Exceptional service means client loyalty and repeat business over time

The future success for all financial service professionals post the RDR is developing a reputation as “the go-to” company or adviser that consistently delivers excellence to new and repeat clients. This will enable you to build your brand on the experiences your clients have with your company based on their own perceptions. An emotionally satisfying client experience can be very powerful, especially when service expectations are deemed to be low from some financial service providers.

Repeat business

Nothing is more valuable to your business than a great impression that lasts beyond a single product sale or investment transaction. Remember that today’s exceptional service means client loyalty and repeat business over time and better yet, great word-of-mouth for your company. The key, of course, is being able to deliver what you say you’ll deliver, when you say you’ll deliver it, whether it’s a product, service or some kind of positive investment results.

Type of value

It also helps to start thinking in terms of the type of value you can deliver in exchange for how you charge clients.

• Could it be value up-front or added value on the back-end?
• Could it be value based strictly on service, delivery or another factor, such as, a unique location or your business service proposition model?
• Can you leverage that value five or 10 times (either actual or perceived value) compared to what you charge?

Shift your priorities

As the industry is currently working through a process of adapting and revaluating business and service proposition models, shifting your priorities dramatically could save you a lot of time and expense for the up-front costs if you are currently going through a rebranding exercise that could waste a lot of your precious resources if not approached correctly. Simply put, you can have a great logo, signs, business cards and website, but until you have a client, you don’t have a business.

Brand identity

Start with a simple “type treatment” – meaning your company name staged in a simple or even unique font – for your logo or brand identity, and start focusing on how you can add value to your clients’ experience.

Then, focus on a systemised, low-cost way to generate qualified leads that can be replicated. This may mean setting aside your preconceived notions of advertising that “looks good” and generates a response, or considering online or social media channels of lead generation versus conventional or off-line methods.

Products or services

It could also mean creating some informational or educational “White Papers,” case studies or brochures that focus less on the products or services you have and more on what those products or services can do for your clients.

Your focus on these two areas will not only save you money upfront and set you up for ever more profitable business down the road, but you’ll also be able to:

1. Develop an exceptional go-to reputation that will go further in building your brand than any expensive ad campaign could ever do.

2. Establish the basis for a referral-based business, because old-fashioned word-of-mouth is the least expensive and most effective advertising you could ever want for your business.

Key points of difference

Can this approach work in the financial services industry or your area of specialism? If you don’t think that it can, you may just need to find some key points of difference you can offer that will immediately set you apart from the competition.

No matter what you do, make it unique. You’ll not only effectively position your company against your competition; you’ll also successfully anchor it in your client’s own mind. There’s no better branding strategy than that.