Most financial advisors strive to provide excellent client care and prioritize a systematic process to maintain regular communication with their clients both on a scheduled (e.g., annual meeting) and an "on demand" basis. And while individual advisors running solo firms are often able to intuitively sense when they're delivering their best, as they grow and scale their firms, that same advisor eventually goes from individually 'owning' every client relationship to sharing the workload with first a client service associate, then a paraplanner, and then another advisor. Suddenly, the question of, "What does it mean to provide the best care for clients at this firm as a team?" becomes a crucial one to solve.
In this guest article, Bob Veres, editor and publisher of Inside Information (and co-producer of the Insider's Forum conference), shares how Brian Martin, co-managing partner of Accredited Investors in Edina, MN, sets company-wide standards for client communications that are both measurable and actionable, and that helped his firm more than double in size.
For firms looking to standardize procedures and create a system to measure the effectiveness of those procedures, a crucial starting point is to identify what the firm's desired outcomes are. Martin and his team drew on the standard of care in the healthcare industry and modified them for their firm by following 3 key principles: first, offering relationships with clients based on constant attention with at least 3 meaningful interactions throughout the year; second, following through on commitments made to clients; and third, providing ongoing and consistent planning for all clients, including the quieter ones.
Once the standards were agreed upon, the main question became how to define metrics and use them to determine whether the standards were being met, as well as identifying potential exceptions and determining when to escalate problems. Martin and his team started by assessing current practices and establishing practical goals based on where the team was already at to set everyone up for success, and mixing in only a few stretch goals (all tracked in the Salentica CRM). Starting with goals that reflected how things were currently being done allowed the staff to get behind the standards and build great momentum.
Over time, tracking metrics to measure the team's performance offered powerful insights that allowed the firm to better plan its capacity, not just by evolving goals to address 'overdue' communication and other high-priority tasks, but also by offering clarity into how to structure team assignments and client relationship allocations more impactfully. Other benefits also manifested from tracking the firm's progress as processes and standards were gradually refined. For example, implementing this system gave Martin's team another way to measure and articulate their workload (and when they were feeling overwhelmed). Additionally, this process helped clarify how the firm could elevate its culture around client service by refining its client interaction standards and offering an objective way for managers to measure advisors' performance.
Ultimately, the key point is that striving for stellar client care is at the heart of many financial planning firms – and devising the right metrics that help a firm assess its areas of excellence and potential areas for growth can be instrumental in establishing a flourishing firm culture based on exceptional client service. By first identifying how the firm wants to define its own standards of client service, and then evaluating how those standards are currently being met, firms can gain a clear and objective way to measure their standards, which can offer valuable insights into further cultivating a proactive culture of outstanding client care across the team!
