I was at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) Spring Conference in Austin last week where I learned a lot of things, but one theme seemed to stand out to me: enhancing the client experience.
Yes, there were many speakers talking about the latest and greatest financial planning strategies and research, but quite a few of the sessions that I attended focused on making the experience for the client better. This is something that I think about often and that stuck with me.
Making things easier and more actionable for clients isn’t easy, but I think it does enhance the value of what a financial planner does. There are so many things within financial planning that we can provide a client with advice or guidance on, but that we can’t do for them. Ultimately, a client’s actions are what will have the biggest impact on their financial life so we should help them and make it as easy as possible for them to follow through with the correct course.
The speakers didn’t only focus on making things easier for clients and holding them accountable to make sure they reach their goals, but they also spoke about trying to make clients’ lives better in general through things such as birthday cards or small gifts for anniversaries or when a child graduates high school or college. A lot of relationships that people have with their “financial advisor” are very impersonal and only business-focused, which can be detrimental for both parties for many reasons.
I haven’t had time to digest the notes that I took at the conference, but I plan on doing so soon and figuring out what I can take away from the speakers to continue to make things easier for my clients and to develop deeper and more effective relationships with them. Making things actionable for clients and helping them to follow through on their financial planning “homework” is expected, but I don’t think that people receive the full value of a financial planner without a deeper, more intentional relationship being built.
