7 ways an adviser can improve client retention
Sure, attracting clients is very important. If you don’t recruit enough of them, you don’t have a business. But surely a better indicator of how successful you are as an advisory firm is how many of those clients you retain?
I read a brilliant post recently by Josh Brown, aka the Reformed Broker, in which he explained what does and doesn’t work for client retention.
Four years ago, his own firm, Ritholtz Wealth Management in New York City, employed a consultant called Kris Venne to help with client retention. It was, Josh says, “among the smartest decisions we’ve ever made”.
In a nutshell, Kris Venne’s philosophy can be distilled into these seven points, but do read the full article via the link at the foot of this post:
Tell the clients what you are going to do and then do it
Turn away potential clients whose objectives are not within your circle of competence
Bring on veteran advisors with complementary skills to ensure optimal “teacher-student” ratio
Train young advisers and trust them to take on responsibility
Be open-minded as new technological solutions emerge
Standardise the process, customise the advice
Have a culture and an identity as a firm, live it every day