Among many other benefits, virtual communication enables clients to watch or read material you send them on their own time and to sign documents electronically instead of in person and on paper.

Just one problem: What if they don’t actually do those things? Or what if they have questions and don’t know how to resolve them?

During a recent virtual committee meeting discussion, three MDRT members offered tips on how to ensure that clients process, understand and complete everything that you hope they do.

“When you record a video of a financial plan, you believe in your mind that they are inspired to watch it. So one of the mistakes we made was not texting the client immediately to say, ‘I’m sending you something.’ Now we do that and send another text a week later to ask, ‘Did you see that?’

“This system has actually started to work really well. One of the hardest things that I have to respect is that clients have their own lives, and while something may be a priority to me, it might not be a priority for them. It’s that fine line between persistence and harassment. Every once in a while, a client will email me with the same questions, and I’ll refer them back to my response from a few months ago that they ‘forgot’ to watch. I like to put animations in the videos to help make my thoughts appear like they do in my head, which allows me to explain myself better than I do while I’m just talking or doodling live.”

—Meagan S. Balaneski, CFP, RFP, a nine-year MDRT member from Vermilion, Alberta, Canada

“We do applications right there in front of them so that they’re seeing it, asking questions and signing while we’re still in the meeting. If we sign at the meeting, it’s more efficient. I don’t have to chase them for a signature after. Plus, they get to ask any questions that come up as we are going through the application and correct anything if I make a mistake right there and then.”

—Sofia Dumansky, MBA, LUTCF, a nine-year MDRT member from Windsor, Connecticut, USA

“When you’re sitting with someone in person, you’re able to explain it to them. In today’s world with DocuSign, they’re hitting click-click-click and not reading details or having you there to explain it. We’ve been mailing out policies as opposed to hand-delivering. I’ll send an email to say ‘I just mailed you your policy and you should get it in the next week. Here are delivery receipts, and feel free to sign electronically.’ There have been instances where the client would DocuSign immediately before even getting the policy, so they’re not paying attention to the email saying to sign after they receive the policy. In those instances, I’ve had to take the extra step of contacting the client to make sure we review the policy upon receipt. I now delay sending my DocuSign until 10 days later to say, ‘You should have received your policy by now.’ And a lot of times, when I’ve got a document that has an overwhelming amount of information, I’ll point out to the client the most pertinent pieces of information and have them initial next to it. It’s not required and it’s an additional step, but that way I can document that we’ve covered all of the most important areas.”

—Sally Hoffman, an 11-year MDRT member from Trappe, Pennsylvania, USA

Contact

Meagan Balaneski mb@meaganbalaneski.com

Sofia Dumansky sdumansky@tdgfin.com

Sally Hoffman sally.hoffman@bankerslife.com