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Enhancing Client Communication and Interactions · The Perfect RIA

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  Amber: Hello TPR Nation. This is Amber Kuhn. Thank you for
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  joining me on today's Follow up Friday where I'll be recapping
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  this week's episode highlights and action items. On Monday,
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  Matt and Micah were ready to dive into client communication
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  and answering client questions. Now everything they do is to
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  help the client reach their goals. And to do this they have
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  a process of success. Now where are they searching issues with
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  client communication is when advisors are going outside of
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  that process of success. Micah shared a script that he uses
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  with his clients to help them understand why they do things a
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  certain way. Now a side note that they pointed out was that
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  Micah uses the number of years that he's been in practice as a
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  point of credibility. But for listeners who are newer Micah
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  recommends that you can use your firm's power and length of time.
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  And if you're solo and you don't have that amount of time, then
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  reference your clients and remove that time. If you're
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  younger, you can also use it as a positive point, such as
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  talking about the advisors who have mentored you or that you're
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  going to be there for your clients throughout their entire
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  retirement. Play to your strengths and be ready for
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  questions that you're afraid of being asked, and makes sure that
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  you practice and roleplay that. They also said that there will
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  always be times where a client or prospective client asks you a
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  question that you either don't know the answer to or you don't
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  know how to articulate that answer. You can phrase your
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  response in a way that best benefits the client, and it's
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  okay to not know everything and see that you want to get them
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  the best answer. Your job is to give clients confidence in their
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  future. So anything that you might be doing that's pulling
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  back from that confidence is a failure. Because you know a lot
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  of things but you don't need to know everything. Matt and Micah
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  said to consider how this plays out related to your processes
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  and getting questions. So for example, if a client calls with
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  a question if your team is trained to schedule an
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  appointment and get additional information, that then gives you
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  the opportunity to review the question and information and be
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  prepared to give them a helpful response. They then talked about
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  handling those unknowns because you don't know what the future
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  will bring. So how do you talk to your clients about cash flow?
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  Micah said if a client is overspending that isn't your
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  responsibility, but it is your responsibility to tell them
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  under a set of circumstances, how much money they can safely
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  take out and not outlive their money. So you need to know and
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  share the parameters and have a plan for keeping things on
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  track, as well as being ready with a plan when things go off
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  track. So again, when you're meeting with clients, the guys
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  said that it's critical you're instilling confidence with your
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  clients in the path that you're choosing. They delve a little
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  deeper into when a client asks a question and you don't know the
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  answer to it. If you simply say, I don't know, that doesn't help
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  the client. Instead, you could say that it's a good question
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  and that you want to do more research or reach out to
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  additional resources to get a good answer for them. That
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  inspires more confidence from the client in you because you're
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  validating their question and letting them know that you're
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  going to get an answer for them. You need a system in order to
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  answer questions like that. Another thing to do is when a
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  client asks question, respond by asking them to give you more
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  information. That can help you understand a client's
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  perspective on their question and learn more about what
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  they're really asking. And of course, you need to set
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  expectations for when a client will get an answer. Let's get an
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  action items. Make sure you are practicing. Even if you don't
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  want to you need to do more of it. You want to know your
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  response as easily as you can say your name and the practice
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  with other successful advisors get answers from those who have
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  the practice that you want. On Thursday, Jamie was talking
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  about lessons learned during this spring Surge but she kicked
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  off by talking about hers and Micah's first jobs at Shilanski
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  and Associates and doing things from the ground up, which for
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  them was being the janitorial staff. And one of the reinforce
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  lessons they learned early on, was that how you do something is
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  how you do everything. Jamie stressed the importance of
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  advisors doing things from the ground up so that you can speak
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  from experience and also going through the client experience as
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  if you are client. Because if you start thinking of yourself
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  as an advisor and you think of yourself as a client, you'll
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  start to have very similar questions to those of your
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  clients. Jamie shared a couple of experiences about how having
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  knowledge by going through something yourself. You can then
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  share with a client in a way where you understand what
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  they're thinking and their concerns and frustrations. It's
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  one thing to talk at clients about a situation they're going
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  through, but it's an entirely different thing to go through
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  the same or similar situation yourself. You're not going to be
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  able to have every one of your clients experiences but you can
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  use reference and networking with others to help with your
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  advice. Let's get to the action items. Jamie challenged you to
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  pick a process in your office and go through it like client
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  does step by step. This will give you the opportunity to
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  understand the client's user experience and learn what worked
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  and what didn't. And through this it also gives you
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  credibility and trust with your clients. Whether it's your
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  experience or you're sharing other clients experiences where
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  you can help them understand that someone else has gone
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  through a situation similar to theirs. This also allows you to
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  refine the experience and make it better for the client. Jamie
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  said use the filter of does this stuff add value and does this
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  enhance the user experience? Everything you do either
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  enhances or takes away from an experience. And lastly, with all
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  of this, you want to make sure that you're training our team
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  and others as well. Before we go TPR Nation if you're looking for
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  an opportunity to learn in person from that Matt and Micah,
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  be sure to join us this September at TPR LIVE in
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  Arizona. Visit theperfectria.com/live for more
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  information and to save your spot. That wraps up this week's
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  recap. Thank you for joining me and please share this or any of
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  our episodes with another advisor or team member that you
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  think might benefit from listening. And be sure to
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  subscribe to The Perfect RIA Podcast so you don't miss an
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  episode. Until next time, happy planning!