Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Dear Bev,
I have technically competent people working for me. When a performance number is off, they dig through until they figure out what’s wrong. They produce outstanding reports and information for clients. However, they don’t communicate well. Clients describe a “void” to me; they will call to ask questions about an issue and might wait days to hear back. I know that my staff is working on finding an answer, and that’s why they don’t respond. But the clients don’t know this, and it makes for a poor client experience. Any tips on improving the response time and communication?
Stanley G.
Dear Stanley,
Sounds to me like you have a classic problem. The behavioral style of your staff is great for being analytical, thorough and accurate, but it is not good when it comes to verbalizing and interacting with others.
Many technical people – operations, analyst, compliance, etc – in this business are strong at the details and making sure the pieces fit together, but they put the emphasis on the task (the “doing”) and not on the telling. You can’t rewire people, but you can take a couple of steps to shift this problem to a more positive outcome for your clients. A few thoughts:
Set standards. Most technical people are very good at the rules. Set a standard response time. Establish the steps the team must take. For example, require that they write an email verifying they are working on the problem, send an update no more than 48 hours later or get a final solution by no more than 4 business days.
Insert a more communicative go-between. Identify someone who could play a middle-person role. They would talk with the client and work with internal staff, so they can communicate back and forth about progress and issues. This person would need to speak both “languages” but would not be required to actually find the answers.
Separate the technical people. Some are likely a bit better than others at communicating so don’t allow everyone to have a client-facing role. Keep some behind the scenes.
Dear Bev,
How do we motivate older advisors who are making enough money to live very well? We need them to find new business, but I would label them as “fat and happy,” unmotivated at best.
Glen P.
Dear Glen,
This is a common struggle for many advisory firms. People are driven by some sort of reward system. It’s not always money though; it could be an opportunity to serve, time off with family or administrative support for greater efficiency. The advisors you mention might not see the direct benefit to them for putting in the extra time to find additional business. It creates more work for them.
Some things to consider:
Have you spoken with each one about the situation from their seat, not yours? You need to grow, but do they see their role in the growth? You might assume so, but make sure you’ve had the conversation.
Are there other rewards you could provide? I hear from a number of advisors that the workload is so extreme already, they just don’t want to add more paperwork and client interaction. Could you put a structure in place with a junior advisor or client service person supporting them as a team?
Are there other ways to grow? Could you alleviate their current book by reassigning smaller or less profitable clients to younger or newer team members?
Most importantly, don’t assume because this is important to the firm overall that it is important to them. Try and see the situation through their eyes to uncover some possibilities that might work for all.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
Read more articles by Beverly Flaxington
