Thursday, September 28, 2017

Are You Communicating with Clients Often Enough?

Chances are you are NOT!

A CEG Worldwide study of more than 200 wealth advisors found that the top-earning group (earning over $1 million annually) make it a high priority to reach out to their clients regularly. The top-earning financial advisors contact their top clients an average of 28 times a year (2.3 times per month). By contrast, the next most successful group—those earning $500,000 to $999,999 a year—contacted each client an average of just 13.2 times per year (1.1 times per month). The least successful financial advisors were even less likely to communicate with clients. “The fact is, today’s clients greatly value regular outreach from their financial advisors—and will reward those who excel in this area,” concluded CEG researchers.
Still not convinced that frequent client contact is critical?
According to a Vanguard/Spectrem Group Report across all wealth segments, client satisfaction “directly correlates” with the frequency of advisor contact. “Clients who heard from their advisors at least once per quarter were significantly more satisfied than those who received outreach semiannually. For millionaires, satisfaction dropped 28 percentage points for clients contacted twice per year as compared with those contacted every quarter.”
*** Take the Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey and see how you stack up.
But frequency of contact is not enough.

According to the latest Factset Research: “Impressive track records are no longer enough to inspire confidence in proposed strategy; very high net worth clients want to understand in depth how future returns will be sourced.” Researchers added that “their focus on content contrasts sharply with less wealthy clients, who draw on their personal experiences with a firm’s employees to guide their impressions.”

MONTHLY CLIENT
CONTACT

0-1 times
*********************************45%   
2-5 times
*************************31% 
6 times or more
*****************24%
Source: HB Publishing & Marketing CO, LLC and The Financial Awareness Foundation,2017
Our own Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey, conducted in association with The Financial Awareness Foundation, found that more than half of wealth advisors (55%) are contacting their clients at least 2 to 5 times per month. And three-fourths of those advisors (74%) expert their firms to grow by at least 10 percent in the next 12 months.

*** Take the Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey and see how you stack up.
Conclusion

When it comes to client communication, there’s no substitute for quality and relevancy—but don’t underestimate the importance of consistency. In my next post, we’ll talk about the importance of “communication cadence” and look at the types of communications vehicles that successful wealth advisors are finding most effective.



VCRGD6XDXT3T


TAGS: Financial Awareness Foundation, CEG Worldwide, Spectrem Group, Factset, wealth advisor communication

No comments:

Post a Comment