Leveraging technology for better client service
*Estate information: Everyone knows they should have a list of credit cards, bank accounts and the location of legal documents and insurance policies.
*Emergency names: Another value-added service is a list of names to be called in the event of an emergency or death. This kind of a list is an excellent source of referrals to future clients and should be so easy to add to the financial summary that you prepare for clients.
Bank financial statement: Let your clients know that they can get an updated bank financial statement from your office any time. This value added service takes about three minutes to accomplish and could result in an additional sale and certainly additional referrals.
PDF conversion: You should be able to convert and save financial statements and analysis pages into a PDF format.
Tasks: Your office software should track tasks that you and your staff do. It should show the task, who should do the task, when it should be done and the date completed.
Search your client database for sales or service opportunities:
·Term insurance: Find clients who have term insurance with an upcoming anniversary date.
·Birth dates: Acknowledging birthdays was an integral part of Al Granum's "One Card System." Identify clients, spouses or children who have birthdays this month. Select a birthday letter template, click to mail merge and print.
·Age: Get a list of all clients older than age 65 or 69 for IRA rollovers and potential sales.
·Assets and liabilities: Search clients' assets and liabilities or get a summary of cash, securities and other totals.
·Income: Find clients with income over $75,000 or any amount of income that you want.
·Total life insurance: Identify clients who have less than a certain amount of life insurance.
·Clients in a specific city or postcode: If you are traveling to meet a client, search your database for all clients in that city and make contact with them.
·Letters, envelopes and labels: Your software should let you select a letter template, mail merge the letter and print a letter to each person on the list. You should also be able to print envelopes or labels for everyone on the list.
·E-mail: You should be able to send an e-mail to any client or prospect without leaving the client management or the financial planning software that you use.
·Group e-mail: You should be able to simply click a "Group e-mail" button and send an e-mail to all clients listed.
Futurist John Naisbett coined the phrase "High Tech with High Touch." Your office technology should let you "touch" your clients easily. The better you deliver service, the more repeat sales, retained clients and referrals you will have.