5 ways to engage with your clients

To really engage your clients you need to have useful and relevant content that can solve the myriads of challenges facing them

1. Know your clients: Be ready to create accurate, secure and current records for every client. Seek to capture not only financial information, but the little personal details that help you create truly meaningful interactions — from birthdays and anniversaries, to children’s names, hobbies and interests, even their favourite coffee (so you can have it waiting when they visit). Make sure you review your personal fact file before each meeting or phone call.

2. Prioritise, contact, repeat: Naturally, all of your clients are important — but some are more valuable to your business than others. Divide your clients into three tranches with different contact cycles — monthly, quarterly and bi-annually. schedule regular contacts and track your performance.If you can retain clients during critical periods in the client lifecycle, you're likely to have won their loyalty for life.

3. Lookout for life-changing events: Whether talking to a client or interacting on social media, look for those life-changing events that inspire clients to re-evaluate their financial situation. The birth of a child, a marriage, a divorce or a significant medical event are all moments when your clients appreciate support and if they don’t receive it from you, they are likely to look elsewhere.By contacting clients regularly and keeping your records up to date, you give yourself the best chance of being there at the right time in their lives to provide the timely advice they need.

4. Beware of danger periods: Macquarie research shows there are danger periods in the client relationship when engagement levels fall and clients are most likely to leave. A 2014 survey of 1,283 advice clients found that engagement levels fell sharply after year three of the relationship, before rising again towards year 10. The good news is that if you can retain clients through those fallow periods, you are likely to have won their loyalty for life.By putting a structured system in place to keep clients engaged during critical periods in the client lifecycle, you can ensure a temporary dip in loyalty doesn’t become a client lost forever.

5. Let technology do the work for you: While social media creates endless opportunities for you to engage your clients in new ways, it can be time consuming if you don’t manage it carefully. Fortunately, technology can help here too.Social media management tools like Edgar, Hootsuite and Sprout enable you to schedule and publish content across multiple social media channels, then monitor and manage responses from a single, centralised dashboard. One tool, Hearsay, is even designed specifically for planners.And technology can also make meetings more convenient and efficient for both you and your clients. Next time you’d like to speak to a client who is interstate, overseas or simply time-poor, why not use an online video-conferencing tool like Skype, GoToMeeting or Google Hangouts? That way you can enjoy many of the same benefits as a face-to-face meeting, without leaving your desk.