needs what you have, they remember you
Top CEOs send personalized, handwritten thank-you notes to each and every one of their colleagues at client/customer organizations. (Don’t underestimate the power of a hand-written note! These can build truly extraordinary customer relationships.)
Develop a system to track when you should send cards. The best of the best tend to do it daily or numerous times per week. The alternative of trying to go back and figure out who to send cards to can seem overwhelming and therefore, probably won’t get done
Biz Journal.com
Nothing has the power of the personal note. The impact far exceeds all other written communications because you reach out personally
Forrest Wallace Cato,
Veteran Media Advocate
Sending a simple note card can go a long way to developing rapport that you need with the media.
Benjamin Lewis,
president of Perception,
a PR firm specializing in communications for financial professionals
…it’s the personal touch that counts.
Well known and respected financial advisor coach, Lew Nason on the handwritten note.
Your mother was right: Hand-written notes express your gratitude, appreciation, regard, and attention infinitely better than mere phone calls or, heaven help us, emails. Which, of course, is why you need to decide to utilize personal notes to your marketing tactics.
Veronika Noize, The Marketing Coach
Ask yourself: When was the last time you sent a personally signed thank-you note to your customer base? Start today and select ten customers a day and drop them a note of thanks. Oh, by the way, it’s OK to include a special notice of any new products you might be offering and making available only to your best VIP customers.
Ask yourself: When is the last time you picked up the phone and made a personal call to someone at your level in your customer base? If your’re looking up at the ceiling tiles giving your answer some thought, it’s been too, too long. Don't be shy in getting in the habit of asking your existing customers for add-on business and referrals. They’ll both add loyalty and revenue to your business relationships.
—Business Coach, Tony Parinello
How caring and personal is your institution? Sensory cues include handwritten notes, phone calls, email messages, home or office visits, newspaper clippings, thank-you notes…You can probably think of many other sensory cues that imply quality or mediocrity. Simply recognizing how they can shape your identity is an important first step in bulding a successful brand.
Journal of Marketing
Send notes frequently that say:
- Thanks for your support
- Thanks for your friendship
- Thanks for the referral
- Thanks for the opportunity to learn more about you
- Thanks for doing business with me
- Thanks for taking the time to….
Donna Fisher, PR expert
Are you teaching your kids the value of writing thank you notes? It may help them in life in ways that you would never expect. A job offer that they really want. An interview with a mover or a shaker. People remember people that write personal notes.
World Village.com
Handwritten notes or letters to their friends greatly boost returns.
John W. Corwin, Corwin Consulting, LLC
Newsletters, special reports, or other information that provides useful content with a subtle underlying sell message. Consider putting together a brief newsletter that provides valuable information they can use, not just puffery about your company and products.Post cards—We all trash unopended direct mail. When was the last time, though, you didn’t at least skim the message on a postcard?
Handwritten notes—Takes more time, but if you commit to just a few of these per week to your very best prospects, the rewards could be well worth it.
Businessbyphone.com
According to a study conducted by the Technical Assistance Research Project in Washington D.C., 3% of customers leave for convenience, 9% because of a relationship, 15% because of product, price of delivery problems, and 5% for other miscellaneous reasons.
That leaves 68% for the most significant reason: perceived indifference. Customers want to feel important and appreciated. A key to building customer loyalty is to build a relationship with customers/clients/patients where they feel important and appreciated.
Acctsite.com
It requires 16 times the investment for an existing customer to replace the profits of one who is lost. Keeping existing customers is a key to running a successful business.
John Sculley
former president of Apple Computer
Why do we lose customers? According to a study in Washington D.C., 68% of customers leave for perceived indifference. Customers want to feel important and appreciated. A key to building customer loyalty is to build a relationship with customers to make them feel important and appreciated.
A handwritten note is the best way to do this.
Profitadvisors.com
When was the last time you received a personal note from a colleague or a client? A handwritten message that expressed a feeling or a thought composed for you alone? If you’re like me they are few and far between…
The fact that so little one-to-one marketing survives in today’s busy-signal world is geat news for those of us who are serious about building relationships with customers. Why? Because the very rarity of it makes it effective—it stands to reason that a message that is one of two gets a lot more attention than a message that is one of fifty.
When I do get personal notes, they come from the people I would expect have the least time to create them—the CEO I mentiond, an author, a board member, or a legislator. I shouldn’t be surprised—these people got to where they are by understanding that successful businesses are the result of cultivating sincere relationships.
That’s the good news—the better news is that this unique, virtually untapped form of marketing doesn’t cost a lot of money or time.
Creativelatitude.com
Many organizations have had far better results by writing short personal notes on the top of form letters. One organization increased its renewal rate from 60 to 75 percent on a donor list of 5,000 names by having board members write short notes on top of a pre-printed letter.
Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal
When appropriate, write a brief note expressing pleasure at having met and offer your assistance if there’s any way you can be helpful. In this age of technology, many people do this by email. You will make yourself stand out if you send an actual note, especially if it is on fine, substantial, personalized stationary. Depending on your conversation with the person and what you have found out about what they like and dislike, you may decide to send a typed or handwritten note, or send the more standard email.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Researcher Randy Garner studied the effect of sticky notes on written correspondence. He found that compliance with the correspondence with the sticky notes doubled the response rate over the non-sticky noted correspondence.
He also found that people returned the survey with sticky note messages more promptly and gave more attentive answers to the questions. A subsequent study found that the correspondence with sticky notes also were willing to include a lot more personalized information and was especially effective if the request was relatively large.
The implications for you are clear: Regardless of whether it’s a partner or client, including a personal message with your request is likely to motivate the recipient to comply. What’s more, the timeliness and quality of the compliance was likely to be enhanced as well.
Patrick McKenna, Law Firm Strategy and Practice Management
Providing five star service also includes hand written notes and correspondence with guests.
Bill Blantchford, DDS, Dentistry Marketing Expert
Write old customers personal, handwritten notes frequently. “I was just sitting at my desk and your name popped into my head. Are you still having a great time flying all over the country?”
Small business.aol.com
