Mandarin Oriental is known for its extraordinary customer experience. So is Porsche. High-net-worth clients and investors have different, higher expectations for everything, from the products they consume to the services they engage.

What are you doing to create an experience to attract and retain the highly-profitable and extremely-competitive niche of high-net-worth (HNW) clients?

Defining the HNW Client Experience

While most advisors actively seek out HNW clients, fewer have any written standard that defines how such clients are elevated in terms of time, attention and servicing. This is not true for the brands best known for exceptional HNW customer experience. As the old adage says, “If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.”

“Hold on,” I can hear some advisors objecting, “our client satisfaction and retention rates are sky high.” That may be true, but exceptional experiences are never just satisfying—they are memorable.

And, memorable experiences are what keep HNW clients with you and, equally important, recommending you to their HNW friends and acquaintances.

When defining your HNW client experience, consider if you are doing the following:

Offering the Services HNW Investors Want—According to U.S. Trust’s 2018 Insights on Wealth and Worth report¹, affluent investors’ top five wealth planning issues that they want more guidance on are:

1. Estate planning
2. Trust options and implications
3. Strategic philanthropy
4. Facilitating discussions with family about use and purpose of wealth
5. Tax planning

Delivering The Services with Superior Quality and High Touch—In a recent SEI white paper², they outlined benchmarks against which to measure HNW service delivery:

• Do you engage in a continuous review of processes to reduce sources of frustration and capitalize on opportunities to improve the client experience?
• Are your communications and the advice you provide customized and thoughtful?
• Do you immediately recognize calls or inquiries from your HNW clients so that their calls do not go to voicemail?
• Do you have a system that protects them from receiving generic e-mail or marketing mailings?
• Have you asked your HNW clients what motivates them, the issues they care about and what they want from you?
• Do you have a zero tolerance for error?
• Is your follow-up and follow-through immediate?
• Are problems resolved conclusively?
• How do you create a “Wow” factor for your HNW clients? In other words, what memorable experiences are you creating for them?

The bar is very high in pleasing the demands and expectations of HNW clients, and advisors will need a thoughtful strategy if they are to clear it.

Sources:

1. https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/system/files/2018_US_Trust_Insights_on_Wealth_and_Worth_Overview.pdf
2. https://seic.com/sites/default/files/SEI-ADV-Your-HNW-Client-Strategy.pdf?elqTrackId=d6e2198c2aa04e5b872293219d9e86a5&elqTrack=true

See referenced disclosure (2) at https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/