Keep Personal Touch But Don't Get Too Personal

We often talk about customer relationship management, and propagate the importance of keeping the client at the center. It is indeed extremely important to be sensitive towards your client needs, to listen to your client, to display care and maintain a personal touch with your client. Wishing your client on his birthday, anniversary, festivals can help you build your relation with the client on a more than professional level. Sending them the latest industry updates or calling them for communicating an important news, or about new financial products will build confidence and trust in your clients, that you are there for them always. But at times, the advisor in the process of maintaining personal touch, goes overboard. We start to annoy the client, and the worst part is we are not even aware of this fact. And the lack of knowledge that we are actually annoying the client can be fatal for our business, because who would want to work with a person who is constantly nudging him and irritating him.

So today's article is not the usual what to do rather it's about What not to do and Where to stop. We are restricting this article only to the boundaries you need to stay in, in the process of cultivating Personal Touch with your client.

Understand what the client wants: Do you all remember an Ad from IDFC which shows a man walk into a bank to open an account. He tells the banker "mujhe aapke bank me account kholna hai", and the banker replies "mujhe pata hai! Kyunki hum samajhte hain aapko, hum samajhte hai rishton ki ahmiyat ko" Again the poor customer tries to talk and gives his documents "ye mere documents hai". The banker takes the documents and goes on... "humko pata hai aapke sapne kitne maiyne rakhte hain... aapke aj ke sath hum khade hain, kal, aaj aur kal". And then the client loses his cool, he gets up and go.

The banker just lost the client. Why? Because the client was in no mood to listen to a lecture on relationships, he was clear that he wanted to open an account without wasting much time and when the banker started getting on his nerves, he got annoyed and preferred to leave.

This Ad is a reminder for our advisors, that in most cases our speech on relationships work, but in others it may work otherwise. So, when you meet a client, gauge his preferences, his situation, he might have extended his lunch break by half an hour just to meet you and do a tax saving investment, because he is almost near his deadline of submitting his proofs. So what he is expecting from you is a quick brush up on the available products, a small financial performance comparison, and a genuine advice. A speech on relationships won't be welcome at this point of time.

Your Good Morning and Good Night messages can be annoying: Yes, we do advise to "Keep in Touch" but there is a limit to it. You get annoyed but you cannot disown your relatives and friends, so max what you do is put these groups on silent. But remember, a financial advisor is neither a friend nor family, in the initial stages at least. So, remember if your client is reading but not responding to your "Keep in Touch" messages, take it as a hint, he is not liking it, so restrict your messages to festivals, anniversaries and important financial updates only.

How do I know what's the limit?

So, the answer to this is you need to build the ability to study human behaviour. Study the client's reactions: Study your client's body language, his expressions. When a smile on his lips transforms into a frown on his forehead, or a response to your 15 minute speech is a "hmmmm", this indicates he is being turned off, so you need to stop right then. Give him some space, let him talk, understand this is not the right moment, may be your relationship building would take some more time, you may need another ice breaker.

Study his responses: Carefully review his response to your messages, e-mails or calls, then decide how you have to proceed. If your client reciprocates to your Good Morning's with a Good Morning and a smiley, when he appreciates your calls and is all ears to you, this means you are going in the right direction, your technique is working here, but remember there are limits here too, don't try to intrude in his personal life too much. On the other hand, another client of yours is not responding to your wishes, and is irritated to the extent that he doesn't even bother to call you back when he misses your call, you must realize that your dedication towards maintaining Personal Touch is not working here. You really need to give him space and restrict your touch to work only.

So, the bottomline is maintaining Personal Touch with your clients is essential to build a connection and trust. But then there is a limit to how much a seer wishes to see. Understand the client, his preferences, his openness to relationships and then draw a customized relationship line for every client. Also react as per the situation, sometimes a social butterfly may also not be in a mood or doesn't have the time to eat the side dish, they may be interested in the main course only. So you need to know when you have to offer the soup, the starters and the sides along with the main course.