The holiday season coming up at the end of the year may seem like the best time to send a client a gift of appreciation. However, clients will likely notice the gesture more when it occurs during the off-season, advisor coaches say.
That off-season can revolve around what Duncan MacPherson, co-founder and co-CEO of Kelowna, B.C-based Pareto Systems Inc., calls “moments of truth.” These moments can include: important milestones in the client’s life; instances when a client has done something for you, such as referring someone to your practice; and situations when clients reveal something meaningful about themselves.
Milestones that are reason for celebration include weddings, birthdays, the birth of a child or grandchild, and the purchase of a new home. They can even be less obvious events, such as the launch of a new business. All these events are of great significance to your clients.
However, those celebrations can quickly build up. For example, you may have a client who has celebrated her birthday, had a child and bought a new home in the course of one year. “Maybe you can’t acknowledge every single event, so they have to be quite significant,” says Joanne Ferguson, the Toronto-based president of Advisor Pathways. “You want to create the standard of what you’re going to acknowledge.”
Lisa Applegath, first vice president and investment advisor with CIBC Wood Gundy, is selective when recognizing those significant life events. For example, she chooses not to send a birthday card every year but instead, she acknowledges when her clients are starting a new decade.
“Every decade, people tend to look at their life stages; and [at my practice, we’re] all about transition,” she says. “It’s a given we’re going to manage their money, but we try to manage their lifestyle and their transitions in life.”
One way to surprise clients with a gift is to provide something for a situation that is not found on a calendar, but for those times when your client has shared something of importance with you. This is significant because the client is acknowledging he or she trusts you, MacPherson says.
For example, if a client is telling you about a recent family emergency that has created a lot of stress, you may choose to provide a spa day to the client to encourage relaxation.
“There’s no rhyme or reason for that, but [financial advisors] have done it because of their conversation and they picked up on something,” says Sylvia Garibaldi, founder of SG and Associates in Toronto. “It’s really those kinds of activities that make it more unexpected and more special.”
Applegath agrees that rather than sending gifts at specific designated times of the year, it can be effective to do so when you feel the gesture is warranted.
“We just had a client who had a hip replacement, so we made an effort to send her a little card with a funny book,” she says, “because she’s going to be lying in bed for a while.”
If you do enjoy celebrating then holidays, you may want to consider how you can ensure your gesture is not lost in the yearend rush. One option is to celebrate the New Year by sending something in the first few weeks of January, suggests Garibaldi.
Thanksgiving is also an appropriate — and less expected — occasion for showing appreciation, so you could consider incorporating that holiday into your gift-giving strategy.
Gift-giving also represents an opportunity to show that you are cognizant of different ethnic backgrounds and religions, says Garibaldi. Be aware of the holidays your clients celebrate, such as the Hindu holiday Diwali or the Chinese New Year, for example.
This is the second article in a three-part series on client appreciation.
On Thursday: Choosing meaningful gifts for clients.