Welcome to a special episode of Soundbites, brought to you by Investment Executive and powered by Canada Life. This week we continue our series with Chris Reynolds. Chris is the co-founder and executive chairman with Investment Planning Counsel. He’s well known in the Canadian financial management industry as host of the Turning the Page podcast, and he’s the author of The Six Circle Strategy: The Entrepreneur’s Journey to Wealth and Freedom. Today we’re looking at the fourth circle: Value. We talk about the connection between communication and value, the “Greatest Client Experience,” and we started by asking why creating value is a continuous process.
Chris Reynolds (CR): Value, in its truest form, has to always keep moving. Some advisors think that their value is, ‘I built the portfolio, I set the quarterly statements.’ Some might throw a newsletter in there every once in a while. ‘And I’m done!’ But I can tell you that what a client is always thinking is, ‘Am I okay? Do I continue to trust this person with my finances?’ And so that’s why I describe value as a clock. A clock never says, ‘I told you the time in March. Why are you bothering me now again in July?’ It keeps going. And I would have to say that value works the same way. You create value, communicate it, reinforce it, refine it, learn from it, and then you do it again. And if you stop creating value, the clock stops. If you ever have a client bringing up cost, what they’re really questioning is value. And at that point, you shouldn’t be looking at, ‘How do I lower my cost?’ It should be, ‘How do I bring more value to that client?’ Value is not what you think you delivered. Value is what the client remembers. And if they can’t explain your value using words that don’t include ‘asset allocation’ and ‘standard deviation,’ you might have a problem. That’s the time that value becomes like a circle. You look at it, you learn from it, create more value, and you deliver it again.
Staying focused on value
CR:We decrease our attention to personal service because automation is seductive. It’s easy for people to say, ‘We care deeply for our clients,’ but then send them to a phone tree where there are nine options. Companies decrease personal service because they’re trying to scale. And what that means to a lot of people is, ‘I want to reduce costs, I want to make things efficient, I want to standardize the experience.’ And let me tell you, none of those things are wrong in the objective of scalability, but you want the client to feel they’re important. You don’t want them to feel that they just entered a government portal with your logo on it. And that’s the irony about personal service. It becomes valuable precisely when your competition is cutting theirs. When clients start to feel ignored, the thoughtful person starts to put a personal touch into everything that they do. That’s the whole game. And in wealth management, to be honest, the bar is not set that high. You have to do good follow-up after a meeting, you have to send the note, you have to return their calls so they don’t have to bother you. It’s not revolutionary, but it is something that people remember. And I can tell you that the benefit of focusing on value is clients start to see you as part of their life. And when that happens, that’s when you really have a business.
Having value-oriented employees
CR:Fundamentally, everybody has to live your culture, your brand, your mission. So, the kind of employees that you want, to really add value, are people who I would say are naturally kind, curious, empathetic and they’re motivated to help. What you don’t want is a whole bunch of people that say, ‘That’s not my department’ with, sort of, the warmth of a parking ticket. I think the people who create value are the ones who notice things. You know, that natural curiosity. They notice when a client seems nervous. They notice when a widow doesn’t understand the paperwork. Even a small gesture will create a big emotional impact. Remember this: You can train someone on CRM, you can train them on process. But what you can’t train is genuine care. Hire people who like people. And this will add value to client experience. Because it’s not created by you alone. You can’t do everything. Everybody on your team means something to your client: your receptionist, your assistant, your associate advisors, your ops team. They either reinforce what you’re trying to do, or they’re quietly destroying it. There’s no real middle ground. To a client, they don’t separate the advisor experience from the firm experience, right? They don’t separate what you do for them versus your whole team. And one bad interaction can outdo all the beautiful planning meetings that you do. But one great interaction can create loyalty for life.
Communication and value
CR: Why is personalized communication better than mass communication? In my mind at least, communication is how value becomes visible. If you do great work, but never explain it, the client might not know that it even happened. The number one complaint when I came into the business was lack of communication. You know what it was last year? Lack of communication. When you ask advisors [about] this, they say, ‘No, I communicate all the time.’ What are you communicating? They’re usually sending out newsletters talking about economics. Clients don’t care about this. All they care about is this: ‘Am I still on track? Can I still retire? And are my kids going to be OK?’ Right? That’s all they care about. So, advisors — this is always the advice I give them — communicate so clearly and personally that the client never has to wonder what you’re doing for them. If they have to guess your value, they’re probably guessing wrong.
The ‘Greatest Client Experience’
CR: Most advisory firms, they design the client experience from what I call the inside out. They tell clients, ‘Here’s our process, here’s our portal. Good luck.’ Great companies design it from the client backwards. Some great examples that I use in my book are companies like Lego or Disney because they show that great experiences are not accidental. They obsess over every single detail of a client experience. The point is, try to make every interaction mapped, intentional and memorable. In terms of the wealth management business, the Greatest Client Experience might just include greeting them properly. I know one group that sits, every Monday, and looks at who’s coming into the office over the next week, and plans something individual for them, whether it’s a gift, whether it’s a thoughtful gesture. And make the meeting more conversation-like, about their life, and not just talking about the markets. Why is that necessary? Because clients already pay you. The question is, do they feel that payment? Do they feel that you are creating value? The Greatest Client Experience makes your value tangible. This is what they are paying for. It turns the conversation from, ‘My advisor manages my money,’ to, ‘My advisor understands my life.’ And that is a massive upgrade.
And finally, what’s the bottom line on adding value in the modern world?
CR: The bottom line is simple: stop asking, ‘What do I want to sell?’ and start asking, ‘What does my client need to feel confident, understood and cared for?’ If I had to change one thing in an advisor’s business, I would force every advisor to redesign their client review meeting around two questions: ‘Am I going to be OK?’ and, ‘Is my family going to be OK?’ And that’s it. And if you do it in a personal manner, you show real value to that client. And if you do that better than anyone else, you create a business that clients not only never want to leave, but they can’t wait to refer to somebody else.
Well, those are today’s Soundbites, brought to you by Investment Executive and powered by Canada Life. Special thanks to Chris Reynolds of Investment Planning Counsel. He’ll be back soon to walk us through another circle in his Six Circle Strategy. In the meantime, you can get more insights from Chris at his “Turning the Page” podcast site. You can even schedule a ‘virtual coffee with Chris’ to discuss issues specific to your practice. You’ll find that at IPCC.ca slash Turning the Page. Join us again next week for another episode of Soundbites. Thanks for listening.
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