Keeping existing customers happy is vital to the survival of every financial services business. The time and money it takes to acquire a new customer will drain your bottom line if that customer only uses your services once.
Instead of spending more to catch every fish in the sea, focus on reeling in existing customer loyalty with new marketing strategies and expanded financial services that will make your business a household name. Read on about the financial services business opportunities that will keep customers coming back for more.
Grow Your Offering by Listening to Feedback
Focus first on what customers tell you they want. Send out a questionnaire as a part of your digital marketing campaign; or when you meet with clients, ask questions to gain feedback about what they love and what more they would like out of your current services. Once you identify the parts of your business that clients value most, you can expand your current offerings and develop new services that best fit their preferences.
Don’t forget to ask clients about their pain points and struggles. Your interest will show clients that they are the focus of your business and you want to help them succeed. Not only will this build trust in your relationships, you will also discover new ways to personalize services.
Listening to (and acting on) the feedback you receive is an important business opportunity because it helps you better serve your clients. This has a double effect on your bottom line:
- By providing, and charging for, more services to each client, you will increase your revenue from your existing client-base, without investing in more advertising or wooing new prospects.
- By giving your clients what they want, and the services that resolve the financial stress in their lives, you improve customer satisfaction and create brand advocates -- people who will recommend you to their family, friends, and social media connections and increase your client base.
Increase Revenue per Client by Anticipating Customer Needs
There is no better way to impress a client than by being able to fix an existing problem and solve something that you foresee on the horizon. Anticipatory service is when your business can identify problems and hangups that a client may encounter and you stop the possibility before it becomes a reality. Start by calling customers to check in on how your services are working or if they have any questions before they call you to get help.
Start a proactive dialogue with clients and you will better understand their needs. Actively engage with customers to put your business at the top of their minds as well and transform them into loyal brand advocates for you.
For example, if a client has a new baby in the family, it might be a good time to tell them about the importance of starting a 529 plan and explain how the compounded interest will help them afford college in 18 years, even with a minimal monthly investment.
Providing anticipatory service inside your existing business framework is a zero cost new business opportunity. This level of customer service is a great way to:
- Give customers what they need before they ask for it. Customer satisfaction will increase and result in better word-of-mouth advertising.
- Help you sell more services to each client. Doing paperwork for investments, helping open accounts, and other small tasks can take a major weight off clients’ shoulders. You will get to know each person’s needs and can propose a network of solutions that bring the benefits of your many offerings to the table. By showcasing your skills and services, the revenue per client will increase as you offer solutions to fix problems they hadn’t even considered.
Increase Retention by Offering Something Special
A surprise gift or discount code won’t outdo the competition or keep clients. Instead, offer specialized services like credit repair that will help clients improve their credit score and overall financial health. Helping individuals pay down debt and implement better credit habits can create positive changes across clients’ lives and make you a trusted resource for every financial road bump or question they encounter.
You can assist clients with:
- Credit inquiries
- Removing errors from credit reports
- Loan approval
- Negotiations with creditors
Offering a credit repair service bolsters your financial service offerings and increases client retention in a few ways:
- Adding a new service will expand your current offerings resulting in an additional income stream. This can function as an add-on to a current service or become independent of your current financial services. This is a great way to increase your client base and revenue.
- You will draw in people searching the web for credit services and have the opportunity to offer and charge for two times the services per customer.
Get Referrals by Giving Customers Access to More Knowledge
Develop a content marketing strategy that will showcase your financial knowledge and keep clients interested in your business.
Get started with:
- Start a website to advertise the breadth of yours services
- Write a blog on current financial issues
- Create a creative vlog with behind the scenes footage to add a personal touch
- Make an online question board to better understand the client’s needs
- Target your existing customer base using social media and tell personal stories about your experience in the field to keep people engaged
These are just a few of the hundreds of ideas for creating content aimed at financial service clientele and a well-developed content marketing strategy is a unique business opportunity that will:
- Keep clients thinking about your business year-round
- Generate interest in your current business and generate new leads
- Give you the opportunity to create ebooks and other long-form content that is gated. Make sure to have a form that captures lead information before content can be accessed
- Give you access to data about the topics and content your clients are interested in. You can then create custom service offerings based on what ebooks or posts each client engages with
- Prove the depth of your knowledge and increase client referrals
Foster Trust by Following the Platinum Rule
You may already be following the Golden Rule of “treat others how you want to be treated,” but Google’s trusted Platinum Rule is a better bet in our current age of personalization: Treat others how they want to be treated.
If a client contacts you by phone, you should call them back. If they email you, you should email back. Get to know clients based on their given behaviors and try to act accordingly. This simple principle is a highly effective way to build healthy and lasting business-customer relationships. When your business follows the Platinum rule, you will make customers feel at ease and know they can trust you to act on their behalf.
You’ve already established yourself as a trusted financial resource while working with clients and now it’s time to take the next steps to ensure that they not only remember what your services did to improve their financial health, but they seek out your services and expertise year round.
Read more on how to continue the success of your business by taking advantage of the right opportunities in this guide for Financial Services.
