5 Ways Financial Advisors Can Cultivate the Ultimate Client Relationship

By Mel Mock, Vice President, Client Success at Docupace

If you’re looking for new clients or hoping to hold onto existing clients, you already understand the importance of creating long-term client relationships. When your clients ask you to handle their financial assets, they are trusting you with more than their time and money — they are trusting you with their futures.

That type of trust has to be earned. A client’s first impression of you can make or break the relationship. By demonstrating to your clients that you value their time, needs and concerns, you can create a client experience that earns repeated business.

Listen to Your Clients’ Needs

Every client is different, which means their needs are also varied. Don’t assume you can treat every client the same way. Each client may have different preferences for:

• Type, time, and frequency of contact
• Risk tolerance and allocation of assets
• Products and services
• Interaction with technology
• Financial goals

Learning what makes your client unique is an opportunity to provide them with exactly the type of service they crave. Ask lots of questions to better understand your clients and their vision of an ideal advising experience. By respecting their preferences rather than trying to fit them into a category, you demonstrate that you care about them as people, not just sales prospects.

Adjust to Your Client

Once you understand your client’s needs, squeezing them into the same process or products you use for everyone is tempting. But a one-size-fits-all approach may lead your clients to seek more personalized service elsewhere.

Clients may prefer a service you don’t currently offer, so consider expanding your services. For example, many clients, especially younger clients, are more comfortable signing documents electronically than in person. If you are still printing paper documents for your clients to sign, investing in new technology could help meet their expectations.

Make the Onboarding Process Smooth and Simple

A simplified onboarding process can make all the difference in building client relationships. Although you can’t avoid the information-gathering process, you can develop a more efficient process. When you complete the onboarding process quickly, it shows you value your clients’ time and use your resources well.

The right software can speed up the onboarding process so your clients don’t have to deal with so much paperwork. Although 65% of financial advising clients prefer a digital onboarding process, many firms don’t offer this service. This wastes time during the initial onboarding and can cause problems later in the process if the information is lost, incomplete or incorrect. Clients may question your competence and trustworthiness if you have to ask them to resubmit their information.

How Digitizing Your Financial Advising Process Builds Client Confidence

Of course, your knowledge and experience are key to building trust with your client. Your clients seek you out for your expertise, but their confidence in your knowledge and skills can erode if you give them reasons to believe you don’t know what you’re doing.

When a document is returned Not in Good Order and you have to explain to clients that you need to collect their information again, it’s a less-than-ideal way to make an impression early in the client relationship.

You can eliminate many of these errors with a document management system. When you automate the onboarding process with pre-filled forms, automatic compliance checks and digital records, you reduce the chances of human error and the likelihood that your clients will become frustrated and abandon the process altogether.

No matter what services you offer, it’s important to demonstrate that your clients matter to you. First impressions last, and efficiency and accuracy are especially crucial during the onboarding process when clients are just getting to know you. Ask insightful questions to show you value clients’ financial goals and personal preferences. Even if your firm doesn’t offer a product or service that meets your client’s needs, investing in products such as a document management system will make your process and clients’ lives easier.

Ready to learn more about how document management systems can streamline your client onboarding process? Contact communications@docupace.com to learn more about how Docupace’s document management solutions facilitate the back-office process so you can focus on cultivating high-quality client relationships.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.