You can put in place a plan to deliver distinctly superior value to your top clients. But if those clients don’t recognize they’re getting special treatment, your plan won’t work. The next step, then, is making sure clients know.

Take Fairmont Hotels, for example. If you’re a top client of Fairmont Hotels, you know. There is a special desk at which you check in; your room is already assigned when you arrive and there is a key waiting. In your room, a welcome note with a plate of cookies or fruit greets you. And at the beginning of each year, you get certificates for upgrades to suites, complimentary nights, free golf and skiing, and $300 in credits to use at Fairmont restaurants.

Likewise, if you’re a top customer of jeweller Tiffany’s or high-end retailer Holt Renfrew: you receive special offers and are invited to exclusive evenings to preview merchandise going on sale while being treated to hors d’oeuvres and wine.

Think of any top marketer, in fact, and it provides its top customers with outstanding treatment — and then lets them know about the special treatment.

Last month, I discussed the need for advisors to give top clients a dramatically superior experience relative to the balance of their client base. (If you missed that column, go to www.investmentexecutive.com.) Once that is achieved, advisors need to let their top clients know they are special. So, how do you do that?

Sometimes, the best way is the simplest: put in place a clearly superior set of benefits for your top clients and then communicate these to them.

During your next meeting with a top client, you might say the following, for example: “You’re one of my very best clients — and for clients like you, I do some special things. Could we take two minutes to review those?

“First, I either meet face-to-face or conduct a telephone review once a quarter. Normally, meetings take place at my office. But if this ever poses a problem for you, I’m always happy to alternate between your office and mine. And if you do come to my office, we’ll always validate your parking.

“Second, if I’m ever in a meeting or out of the office when you call, I’ve told my assistant to let me know. For clients like you, my objective is to return your call within three hours.

“Third, once or twice a year I invite my top clients to special dinners to hear from portfolio managers and strategists from our firm or from outside money managers. And you’re always welcome to invite friends or family members to these.

“Finally, I normally have a minimum in terms of the assets that new clients need to have. For clients like you, I will waive my minimum for close family members, should you think they would benefit from my help.”

Small is often better

Targeted client events represent another chance to ensure top clients feel acknowledged. If you talk to advisors who have run both broad-based events for their entire client base and smaller, more intimate events for top clients, the payoff from the smaller events is almost always better. This is partly because you can afford a much more unusual and higher-end event for smaller numbers, partly because the dynamics of a smaller group are better and partly because many top clients aren’t attracted by mass events. The key is to ensure that clients understand this is something that is limited to your top clients.

One advisor takes this one step better by soliciting the input of top clients on the kinds of events they’d like to see. When meeting with top clients this past fall, he said: “I’m looking at holding a special event early next year to thank top clients such as you. Could I run three possible ideas by you and get your input on which would appeal to you the most?”

In addition to driving home the clients’ special status, this also has the impact of increasing the likelihood that clients would show up to an event they had selected.

Even when you run an evening for the top portion of your client base, you can still send a strong message to the very best of your clients. One advisor calls his top clients concerning upcoming events and says: “You mentioned that you enjoyed the last time I hosted a wine-tasting evening at La Prima Ristorante for some of my top clients. I’m calling to let you know that I’m running another evening like this in March. Invitations will be going out in a couple of weeks — but as one of my very best clients, I wanted to give you advance notice and let you know that you are welcome to invite another couple along as your guests, should you like to.”

@page_break@Another opportunity presents itself when clients express appreciation for something you did — whether you took care of an outstanding concern, drove to meet them at their office or hosted a special dinner.

Here’s your chance to drive this message home again by saying: “You’re very welcome. It goes without saying that I aim to treat all my clients well. But for my very best clients, I do some special things to show my appreciation.”

A final example of letting top clients know they’re special comes from an advisor who each December identifies the charity of choice for his top 25 clients. He then sends them a letter thanking them for the opportunity to work together over the past year — and adds that, as a small thank you for being one of his top clients, he has made a donation to their favourite charity.

He sends a $100 contribution to each of the 25 charities and ensures that his clients get notes of acknowledgement from each of the charities. He then sends his entire client base a letter, thanking them for their business, wishing them the best of the season — and saying he has donated $2,500 to select charities as a thank you to all of his clients.

Once you’ve accepted the principle that you need to accord special status to your top clients, the only question is how you let them know.

How you do this doesn’t matter — as long as it is crystal clear to your best clients where they stand in your client base and that they receive unparalleled treatment. IE



Dan Richards is president of Strategic Imperatives!, a Toronto-based consultancy that delivers training to financial advisors. He can be reached at richards@getkeepclients.com.