Tips:  5 ways to tell your client you value their business

Many advisers feel that if they make too much of a deal about receiving a client’s business, it might make them somehow look weak or desperate.  This is very large projection of fear rather than a reflection of reality, however.  Most clients do not hear enough that their business is valued.  Indeed, some clients may never hear it despite your good intentions to tell them – it’s easy to get busy and pre-occupied with the execution of client services.

Yet there are many small, practical steps you can take to make a client feel like they are a valued client and that their business isn’t taken for granted.  Let’s look at five tips here...

Regular acknowledgement

It doesn’t take much to send a client a brief “thank-you” for EVERY MAJOR piece of business you do with them.  A two line email can do the trick.  A three sentence note on a “with compliments” card is just as effective.  The moment you start taking business for granted is the moment it starts to vanish, yet rarely do most service advisers tell their clients that they really appreciate the business.

Letter not email

Email is great.  But nothing beats a one page letter that has been personally signed.  You would be surprised at the number of letters you can template and re-use...  Stop and think for a moment about your own personal advisers – when was the last time you got a signed letter from them that wasn’t to do with a bit of business or an invoice.

Statistics tell a story

Imagine how a client feels if you can tell them this is your 10th meeting.  The 7th major engagement.  The 100th hour of work for them.  That it has been 4 years since the relationship began.   Simple little statistics like this can help client’s reflect on their relationship with you – its length, its results and its consistency.  If you have administrative or support staff in your business, why not have them research this information on just one client a fortnight – that’s 26 clients a year...

Some personal touches

Sending a form letter to 1,000 clients thanking them for their business with a printed signature is not valuing your client’s business.  Sending Xmas cards with no personal message and without the client’s name does not value your client’s business.  Yes, it takes a little extra time, but without the personal touch the effort is entirely wasted and the process/form driven efforts like those mentioned above can even negatively impact client engagement.  Don’t pay lip service.

Accurate client records

Nothing ticks off a client like having to give you their postal address for the third time, because your internal record keeping isn’t up to scratch.  If you value a client’s business, then keep accurate records and don’t ask the client to repeat themselves.  Once again this can sound minor, but it is amazing what impact it can have on a client’s level of engagement.  Idea:  Pre-populate forms whenever you can.  Asking your client to write the address on a form when you already have their address is very dis-engaging.