FOR ADVISORS

You may believe you hear all the complaints and all the accolades when you meet with your customers, but some clients will hold back their positive and negative thoughts on your service. Then, when it comes time for them to recommend you, they will do so (or not do so) based on their unspoken opinions.
 

There is no downside to a customer satisfaction survey. Customers will either confirm what you already know about your business, both positive and negative, or they will provide you with new input that will allow your business to improve and grow. In today's investment environment, everything is rated from restaurants to doctors. Failure to have a rating could be deemed negatively.

The benefits of a customer satisfaction survey are limited by the quality of the questions that are asked. If you ask only yes-no
questions, you will not get much detail into the issues that matter. If you ask open-ended questions, the answers may be vague and not applicable to your needs.

Customers who take a satisfaction survey will learn something about your firm. They will learn that you care what they think and what they want. A carefully crafted satisfaction survey can indicate to investors that you have given their satisfaction consideration and want to improve on it. It also indicates that you want the working relationship to be a successful and long-term one.

Any firm that conducts a customer satisfaction survey must be willing to accept the results that come in. If you are interested in
improving your customer relations and the services you provide, a customer satisfaction survey will make that happen. But your firm must be willing to accept the possibility that it is not doing everything it can to please the customer. If, then, the results come back and there are only a few complaints, your firm can congratulate itself on a job well done.

Our results have generally found that investors think highly of their financial advisors. Why don't you let your customers share their opinions of you?