Make All Contact Personal
Every written communication that goes out to your clients should have their names and your signature on it and be as customized as possible. --Cliff Oberlin and Jill Powers
Every written communication that goes out to your clients should have their names and your signature on it and be as customized as possible. For example, each of our clients receives a birthday letter every year, and each letter is unique. One year, we sent a letter that described what happened during the year they were born, like major news events, who was president, and which songs were popular. In another year, we sent our clients a letter that listed the celebrities and historical figures who shared the same birthday.
It's important that you sign each card or letter personally and not use a digitized signature. This gives you a chance to add a personalized, handwritten postscript to each letter, and it also ensures that you cleanse your list, removing any clients who have left you or even passed away. We know that some advisers prefer to have their systems create the signatures, but we can't think of anything that is potentially more embarrassing or damaging to your credibility than having a birthday or anniversary letter with your signature on it arrive at the house of a client who has died. Also, have a real person answer your office telephone. In our own business, we steadfastly refuse to let our clients or prospects get lost in the maze created by an automated answering system.
-Cliff Oberlin, CPA/PFS, CFP, is CEO, and Jill Powers, CFP, CDP, is president, of Oberlin Financial, a financial advisory practice and broker-dealer in Bryan, Ohio, in Make Contact--Or Else
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