How Financial Advisors Can Build Client Loyalty

Most financial advisers are always looking to find new clients. The clients are the business. If you don’t have them, your business won’t be sustainable. 

As a result, financial advisers spend a lot of time and money on lead generation and new client acquisition. 

But what about keeping the clients you already have? Retention is just as valuable as new client acquisition. With that said, many financial advisers take client loyalty for granted. It isn’t until you lose a client that you start thinking about what you could have done to keep them.

A little effort can go a long way toward boosting client loyalty. In this post, we will cover some of the tactics you can deploy to increase loyalty among your clients.

Know Your Clients

The first tip is to get to know your clients. You obviously want to start by learning about your client’s financial goals so you can serve them better, but you should go beyond that. Get to know them as individuals. Give them a chance to know you as well. Most clients like a personal touch. They will feel better about the client/advisor relationship if they feel like they know you. Clients will also be less likely to leave for a competitor they don’t know if they feel like they have a more personal relationship with you. 

Create a Personalized Experience

Building personal relationships with clients is good, but you should also aim to create a service that feels more personalized as well. For example, maybe you send automated emails to provide clients with updates. Start these emails by addressing people with their names. You could do the same when they login to your website. Little things like that can go a long way. You could also offer various customizable services that clients could use to personalize the experience.

Customer Service

Whether you run a retail store or a financial services business, you need to do what you can to improve customer service. Clients usually call for support when they are either having a problem or when they need a question answered. If they don’t feel like they are getting the help they need, they will be unsatisfied with your business. The worst thing that can happen is that they feel like the support team isn’t even trying. Do your best to make sure your team can provide the support your clients need when they need it. 

Always Follow Through

Setting expectations is a good idea for a financial advisor. Discuss your strategy with your clients and explain the results they can expect. You should also tell them about the services you provide and what they can expect from the advisor/client relationship. However, you should always make good on the promises you make. If you say you can do something or that you will do something, make sure you follow through on your word. If you can’t keep a promise, you shouldn’t make it. Clients will leave if they feel like you oversold yourself.

Stay Connected

Make efforts to stay in touch with your clients. Send them regular updates in emails. Maybe schedule the occasional phone call. You could also consider connecting on social media. Social media can be great for building relationships and boosting engagement. A regular newsletter is another good idea. Newsletters for financial advisors can be a way to keep in touch while providing valuable financial information. You should also be ready to have in-person meetings when clients need them.

Ask for Feedback

Whether positive or negative, your clients have opinions. Many of them will not offer their opinions unsolicited. However, if you send emails asking for feedback or with surveys, most of them will share their opinions. A little feedback can be great for showing what you are doing well and where you could use a little improvement. If you see an issue that comes up a lot in feedback, it might indicate an area that needs attention. Furthermore, asking for and acting on feedback will show your clients that you care about what they have to say. 

Show Appreciation 

Clients also want to feel appreciated. If you aren’t showing appreciation, they might assume you take them for granted. One easy way to show appreciation is to end every communication with a thank you. You could also send appreciation emails every once in a while. Another way to show appreciation could be to send clients birthday emails or emails to greet them on the holidays. It doesn’t take much to show appreciation, but it can do a lot to boost loyalty.

Client loyalty is the key to success as a financial advisor. Fortunately, it doesn’t require a lot of time, effort or money to build loyalty. With the strategies in this post, most financial advisors should be able to maintain high retention numbers.