Statistics show that one thousand people try to climb Mount Everest every year; yet, only 500 people are successful in reaching the summit. Despite this, and other gruelling challenges during the climb, reaching the top of the world’s largest mountain is the epitome of success for mountain climbers.
To do this, climbers have to rely on an expert expedition leader, and Sherpa’s, to reach the top of the summit safely. These key individuals are expected to provide a climbing experience unlike any other on their way to the top.
How do we make things great?
Does any of the above sound familiar? As key role players in the investment industry, your clients look towards you to be their guide on their investment journey. They look at you to provide them with a client experience unlike any other.
How do we go about this? It starts with our controlables, what do we have that we can control and make great? The first thing that we need to realise is that clients gravitate towards us because of products. They have a need, and they trust that you will provide the best advice on satisfying this need.
Clients are looking for us to fulfil this need, and to provide a great experience on the journey.
The emotional rollercoaster
Contentment is a mental or emotional state of satisfaction maybe drawn from being at ease in one's situation, body and mind. Bringing this back to business, when a person is content, they are happy with the level of service they receive from a company and they are happy to continue to do business with that company.
We have to create a good life experience for clients in our quest to provide them with a sense of contentment with our brand. How do we achieve this?
First we need to realise that client service is not client experience. Companies spend a lot of time on improving products or services, but very few work on client experience.
Client experience is the culmination of every interaction with your business; physical and emotional. Are you providing them with a decent product or service? Are your clients frustrated with your product or service? Ninety five percent of all decisions made are based on emotion.
Evaluate… evaluate… evaluate
Once we have refined this, we need to evaluate the service level we offer clients on a constant basis. Products can satisfy, emotions engage. When a client feels emotionally attached to a product, they find it hard to not use it. Think of Coca-Cola or Levi Jeans.
We need to know what our client’s expectations are. Once we have established this, we need to go above and beyond in exceeding these expectations. This is especially true when dealing with Millennials. These clients are young, their expectations are high. They place a high value on trust and they want to leave a legacy behind that is meaningful and purposeful to future generations.
Living examples
The best example of a good client experience is Starbucks; the company has created a community where clients actively want to go.
The people at Starbucks speak a special language; they create a friendly environment by setting up their furniture with a specific flow in mind. Therefore, if you are at one table and want to talk to a person at another table, you merely have to move your chair to do so.
The most startling thing about Starbucks is that they charge a premium for their service and yet still achieve revenue growth topping 20% per year. Last year, 75% of all coffee sales from coffee shops in the US were Starbucks sales. People will pay a premium for a good customer experience.
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