Retirement plan advisors have a unique relationship with their clients, who place themselves and their futures in their advisor’s hands. Client appreciation events are a way to honor that trust and build on it.
“These events are important because you’re strengthening relationships,” says Matt Oechsli, CEO of The Oechsli Institute, a marketing firm that serves financial advisors.
“We have 20 years of data that goes to show when you can expand the relationship from just your professional services to get some kind of a social, personal, emotional connection, you really improve the relationship,” he adds.
Clients with an emotional or personal connection to their advisor are dramatically more loyal, he says, and advisors are three times as likely to get new business by word of mouth through those clients.
Clients are also less price-sensitive as their trust in an advisor increases, Oechsli points out.
These behaviors are backed by neuroscience, he adds. Personal connections trigger the release of oxytocin, which plays a vital role in the reward center of our brains.
“Oxytocin is stimulated when it’s a convivial, personal, fun social event, whether it’s small—having a cup of coffee with somebody, receiving a small little gift from somebody—or attending an event like we’re discussing here, and that strengthens trust,” Oechsli says.
Chad Smith is a partner at Financial Symmetry in Raleigh, North Carolina. His firm has hosted client appreciation events for nearly a decade.
Smith has found that even when he and his colleagues aren’t talking business with their clients at events, having personal conversations helps them understand the client better, which helps them provide better service.
“It’s more of an environment where we can actually get to know the clients a little more personally because we talk about their families,” Smith says. “We see their kids every year and see them grow, and talk about other things that come up in life, and that provides a comfortable environment to do that.”
For example, at the firm’s most recent event (a baseball game attended by 300 of the firm’s clients), he was chatting with a client who wanted to transition their children into private school.
A relaxed or social atmosphere helps advisors have “unique conversations that may not come up on the phone [that] we can work back into the plan,” Smith says. “And if they bring up something momentous enough in their lives, then we could get them in shortly after that, and then rework the plan, because we do lead with planning.”
Hosting an event
There are endless opportunities to host client appreciation events that clients will love, which can make it hard to know where to start. Smith recommends thinking about the firm’s culture and what attracted clients there in the first place.
“Culturally, as a firm, we decided that it’d be better for us to have a more laid-back activity because that’s a lot of what our clients want. We didn’t feel like a client appreciation event should be us up there chatting about financial topics,” he said.
The firm hosts two annual client appreciation events for clients. Since 2006, Financial Symmetry has sponsored the Neuse River Golden Retriever Rescue’s annual golf tournament, according to Heather Gudac, operations manager.
“That’s been a really great way to bring clients out,” she says. “We’ve actually been able to connect with some clients who have adopted dogs from there, and it’s nice to see their new furry family members.”
Since 2011, the firm has also been taking its clients to see the Durham Bulls, the minor league baseball team immortalized in the 1988 movie “Bull Durham” starring Kevin Costner. That event has grown from 70 or 75 clients who attended to over 300 in 2019, she said. The firm rented three party decks at Durham Bulls Athletic Park and provided dinner and drinks for guests, says Angela Keeley-White, client services manager at Financial Symmetry.
Gudac notes that the event facilitates connection with their clients, but it also extends the relationship to family members in a natural way.
“It was a great way for us to have a lot of different clients out. We’ve got clients who are retirees that really love baseball, but we also have a great mix of younger families and older families,” Gudac says. “We have one set of clients where it’s grandparents, their adult children and their grandchildren that are able to enjoy the game with us.”
Don’t be shy about asking clients directly about the kinds of events they would most enjoy. Oechsli says his firm created a form to solicit feedback from their clients.
“It’s a sort of like a checklist: Would you be interested in this, that or the other? You’re getting input from them” about what would be most appreciated by the clients.
Getting that client buy-in also helps with attendance when the time comes to actually host the event.
“When they say they’d attend an event of such, they’re emotionally committing themselves to actually attending that event; the key to having these events is not only making sure your clients enjoy the event, but it’s getting them there,” Oechsli notes.
He adds that personal invitations are more successful than flashy printed invites.
“You don’t need to go out and start off with a high-powered printing of wedding-style invitations,” he says. “You’re calling [and saying], ‘Hey, we talked about this event [and] we’d love for you to attend. And if you have any of your colleagues who would like to attend, we have enough space for everybody to bring a guest.”
He recommends following up with guests a few days before the event to make sure they’re going to attend.
Financial Symmetry also keeps things simple with invites, sending email invitations to all their clients, as well as direct invitations for clients they know are interested.
“We actually have many clients who will email us before we even send out invites, asking when the game’s going to be this year because they don’t want to miss it,” Gudac says.
Education vs. appreciation
Oechsli drew a line between educational events like public seminars and true appreciation events. He’s seen that educational events aren’t typically as successful as more social events, but he offers a caveat:
“Identity theft and things that are top of mind can get some traction, especially if you bring in an expert. Or an event that involves a physician who is maybe an oncologist who understands dietary preventative measures for cancer—we’ve seen those things work extraordinarily well.”
Smith also believes that education events don’t have the punch they once did. His firm has experimented with those types of events, he says, “but they haven’t resonated as much with our clients.”
He believes that’s due, at least in part, to increased adoption of digital media.
“You have a select group of clients, probably retired clients that are still going to be interested in coming to an education event here and there. But I think with busy young families, they’re going to be more interested in podcasts, for example.”
Stay focused on why
Although there are certainly business rewards to reap from showing clients how much their business is appreciated, the goal of these events is just that: to show clients how much they mean to advisors’ business.
“You have to approach it like it’s all about the client, always,” Smith says. “If you approach it from the aspect of ‘what’s in it for me,’ then it’s going to shine through and it’s not going to be genuine and authentic.”
Gudac adds that the benefits to an advisor aren’t all in business.
“Some of these younger families, their kids grow up alongside some of our employees’ family,” she says. That helps them have “a more meaningful connection that’s not just talking about money.”
Oechsli encourages his clients to make their events a “no business” zone.
“Everybody can bring a guest, but there’s going to be no business conducted,” he explains. “When they meet the guests, it’s just about meeting somebody, developing rapport with that person.”
If that guest is in need of advisors’ services later down the road, already having a positive interaction with the advisor will be a launchpad to getting their business, especially “because word of mouth influence starts becoming stimulated by the client, who’s already talking about the advisor to the guest.”