Market Planning Idea
Communicating with Your Clients
Hits, Touches & Moments
There are three levels of communication you can have with clients: hits, touches and moments. These will dictate how and what you will be communicating with both clients and prospects. You can communicate "hits" and "touches" via the Internet, your website and e-mail, but you cannot use the Internet for "moments"; it requires more intimate communication. You can, however, use the Internet to help organize "moments", such as organizing a client appreciation event or dinner.
- A hit is a less meaningful contact aimed at either building top-of-mind awareness (i.e., advertising or communicating a required administrative inquiry or task). This may include helping a client read their statement or sending a duplicate statement.
- A touch is more meaningful than a hit. It provides more value in contributing to the building of relationships. The value of a touch is dependent on your clients' particular needs and expectations. What do they value and how much? A touch means going beyond basic client services with things such as newsletters, simple gestures of appreciation, seminars, greetings and so on.
- A moment has more significant meaning and is generally face-to-face. It's a sign to your client that you truly understand them and care about them. You appreciate their business and have made the effort to take your relationship to the next level. This could simply be sending flowers and a get well soon note, taking clients to dinner, remembering their anniversary, making a donation to their favorite charity and, most importantly, showing you care by listening to them and understanding them.
Basically, clients want to be communicated with more frequently — and more appropriately. They want more value in what you will be communicating as well. But, how are you going to do this when you are already too busy? This is where using technology can help you tremendously.
How do you communicate hits, touches and moments? There are three main criteria to consider when deciding how you'll communicate, and through which medium, with your clients and prospects. First, you need to know what the message is. Then you must decide what type of impact you want to gain from sending out the message, a moment, touch or hit. Lastly, you need to consider the characteristics of each medium available and which is the most efficient and effective means of distribution. What resources do you want to commit to each type of message?
Messages of less significance — hits and touches — should be sent out via e-mail, phone calls, and regular mail. Obviously e-mail is the least expensive alternative here; it falls somewhere between a verbal conversation and a written document. It can be personal, brief and easily documented for follow up and future reference.
Touches include organizing seminars, delivering a monthly newsletter, sending greetings to clients and prospects and providing timely, thorough customer service. Again, e-mail is a good way to send out seminar invitations, newsletters, and greetings, as well as responding to client inquiries.
To give you a better understanding of the relationship between message, impact, efficiency and effectiveness, take a look at the Relationship Continuum.
The continuum ranges from a hit, to a touch, through to a moment. As you proceed from the left to the right, the Relationship Value increases. By Relationship Value, I mean the value of the relationship as the client sees it. The more moments you have with your clients, the more they'll value the relationship you have with them. The fewer moments you have with your clients, the less value they'll place on the relationship when they evaluate it.
In addition to having moments with clients, you can increase the value of the relationship by increasing the number of touches and the value of each touch. With hits, you can increase the value of the hit, but you must be careful not to over-hit; this can hurt you and your relationship. As you move along the continuum, the further to the left you are the less impact any improvements will have on the Relationship Value. As you proceed to the right, each component is weighted more heavily than the subsequent component to the left. But remember, if you fail to provide adequate levels of hits and touches you will fall short, even if you have moments with your clients.
Understanding Hits,
Touches and Moments
A hit ranges from self-promotion or advertising (i.e., RRSP/401k reminders) to client services, including administrative issues, online account access and financial plan implementation. It's not geared toward building relationships; it's geared towards sustaining the administrative side of the relationship.
However, a hit can be turned into a touch or even a moment. An administrative inquiry or advertisement can be personalized to increase its value. Let's say a client makes an administrative inquiry and, in discussing the matter, you recognize that the client often has trouble reading and understanding their statements, as many people do. You could invite them to an Information Session that helps them and other clients learn how to read, and better understand, their statements. This turns an administrative inquiry into a touch, and possibly a moment, provided they're interested and show up for the Information Session.
A touch is when you go beyond the regular expectations of the client-adviser relationship, by providing extra value to the relationship on a personal and professional level. An example of a touch might be e-mailing select clients and reminding them of an upcoming local gardening show because you know they like gardening. Another example of a touch is sending out a monthly newsletter. You can keep your clients aware of local events, important dates, interesting articles and more. I'll discuss this in more detail in a later issue.
A moment is any direct communication, either face-to-face or voice-to-voice, with clients. A moment would involve the adviser going outside of their clients' expectations to provide exceptional service, to show that you care personally for that client or show your appreciation for the clients' business and/or friendship. It also includes mastering skills such as listening, discussing and understanding their wants, needs and concerns. Making appropriate recommendations show you care and truly understand their wants, needs and concerns, which demonstrates how well you listen, discuss issues and understand your client.
If you hit someone too much, it will hurt. If you reach out and touch someone enough, you will have a friend or an acquaintance at least, but if you have moments with someone, you will create a strong bond that will be long-lasting provided you continue to communicate at this level. If they do become a client after hitting them often, you have started a relationship built on hitting, not touching; this relationship is worth much less.
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