It is common marketing knowledge that existing clients are key to a firm's long-term success and survival. A firm's current clientele can be responsible for over 80 percent of its revenues through ongoing business and referrals. Even so, most firms do not spend enough time and resources marketing to their existing clients.
Since getting a new client costs five times more than keeping an existing one, it makes economic sense to invest in strengthening client relationships. So how can firms ensure that relations with existing clients are maintained and nurtured? By developing a client-retention mindset among everyone in the organization.
In today's competitive business environment, existing clients must never be taken for granted. Although the following retention suggestions may seem routine, they are often overlooked on a daily basis:
- Actively listen to what your clients are saying. Find out what they want and go after it with as much enthusiasm as possible. Remember that the business you handle may have a profound impact on their lives. Clients must perceive that their problems and the resolution of them are as important to you, their adviser, as they are to them.
- Learn to see things from a client's perspective. Think like a client, not a financier. Make sure they know you understand their business and their industry. (Make sure that you do!) In conversation with clients, use terms in their vocabulary, without too much technical jargon.
- Identify true client needs -- not just what you think they need. Too often, firms attempt to sell what they do best, not what their clients need most. Offering creative solutions to real problems will generate true client loyalty.
- Monitor client satisfaction and verify your perceptions with client research. Find out why clients stay, and be mindful of this in maintaining relationships. (And by all means, address and correct any issues that make clients leave!) Remember, happy clients will do more business with you and tell others about your excellent service.
- Make sure clients are aware of all your capabilities, even if they have no current need for them. Clients may be doing business with other firms simply because they did not know your firm had a certain expertise. Update and circulate this service list on a regular basis.
- Provide better "quality of service" than your competitors. Clients consider the technical excellence of your services to be a given. But do you return calls and requests for information promptly, and are you on time for meetings and important deadlines? Do you keep clients informed about issues of interest to them and/or their business? Are you a team player with the client's team? A sensitive, hands-on approach can differentiate your services from those of the competition in a big way.
- A commitment to quality in the delivery of financial services must exist at every point and level of interaction with clients. Management must emphasize the importance of the staff's role in fortifying relationships because, in the eyes of clients, they too are the firm. Client service must be the most important thing on every employee's agenda.
- Bill promptly and regularly. There is no acceptable excuse for not informing your clients of their account status. Never increase a client's hourly rate without advance notification.
- Communicate on a regular basis with all clients. Ideally, you should have some form of contact with current clients at least once a month. It can be simple: a pertinent newsletter or article of interest with a quick note attached, recognition of an award or anniversary, a letter noting an economic change or business issue with which your firm could assist, a short phone call to see how existing work is going or a holiday or birthday card. Remember, it's often the simple things that count the most.
- Ensure frequent client contact (there doesn't have to be a reason beyond just checking in) and maintain multiple contacts with significant clients. Make it a point to get out of the office and visit clients over lunch or in their offices. This is the best way to cement the personal and professional bond you've established. Face-to-face interaction almost always generates new work. Try it and you'll see.
- Anticipate client problems rather than react. Assign back-up partners so a client is never left wanting or without able assistance.
- Let clients know the kind of business the firm wants. Learn to ask for business. Send thank-you cards to clients who refer business. Let all clients know you appreciate their business.
In today's ultra-competitive marketplace, you can never do too much to ensure that clients are satisfied with the service they receive. Most effective techniques for keeping current clients happy are mere matters of consideration. But it's easy to forget the many small-yet-significant strategies that keep clients coming back. Listening to your clients, taking an active interest in their business problems and looking for effective ways to solve these problems ensures satisfied clients who will stick with your firm and refer others to you as well.
A wise man once said that it is better to have one client who thinks you are terrific than 10 who think you are OK. By developing and implementing a program to cultivate and retain relationships with current clients, a firm can ensure that the foundation of its practice receives the attention and recognition it deserves.
