8 ways to build extreme client loyalty

Last year, he produced an internal document called the Culture Project that puts into writing what matters most about Vista’s company culture. The document was created in collaboration with a four-member culture committee. Among its bullet points: The desire to feel part of something bigger. Getting the right people on the bus. Pick one thing and be great at it.

“At first, culture kind of happens, based on the founder’s vision oftentimes. After a while, it’s important to define it and purposefully cultivate it,” says Johanson, whose firm has 17 employees and, after just 14 years, manages $900 million in assets.

“Our clients, when you ask why they hired us, talk about the feeling they had when they walked through the office: the energy, the people, the personalities, the passion. Some of it’s hard to put words around,” he adds. “You just feel it in your gut. We want to ensure that we keep that mojo going. When you attract, retain and motivate the best people in the industry, the client is the direct beneficiary of that.”

5. Think small.

Barnaby Riedel’s advice? Don’t think big but small when you consider your client relationships.

“Think within that same framework as you think of your normal relationships. What surprises and delights you about your best friend? That she checks up on you with no ulterior motive? That she values you as a person? What are the virtues that we keep coming back to over time as fundamental to good quality relationships? People use these small things to judge whether you can handle the big things,” says Riedel, chief research strategist for Riedel Strategy in Newport Beach, California.

It’s often the little things, he adds, that make the client feel cared about not just as an asset, but as a person. Manners and etiquette also matter.

“Dressing well is a reflection on your character. If you take care of yourself, you can take care of others. If you are careful with your words, you are probably careful with other stuff too,” he said. “The tendency is to think big and think grandiose and think large, our recommendation is to think small — to think about these micro interactional details, the small ways in which we reveal our character.”

6. Manage expectations.

From the start, the advisor needs to set expectations around client communication — and remain consistent going forward.

“Advisors struggle with this. You need to set an expectation upfront regarding routine communications and how you are going to communicate when there is an event like market volatility or an event in a client’s life,” says Matt Lynch, managing partner of Strategy & Resources in Dayton, Ohio. “Advisors do a really good job of this in the early stages of the courtship and then they begin to take their clients for granted. The firms that experience exceptional sustained growth are those that intentionally set up a process for the care and feeding of clients.”

Basically, the advisor needs to build a service model or process around the promise. With technology, Lynch adds, it’s not all that difficult.

“If I say we’re going to meet in person once a year and have a 30-minute call each month or quarter to talk about what’s going on — if I do that — then I’m probably doing a pretty good job of building relationship equity with the client. I’m delivering on what I promised,” he said. “It’s not that they need to ramp up the frequency of contact or change the way they deliver services, it’s just more about setting the right expectations upfront.”

7. Rethink referrals.

Many advisors put this tagline at the end of their correspondence: Referrals are your best compliment. They shouldn’t.

“It’s off-putting. I’m putting all the pressure on the client to come up with someone and that puts pressure on the relationship,” says John Anderson, managing director and head of practice management at SEI Advisor Network. “You need to put pressure on you not them.”

Anderson recommends following this four-step process. First, ask: Am I referable? Do I communicate well with clients? Do I show value? Am I transparent? Do my appearance and office convey my professionalism? Next: Do I have a value proposition? “This is foundational to what you do,” Anderson says. “If you can’t describe what you do how do you expect your clients to describe what you do?” Third: Do I have a niche and do my clients know that they fall within that niche? Referrals should come naturally — unasked — when these steps are followed.

Step four: When meeting with your top clients, record the names of people they might mention such as “my brother John, an attorney” or “my friend Beth, a business owner.” Do some research. Find out if they would make good clients. Next time you meet with your client, ask for an introduction.

“It’s as simple as saying ‘How about the three of us get together for a round of golf or drinks?’ Nine times out of 10, the client wants to help the advisor. You’re only going to do this with satisfied clients, the ones you are engaged with and the ones you want to replicate. This is the sort of thing that can actually deepen relationships.”

8. Add value.

Joe Lukacs, CEO and chief performance strategist of International Performance Group in Melbourne, Florida, has challenged each of his clients this year to ask: How do I add value to the client relationship?

In today’s hyper commoditized environment, advisors who fail to add value face what Lukacs calls a structured risk long-term.

“If you took an advisor from 1990 and teleported them to today they would say: What business are we in? Technology speeds up the evolutionary process. The portfolio manager-centric advisor is in a real dogfight,” says Lukacs. “The people-centric advisor needs to do everything the portfolio manager does with add ons: touch base phone calls on a regular basis; regular educational or fun client events, live or virtual; adding experts like tour operators or business coaches. These all carry goodwill and goodwill capital is the future of the industry.”

Lukacs has a client in Alaska who starts each review with this question: How’s your health? Others on the checklist: What’s going on with the family? What’s keeping you up at night? What’s on the bucket list?

“You need to start thinking about what you can do differently. We live in a culture of coaching and therapy. Younger people are even more open to it,” he added. “Our business is going to be different as a result. The bar is going to rise.”