Financial advisors often become enamored with new whiz-bang products and new and improved methodologies. Sometimes they really are new and improved, so we always need to check them out. But the bedrock of the business is really the relationship with the client. You need to care about the client’s well-being and they need to know you care. You need to go the extra mile.
I was thinking about this in relation to this article about customer service in the retail world from PandoDaily.
There is simply no such thing as a shortcut when it comes to customer service. You can provide an alternate service, if you don’t want to invest in a local call center of friendly competent people armed with helpful databases of customer information. But don’t call this customer service, because it isn’t. To call a person reading from a script a customer-service representative is like calling a middle school play Broadway. You might as well not have an 800 number.
Zappos, GoDaddy, Qualtrics and Braintree have proven that spending money on customer service isn’t throwing money away — it’s investing in the business. Done well, good customer service is the difference between a mediocre business and a great one. You can get shoes anywhere, and Zappos’ site design has never been that amazing; its entire success is wrapped up in treating people well. GoDaddy doesn’t view its call center as a “cost center,” arguing it has actually generated more than $100 million in annual revenues.
If anything, client service is even more important in wealth management because the product itself is intangible. How can you put a price on financial security and peace of mind? And, as GoDaddy shows, good client service can generate revenues, not just add to costs. People come first.
Posted by Mike Moody 
