In today’s ultra-competitive world, it is imperative that financial advisors do everything possible to lock in top clients. To achieve that, you need to provide a level of communication, service and overall experience that is superior to what most clients receive.

Of course, if you ask most financial advisors whether they treat top clients better than their other clients, you will get an unequivocal “yes.” But dig deeper and two common problems emerge.

First, the time and effort that is invested in top clients often doesn’t reflect the real importance of those clients.

And, second, even if advisors do treat top clients in a substantially different way than other clients, those top clients may not understand all the ways in which they’re getting special attention — and the magnitude of that difference in service.

Advisors can learn something from Air Canada. Although Big Red still does a lot of things wrong with respect to its average passengers, how the airline treats its top clients provides some interesting lessons.

How you are treated by Air Canada depends on how many miles you flew in the past calendar year, adjusted to how much you paid for each flight. (If you bought a rock-bottom fare, you will only get half the credit for miles flown.)

Air Canada recognizes three levels of flyers: “prestige” (15,000 miles), “elite” (35,000 miles) and “super elite” (100,000 miles). Less than 1% of the airline’s passengers are in the super-elite category, but they get very special treatment.

The service starts before the flight. If you qualify for super elite, you are given a special number to call, staffed around the clock by Air Canada’s customer-service employees. For its top customers, the airline waives the limitation on using frequent-flier rewards; if a seat is available on a flight, it’s yours. The airline provides upgrade certificates and the ability to book upgrades to business class a week before a flight. If your flight is delayed, you are routed on the next flight and you receive a phone call letting you know about the delay. And Air Canada guarantees that, with six hours’ notice, you will get on any flight no matter how heavily booked it may be.

The airline continues this special treatment when you arrive at the airport. You go to a special check-in area, thereby avoiding long lineups. Restrictions on luggage are lifted and, in some airports, you are given access to special — shorter — lines for security checks. You get entrance to a lounge at major airports and are given the opportunity to board the plane before other passengers. Finally, if you are not travelling business class and Air Canada wants to fill empty seats in business class, you are given priority.

And Air Canada doesn’t end its special treatment of its best customers there. When you travel overseas, you may be greeted by Air Canada’s concierge staff, which are located in major cities in order to deal with problems top clients may encounter.

The airline’s best customers are aware of the special treatment they receive. So it’s no surprise that its frequent fliers make earning the miles to qualify for super elite status a priority each year.

As financial advisors, you may benefit by using similar strategies with the top 5% or 10% of your client base — your top 20 or 25 clients.

Clearly, you need to talk to those clients frequently. While you can only afford to spend so much time with most clients, this isn’t the case with your top clients. Depending on their needs and preferences, you may want to suggest quarterly meetings, supplemented by telephone calls.

And the frequency with which you meet with top clients is not the only difference. Logistics dictate that advisors expect most of their clients to come to their offices during regular business hours. A significant number of clients find this an imposition. They’re as busy as we are, and don’t like fighting traffic and paying for parking any more than we do.

For your top clients, you may suggest a meeting location other than your office, and a meeting time that is convenient for them rather than for you. And when those top clients do come to your office, make special efforts to welcome them. Ensure that you have their favourite beverage on hand (which assumes that you know what that beverage is), and that you bring in pastries, cookies or sandwiches for the meeting.

@page_break@Making clients feel welcome doesn’t end there. You need to ensure that your receptionist knows when top clients are coming in and greets them by name. One advisor realized that many of his retired clients resented paying for parking to visit him at his downtown office; he arranged to have top clients’ parking chits validated.

And you can make your best clients feel special in other ways. When you are faced with several phone or e-mail messages, you will presumably reply to your top clients first. One advisor goes one step better. He informs his top 10 clients that they are among his most important clients and that, if they ever telephone and are told that he is unavailable, to tell his assistant whom they are. He informs them that he will take their calls, even if he has to cut another call short or leave a meeting.

There are numerous other ways in which to make top clients feel valued. Consider writing your cellphone number and home phone number on your business card, and invite top clients to use these if they ever need to reach you. One advisor supplements quarterly client statements with customized statements, presenting the portfolio’s performance in a format developed in response to the client’s preferences — in some cases including performance of investments held by competitors. (And, to stay onside with compliance, he ensures that his branch manager approves these statements before they are sent out.)

Many successful advisors run client appreciation events — luncheon or evening presentations by accountants, lawyers or portfolio managers; or purely social activities such as wine tastings, golf games or events with speakers on topics such as gardening or travel.

We all have limited time and money to invest in these activities. You may be able to do both small, higher-end events for top clients and broader-based events for the rest of your clients. But if you have to choose between the two, you will almost always be better off hosting intimate events that make your top clients feel valued.

A few years ago, a Toronto advisor rented Maple Leaf Gardens on a Sunday afternoon and invited all his clients to bring their children and grandchildren to a skating party with hot dogs and hot chocolate.

The following year, he rented the Gardens again. But instead of holding a skating party for all his clients, he invited 40 top clients and centres of influence who played old-timers’ hockey for a game at the Gardens. Each guest received a Leafs or Canadiens sweater with his name on it. After the game, the advisor and his guests moved to a nearby bar for beer and wings.

The advisor got a positive reaction to the skating party and built plenty of goodwill, but the feedback to that event was dwarfed by the response and lift in short-term business that he got from the second event. If he could only hold one event, there is no question in his mind which would pay better dividends.

Giving your top clients top treatment is a shift in thinking for many advisors. Some may not feel comfortable doing this because of concerns that other clients who hear about this treatment will be offended. Yes, that is a risk. But, I suggest, it is a much smaller risk than having your top clients think they are not getting the special treatment that they deserve. IE