How To Never Lose A Client Again

The feeling when you lose a client is never great. It can often have a double impact on you as the loss of a client not only impacts your earnings, but also it can make you doubt yourself and your own capabilities, especially if you believed you were doing a good job for your client. There are many factors that cause a client to decide to take their business elsewhere so in this article we are going to look at the most common reasons that advisers lose a client as well as what you can do to ensure you never have to say goodbye to one again.

Why Do Clients Fire Their Adviser?

There are a few reasons here. It might seem unfathomable for many advisers that they could lose a client as, for the most part, everyone thinks they are doing the best job possible and working hard for their client. The culture and work environment you are in plays a big part in this, as well as how regulated your sector is. For a long time in the UAE, there weren’t as many regulations or restrictions in the financial services market, which meant that people played fast and loose with their clients’ money. The culture was to make as much money as possible even if it was against the best interest of a client. Which is where we will start our list of things that cause financial advisers to lose clients.

Not Acting In Your Clients Best Interest

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how to build connections with clients. How to understand their goals and objectives and how to work with them to help them achieve their financial goals. Everything you do and every action you take should be in line with the vision your client has. If your client wants to invest in only renewable energy but according to their portfolio, it won’t help them to achieve their full goal, or may take them longer than they had expected, don’t put money into areas that they wouldn’t want to invest in; even if it will help them to achieve their goals faster. Always act in your client’s best interest. It is your duty to advise the best course of action but don’t go behind their back. This is a positive example but there are many stories of people doing far worse things, playing fast and loose and causing a lot of harm. Your client is trusting you to act on their behalf in the best way possible and even if your intentions are good, they may feel as though you have betrayed their interests.

Lying To Clients

Advisers make mistakes. It happens. Sometimes money invested doesn’t come back the way we thought it would. As an adviser your job is to mitigate that risk and diversify the client portfolio so that any losses or errors aren’t a major issue. All clients know that investing carries risk, so are prepared for it to some degree. However, lying about how a portfolio is going or making underhand transactions to fill gaps or cover holes is not only immoral, but quite possibly illegal. People hate being lied to and when the truth comes out, and it will, a client will drop you quicker than a lead balloon. 

When dealing with people’s money, they are giving you one of the most valuable things they have. Considering the taboo around speaking about money people expect honesty from those that they have trusted to manage it. Even small, seemingly insignificant fabrications of the truth may be enough to have a client move on.

Lack Of Communication

This is a big one. We don’t realise how much communication impacts our relationships, both personal and professional. Clients can often take bad news, and lots of it, as long as they are kept informed. If a client portfolio loses 25% of its value overnight, clients will usually understand as long as they are told about it as it happens. They will likely ask you what you are going to do about it, or even if anything can be done. As long as you are speaking to them about it you can usually find a way to work it out. 

One of the biggest gripes that clients had about their adviser when asked why they dropped them, is that they said their adviser just stopped contacting them. The thing that annoys clients more than anything else in the world is lack of communication. Even if things are going well, they will want to be spoken to on a reasonably regular basis. They want to know that you care about them and are thinking about them as a client. You will never hear from a happy client, but the second that things go wrong, they will be on your case, so it’s best to always be speaking with them.

How To Never Lose A Client Again

Now that we’ve covered the main reasons that clients leave, we’re going to look at how to retain clients and ensure that you never lose a client again. Now, it goes without saying that if you don’t do the things listed above, it is likely that you will keep most of your clients. However, there are things that happen outside of your control that make clients want to either jump ship or simply stop spending money all together. One of those things is an incoming recession. 

During recessions, people get scared. They worry about their jobs, their income and the first thing people do is look at their expenses. What is it that they can cut back on? The answer, typically, is their savings. We know that during economic downturns is when you have the biggest and best opportunity to make big gains when the economic outlook is brighter. However, to your clients, especially those who are new to the world of financial management, continuing to spend money in a market that seems to be constantly losing value sounds like crazy talk. 

Unfortunately, you can cite facts and data as much as you want, logic is unlikely to prevail here. Money is an emotional subject and logical second. You have to help justify the emotion and back it up with facts. We’re going to look at a few ways in which we can help limit the emotional reaction so that the data and logic help to sway the emotional upheaval. 

N.B. These examples will hold true in any economic climate, not just in recession times.

More Than Money Management

Conversely, some people see money management as simple numbers and figures. They may take one look at their finances and say, ‘I need to make a change.’ At this point they will look at what is coming in and going out and simply cut what they believe to be expendable. From a logical point of view, the family pet is a simple cost. They contribute nothing financially and often require a great deal of time and management with little to no reward. From a simple numbers point of view, why would anyone want to have something that only costs them money living in their house? From an emotional and human point of view we know that pets give us great joy, companionship and are considered just as real a family member as husbands, wives, parents and children. People go to extraordinary lengths to look after their pets and spoil them beyond all logical explanation. Now, we aren’t saying you need to go on long walks and play fetch with your client but you do need to become as indispensable to the family unit as a dog. 

As an adviser, you need to get involved in your client’s life. You already know a great deal about them from the research and discovery you have done in order to attract them as a client from your buyer persona work. Now you need to maintain that personal relationship by learning more about their family and personal life. Follow them on their social channels. Like their posts and leave them messages on important milestones. If they feel you are present in their lives and are actively helping them to achieve the goals they have spoken to you about then when it comes to cutting expenses, you won’t be seen as such.

Anticipate Clients’ Needs.

You know your client’s goals. You’re helping them on the pathway to achieving those things, but what is coming over the horizon? Our financial needs and obligations change over time and what was right for a client 5 years ago may not be now. They may need to add, reduce or change services as time goes on. Being there to help them understand and make those edits and changes as they go will position you as a key and trusted adviser, as you should be anyway. 

When you spend more time understanding the personal life of your client you may even be able to proactively suggest new services for them. ‘I see you’ve gotten married, perhaps it’s time to think about insurance? Here are a few really great policies that I have selected that I think might be a great fit for you.’ There may even be new ways for you to communicate with them or to help them track their investments making it easy for them to understand where they stand with their money. 

Educate Your Clients

Without sounding condescending, your clients know very little about money management. After all, that’s why they hired you isn’t it? A lot of the time we see that advisers lose a client not because they have done anything bad, but simply because their client doesn’t feel like they understand what they have been sold or why it’s helping them to achieve their financial goals. They may have even been quite friendly with a client but they may have been embarrassed that they didn’t understand what was going on with their portfolio and they preferred to not work you their adviser anymore because of it. This may sound a bit rational, but let’s not forget we are dealing with an emotional and irrational subject here. 

Sending your client small pieces of info, links and other relevant information that may help to educate or inform your client in a non-traditional way will help them to better understand your working relationship and what you are trying to help them achieve with the products that they have been sold. 

Keeping It Personal

Whilst there is no magic technique or phrase that will ensure all your clients stay with you, there are several things that you can do to ensure that most of them will stay with you and feel the value you bring to the relationship. People like to work with people they like. Clients will walk away from really great advisers if they don’t feel that they have a good personal relationship with them. After all, it’s their money and they want to feel that it is being managed by someone who has their best interest at heart. 

We are also sure that many advisers aren’t doing anything salubrious or illegal, but they probably aren’t doing anything that moves the needle in a positive manner either. They are simply doing their job. Again this is fine, but if the opportunity comes for a client that a better relationship may be established elsewhere, then they will feel no compunction to making the switch.

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