The Behavior that Destroys Client Confidence

Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.

Dan Richards

A highly successful business owner recently told me what he thought about his financial advisor. On balance, he’s happy with the job his advisor is doing, except for one small thing.

Here’s how the conversation started:

I’ve got the bulk of my savings with a broker that I’ve worked with for several years and I’m generally happy with the job he does,” was his opening comment. “He’s very conservative, which I like, because it keeps my own aggressive instincts in check.  As a result, when markets cratered a few years ago, I didn’t get hit nearly as hard as the guys I golf with”.

Attention Amazon shoppers:
A painless way to help African street kids

During a 2004 trek up Kilimanjaro, I visited Amani Childrens’ Home, a grassroots charity in Tanzania that helps house, feed and educate homeless children.

Amani has recently partnered with Amazon; use the link below for your purchases and between 4% and 15% will be rebated to Amani. There is no cost to you – you won’t pay a penny more.

Use this link when shopping on Amazon.

Here’s a video of Amani’s work.

Here’s a video of a Kilimanjaro climb.

Then I asked about the contact from his advisor and he was happy there as well:

“My broker touches base about once a month and is really quick to return my messages. When we sit down to discuss my portfolio, he’s well prepared and has specific suggestions, so the meetings are a good use of my time. And if I ask to meet at my office, he’s always willing to come to me rather than expecting me to go to him all the time.”

Then he paused and went on:

“There is one thing, though, that does bother me. Sometimes when I’m speaking to my advisor on the phone, I get the sense that I don’t have his full attention. As a result, I’ve have to repeat myself or he asks the same question more than once …. It’s as if his mind is wandering or he’s doing something else while we’re talking. And I do recall once or twice hearing some clicking in the background, as if he was typing on his computer while we were talking.”

I asked this investor to tell me more about this:

“I don’t want to make a bigger deal out of this than it is, but it’s really begun to bug me – my time is valuable and if we’re going to talk I want his complete focus. It’s got to the point that recently I asked if he was set up for Skype so we could talk face to face. It turns out that his firm doesn’t allow Skype but he did say that he would be happy to schedule a call from his home first thing in the morning or at the end of the day.

It’s funny, recently my broker asked me if it might be possible to get an introduction to my golf group and I said I’d see what I could do. What I didn’t say is that my big hesitation is being embarrassed if one of my buddies has the same experience that I’m having. Given everything else my broker does right, I can live with this, but I’m not prepared to take the responsibility if this happens to someone I refer.”

Your two priorities on phone calls

Let’s be clear here – this business owner may be absolutely wrong about this and it’s possible that he has his advisor’s 100% attention when they’re talking on the phone. Whether that’s the case or not, he doesn’t feel that he has his advisor’s full attention … and that‘s created a problem.

There are two messages from this conversation: First, in any interaction with clients, we have to give them our full attention. On long phone calls, that can be challenging – one solution is to make notes, circling key points to which you want to respond.

And second, we need to ensure that clients feel they’re getting all of our attention, by acknowledging what they’re saying – long periods of silence don’t communicate that we’re listening.  On longer calls, you may want to recap client comments at key points: “Just to be completely clear on my part, here’s what I’ve heard you say.”

Read more articles by Dan Richards