401kExperts 011: Does Your Client Experience Make You Referable?

Ask the 401k Experts

Episode #11 Does Your Client Experience Make You Referable?

Have you ever wondered why it's so challenging to get referrals? Have you ever wished you could just build your entire business exclusively on referrals and never have to market?

In this episode of the Ask the Experts podcast, we're going to talk about being referable, starting with looking at your business from your clients' perspective.

To summarize

• Being referable is way more than just doing what you say you're going to to and showing up on time.
• Creating wow experiences for your clients is one way of becoming referable.
• Audit your customer journey experience from prospect to client and beyond and identify how you can improve and create wow experiences.
• Implement change when you get feedback.
• For additional strategies relating to this topic, join the free 3-part training series where I'm sharing strategies and templates to help you differentiate, educate, and implement a solid customer service process by registering here.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• KiwiCo
• Free 3-Part Training Series Differentiate, Educate, Separate

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Transcript:

Hey Sharon here.

Have you ever wondered why it's so challenging to get referrals? Have you ever wished you could just build your entire business exclusively on referrals and never have to market?

In this episode of the Ask the Experts podcast, we're going to talk about being referable, starting with looking at your business from your client's perspective. So here we go.

I recently got an email in my inbox with a great subject line (I don't remember exactly what it was), but I believe it went something like, four things to guarantee referrals.

That's a pretty big promise, right? So I started reading the email.

• The first thing said, Show up on time. Uh, really?
• The second thing said, Do what you say you're going to do. Yeah, that's really important.
• The third thing said, Be prepared. People, really?!
• I don't remember what the fourth thing was. Maybe it was say please and thank you. ?

These things might make someone not embarrassed to refer you, but they certainly don't create raving fans or referral sources.

It made me think about client experience and why does someone refer someone else? What does your client experience look like? Are you referable?

If you were to do an audit of your client experience process and put yourself in the shoes of your clients, how awesome would you say your client experiences?

I mean, being completely objective, right? We all want to think that we've got a great client experience, but if you actually said, I'm a client, I'm going to look at every aspect of what my prospects see before they become a client and what they see and hear and get when they become a client and I'm going to see if there's room for improvement.

I know there's always room for improvement and more often than not, it's the small things that matter.

In our practice, when I was an advisor, we had a welcome sign on the table when a client walked in. Welcome to Jeannine!. We're so glad to see you! We had their favorite drink ready. We asked about their grandchildren.The little things matter.

I would encourage you to audit your client experience and find small ways to improve it. I think that's the first step in becoming referable.

Then take any feedback that you get and use it to improve your client process. Solicit feedback if you have to, but act on that.

When I first started setting up some email sequences at the beginning of the year, I had three people unsubscribe from my list all in the same week. And the reason they actually commented and said the reason was they were getting too many emails. I hadn't set the expectations properly. I had actually said, you'll get weekly emails, but all three of these people signed up for several different downloads from my website. So they were all set into different email series. So they all got duplicate and additional emails that they normally wouldn't have gotten if they had just signed up for one download. And so it didn't create a great customer experience for them.

And after the second person said they were getting too many emails, I went in and I did a careful audit of how I had that set up and I made changes. So that wouldn't happen again if somebody happened to visit my site and download more than one thing at a time.

And you have to look at the client experience no matter what type of business you have, it's really important.

I think the second step is you want to do things above and beyond what people expect. Let me use the company KiwiCo for example.

I've been homeschooling my kids this is our eighth year now. One has successfully graduated from high school and the other is a freshman this year.

But we subscribe to these monthly science kits and craft kits and they're pretty cool. They're for ages 14 and up there they actually really cool.

One of the kits he was using, he ran out of material for it. And so I went onto the KiwiCo website to see if they happen to sell additional tools or resources or the supplies for these kits that they send you in case you run out and I couldn't find it.

So I emailed them and asked, do you happen to have more of this product because we ran out and we can't finish the project or could you tell me your supplier so that I could order it?

The email I got back from them, I was so pleasantly surprised. I had to tell everybody I knew. The email said, we're so sorry that he didn't have enough material to finish his kit. We have put in an order to send you out another kit at no charge. It'll go out tomorrow. You should have it by the end of the week at no charge. Another full set of supplies simply because I had emailed them and asked for it. That is going above and beyond. (Note: there were more than enough supplies originally to complete the project, my son simply hadn't been very prudent with some of the decisions he made in using them.)

How many people do you think I told that story to the week that happened? How many clients do you think I referred to them that week and will continue to refer to that company every time in homeschooling circles when we talk about science kits or craft kits or companies that have quality products and exceptional customer service. That company will get mentioned every time. Guaranteed.

So again, in reviewing your client experience, I really think that's the first step. Review your client experience. Make sure you've got a solid one where people would not be embarrassed to refer you, but then see what you can do to create those wow kind of experiences, right?

• Start with what people see when they look at you when they look you up online. That's typically where customers come into your funnel, per se, or your path. That takes them from being a plan sponsor prospect to being a plan sponsor client. What do they see when they look you up online? Guaranteed, before they meet with you, they're going to look you up online.
• Do they know you can help them with their 401k plan?
• Do they know how your process or services are different than the other advisors that they might meet with? You don't want to strive to be better. You want to strive to be new or different.
• Then look at that whole prospecting process. How do you follow up with people who have trusted you with their contact information? Are you just spamming them with offers to meet so that you could take over their plan? Or are you providing them with real value and reasons they might trust you enough to even want to sit down with you for a face-to-face meeting.
• When you do meet with them, are you talking the entire time about how experienced you are, your credentials, your value or are you eagerly listening to find out what's most important to them? Until you get to what drives their decision-making process what's valuable to them, what's a priority to them they're never going to do business with you. It doesn't matter how many gaps you tell them they have, how many fantastic ways that your process is unique and different. You have to find out what's important to them, what their decision-making processes is. That has to be part of your customer experience process.
• What does your onboarding process look like?
• What is your client service process look like? Is it all just motions or is there real value in there that helps protect plan sponsors and moves the needle for participants?
• How about your communication throughout the year? Is it all transactional?
• And what about your annual review process?

I would encourage you to think about these things. If you wrote out that full roadmap with the various points in your prospect to client process, I know you can find ways to add more value and improve the impression your clients get and how they feel about you.

I encourage you to do that and look for opportunities to add the wow experience in there.

If you're looking to dive deeper into any of these topics right now, I'm actually teaching a free three-part training on how to differentiate yourself that's the first training. How to become the educator so you can add more value that's the second class. And how to offer a service process that provides tremendous value for any size client.

The training is free, but you have to register. Go to 401kbestpracticelab.com/free-training-workshop.

I'll be sharing my best strategies and giving away some of my favorite templates. I think the templates are important because, what's knowledge without the ability to apply it, right?

But again, the page to register is 401kbestpracticelab.com/free-training-workshop

That's it. That's it for today. I encourage you to audit your customer journey experience and commit to finding ways to offer more value along the way. That is the first step and becoming referable. I hope that helps you and we'll talk soon.

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Disclaimer: The information provided in these videos is for professional use only and not for use with plan sponsors or plan participants. The information provided, ideas, opinions and commentary are meant to be educational and general in nature and any reference to ERISA or retirement plan regulations is not meant to be legal or financial advice or an interpretation of the laws, but rather a general discussion. Check with your ERISA attorney and compliance department for the applicability of any matters discussed to your specific situation.