GUIDE TO ELITE BROKERING: Regaining Lost Clients
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08/08/2010 1:36:00 PM
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Consider this. You have been in the mortgage industry for a few years now. You have written plenty of loans and have a nice loan book. Leads come in naturally from a few sources including your clients and referrers - who are more like friends now. Your peers think you are successful, and by most accounts you are.
But deep down you know that you could be doing so much better. In fact, if there was such a thing as a broker report card, yours would probably say: “could do better.” Most of your clients are not advocates of yours and quite honestly, you don’t know what they think or say about you. Your sense is that you would prefer not to know what they think – in case it’s not glowing. When you are really honest, you mark yourself eight out of 10 for salesmanship, but only four for client care.
Call to action
Can those clients that rate you a “four” be turned around? Most likely they can. It’s fair to say from the day you open a business that some clients will be advocates and some will not – regardless of the shopping experience they have with you. All you can do is your best, and try to create client advocates as often as you can.
But here is a tip. Don’t die wondering. Those clients are assets to your business. It’s their behaviour that will help determine the value and sale price for the business one day. Also, don’t wait until you decide to sell to fix this problem; your actions now will help improve cash flow now and the sale price later.
Everyone knows about Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. So if you don’t address this problem, it will not go away. So here is a suggestion that will help you to recover many of the clients that you think might be lost. First, admit that you have a problem, and then take action. Send out the customer care charter letter; the template of which is provided here, today.
But beware. You will no doubt receive negative feedback. The extent of it will depend on the service you provided in the first place. This is not a time to argue with your client – just accept that these are not the ones to spend your marketing dollars on in the future. And make a note of it in your CRM system. You do have one right?
You will receive positive feedback too, and that is the response we are after. The reality is that many of these long lost clients will actually think fondly of you, and almost certainly will not recall any problems experienced during their initial approval and settlement process. Some might even lie to you and say that they were “just thinking about you.”
Reluctant caller
Follow the letter up with a phone call. This time the positive interactions will trump the negative ones – as long as you have something of value to say. Many brokers that we work with on this issue have what we term “call reluctance” simply because they do not know what they would tell a client in a situation like this. It is a common challenge in many broker businesses, and we tell them all the same thing: don’t tell them what you think they should know, ask them rather to tell you what you should know.
Implementing this practice will be very fruitful for you when it is done well. There is no doubt that you will generate more repeat business through your clients by simply putting yourself back in front of them. Also, remember that you are a people-person. Your strength is in direct one-on-one communication. Even if your clients don’t rate the service that you provided, your attempt to rescue the relationship, convey empathy and commit to rectifying any issues will rebuild relationships.
True story: In a not uncommon occurrence, a broker client of mine procrastinated about calling his database for fear of negative feedback. Later, while reviewing his trail fee income form the broker noticed that a regular - and reasonably large - trail payment was missing. Now he called the client. The client told him she had lost his contact details (I’m so sorry) and had refinanced with a bank directly. She told him candidly that if he had called a month earlier, the refinance deal would have been his. I can only imagine how he felt when he put the phone down.
The lesson to take away is that business cards go missing and people forget your name if you don’t stay in touch and keep reminding them of it. Don’t rely on hoping that your clients will remember you – you have to make sure that they can’t forget you.
Another true story: A long established and very successful broker was reviewing his performance, looking for trends to plan for the year ahead. There was a very obvious spike in production from months March through April. On reviewing the marketing activities that occurred in January and February, he identified that calling many clients in those two months was a major contributing factor to lead generation (and ultimately settlements) in that period. The broker remembered that they were “uncomfortably busy” during that time and were pleased when the demand subsided. Lesson learned: outbound direct communication with your clients really does work if you prepare well for it.
As an alternative to calling clients, why not just invite them in to your office for a free debt review? What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Customer Care Charter template
Dear (insert client’s first name),
Ref. Customer Care Charter
I’m so sorry that I haven’t been in touch for some time. My intention was to regularly communicate with you to keep you informed about finance industry issues but to date I haven’t been able to do this. I hope that you will forgive me.
(Insert business name) has been steadily growing over the past (x) years and we now offer services to our valuable clients that include; (insert offerings)...
I want to make sure that you know that we do value you as a client and hope that you will consider us as your financial services provider of choice for the above listed services. If we can assist you with these services, we will be happy to help.
A representative from our office will be contacting you in the near future to ensure that we have all of your correct contact details and to see if we can assist you in the coming months. We would also like to hear your suggestions on how we could improve the service that we offer to you. If you would prefer not to be contacted, please respond to this e-mail/letter (or e-mail myname@myoffice.ca)
We look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Regards,
Questions to ask a client after a contact lapse
1. Can I check to make sure that we have the correct contact details for you? And your home e-mail address is...?
2. Thinking back to the service that we provided, was there anything we could have done to improve the service that you received?
3. This year, we plan to keep you up-to-date with changes in the finance industry in a regular, brief e-mail message, would you like me to keep you informed....?
4. Are you planning to buy, sell or refinance in the next 12 months? Or can I help you with anything in the coming six months?
5. Do you know anyone looking to sell, buy or refinance?
6. Do you have any questions for me?
Action items
1. Commit to contacting every client and prospect in your database this year
2. Ask for feedback – find out what they think of you
3. Do a needs analysis – find out how you can help them
4. Offer appropriate solutions and suggestions
5. Remind them of your referral program (if appropriate)
6. Send thank you cards as a follow-up when appropriate