I was recently reminded that when it comes to effective communication with clients, often it is the little things that resonate and make an impact.

This came out of a conversation with an entrepreneur named Michael, who along with his wife earlier this year had decided to change advisors after a number of years with a broker with one of the bank owned firms.  This broker was in regular contact with investment ideas, but they had concluded that just buying and selling stocks with the goal of making money was not enough. \They needed a longer term plan.

They asked a number of friends for recommendations and ended up meeting with three advisors, one of whom they felt especially comfortable with.  After switching their account, they began the process of developing a long term financial plan, entailing several meetings over a couple of months.

The last of those meetings to review the completed plan and to establish a timeline for implementation took place in early June.  Michael told me that leading up to this last meeting, he and his wife both felt good about the depth of conversation and attention to detail as this plan was being developed; but then the advisor did something that cemented the view that they had made the right decision.

Five seconds that paid a big dividend

That last meeting took about 90 minutes.  As they were wrapping up, their advisor said:

"We've ended up with a really solid plan. I'm looking forward to working with you to implement this. We'll be in regular touch over the next while. Should you need to reach me, normally, clients prefer to contact me at the office during normal business hours, but if anything comes up that's urgent, let me give you my home phone number."

And with that he took two business cards, wrote his number on them and gave one to Michael and one to his wife.  He then walked them to the elevator, pressed the button and waited for it to arrive,then thanked them again for coming in.

Michael described the conversation as he and his wife left the building.

"I know it's a small thing" he said "but giving us his home number and telling us we  could call him  at home just made us feel comfortable about his commitment to his clients. We walked away feeling that he is there for us.  In fact, it occurred to me that maybe I should do the same thing with some of my best customers."

Why this workedIn essence, this advisor's gesture had turned a favourable view going into the meeting into absolute certainty that they had made the right decision. What is striking is that developing the plan had taken many hours, writing his phone number on his business card had taken five seconds, and yet, that is  what stuck out.

Let's be clear that without the work on developing the plan, giving these clients his card and writing his name on it would not have had the same effect.  Small things like this are not a substitute for delivering on the things clients expect, but once you have  met those expectations, they can have a major impact in getting a return on all the other work you have done.

Some other reasons this worked so effectively:

1.       When these clients had signed on with this advisor, developing a plan had been part of the promise. None of us are impressed when someone delivers the things we are expecting, no matter how many hours It might take for them to produce the work.  By contrast, that business card was unexpected.

2.       Providing his home number communicated his commitment to clients.  In essence he was saying that this was not just a business transaction for him, he truly does care about his clients beyond the revenue they generate.

3.       Rather than saying "here's my card with my home number printed on it" or "if you need to reach me, you can call me on the cell number on my card", he wrote his home number on the cards. This conveyed the sense that he was doing this especially for them.

4.       Rather than writing his phone number down on one card and giving it to Michael, he gave each of Michael and his wife a card. He essentially treated them as equals, saying to Michael's wife that she is just as important a client as her husband.

5.       He did this at the very end of the meeting and then walked his clients to the elevator, waiting for it to arrive and then thanking them again. I have written in the past about research on the "peak end effect".  The things during a meeting that make the most impact on clients and that they remember the most strongly are first the peaks, the highs and the lows and second the things that happen at the very end of the meeting. 

As you think about your own client meetings, consider what you do at the very end to make the meetings memorable.

High impact, low cost

Many advisors reading this would see how this worked, but would be concerned about a barrage of client calls intruding on their evenings and weekends.

Over the past while, I have spoken to three different advisors who give clients their cell phone number or their phone number at home.  In every case, they reported that they  almost never got calls from clients on their cell phone or at home; once a quarter seems to be about the norm.  Even during the 2008 financial crisis, client calls outside of their business were few and far between.  Of note, one of the advisors did say he is selective about the clients he does this for; he does not do this for clients who are already calling him regularly at the office. 

Now, cynics might say the reason there are few calls is because clients had lost those numbers. Regardless of the reason, giving clients your home number for urgent matters seems to be one of those things that is low cost but relatively high return. 

Many advisors struggle with how to let clients know that they value the relationship and truly care about their peace of mind.  Telling clients that they can call you outside of business hours is one way to do this, at what would seem to be a relatively low cost.

And if you would like to read more about structuring meetings for maximum impact, here are a couple of articles on this:

http://www.clientinsights.ca/article/structuring-meetings-for-maximum-impact

http://www.clientinsights.ca/article/an-unexpected-route-to-ecstatic-clients