Building trust can start with how advisors make clients feel the moment they walk into a meeting. Some create an immersive environment while others prefer subtle touches like curated music or a well-placed bowl of chocolates. Some advisors leave their office and meet clients at upscale locations for a relaxed conversation over lunch, wine or tea. MDRT members participating in a recent Business Processes Task Force shared some of the ways they set themselves apart by creating experiences that make clients feel valued.

Participating members:

Michael P. Austin, CFP, ChFC, 24-year MDRT member
Layne Jeffrey Brown, ChFC, CLU, 17-year MDRT member
Jeannine Resteiner Citoli, 22-year MDRT member
Alvin Albert Jones, CFP, CLU, 14-year MDRT member}
Loeri Ann Robinson, BSc (Hons), LUTCF, 12-year MDRT member
Darren Patrick Ryan, CFP, CLU, seven-year MDRT member

Austin: How do you welcome your clients? I’ll give you an example. We had a member from Colorado a few years ago who set up her office like a beach scene. She actually had real sand and beach chairs in her office because she wanted people to feel relaxed when they came in. If they wanted to, they could take their shoes off, put their feet in the sand and feel like they weren’t in frozen Colorado. They were on a sunny beach somewhere. She said the results were unbelievable. People would want to just stop over to visit because it was different. It gave them an exciting feeling of Hey, I’m at the beach, even though they’re in Colorado. She even had a heat lamp and bright light, so it was like going to the beach. That was something one of our members shared about her process for welcoming clients. What do you do?

Robinson: Life insurance is viewed as a “low need, no need” product, so you must go out to the prospect otherwise they will not come to you. So that’s how we operate in Jamaica. When I was very active in the field, what I would do to differentiate myself was go to one of the best hotels for lunch. That was my office. The hotel staff knew me there. They knew my table.

A lot of the executives in Jamaica would have lunch there. So, it was somewhere for me to prospect as well as be visible. When you’re relaxed and conversing over meals in a nice, upscale environment, people are more inclined to close business with you. Another advisor I know hosts clients at a wine bar. That’s where she has her office, and they have her bottle of wine with her name on it in the refrigerator. So, when she comes, they place it at her table. People come over to her. So, it’s going into spaces that makes an appointment more relaxed. It’s not too formal. I think that works tremendously well in our environment.

Jones: What our team really does well is connect with the client. They find out their favorite artist, so when they come into the boardroom, their favorite artist is already playing subtly in the background. It’s interesting because we go from country to pop. It’s a variety of different music that’s playing in our boardroom, depending on who’s coming in. For us, music setting that environment works out really well.

One of the other things we do is always have a nice bowl of exceptional, wrapped chocolates. We’re always running out of them because when the mailman comes in, he grabs one, delivery people grab one, and certainly clients like that little touch on the way out.

Citoli: We do something similar with music. We have an Alexa voice assistant out in the lobby, and I just kind of gauge. We don’t go as far as knowing who their favorite artist is, but we kind of gauge genre. If we have a 40-year-old coming in, the music is going to be different than when a 70-year-old client comes in. We also serve warm cookies right out of the oven, and we’ve got a latte machine. Some people just stop by for the lattes. Oftentimes our clients end up coming in a little bit early, and it’s a great chance to sit out in the lobby, visit with them, talk about their vacations, about their kids, whatever they want.

Brown: My firm takes a real team approach. My longtime assistant is amazing at building relationships, and she is the first point of contact. Her office is right next to the main door, and she has a big window where everybody walks in. She greets them and takes their drink order, whether it’s coffee or water, or anything like that. We do have some snacks in the conference room, but I purposely hang back and give her 10 to 15 minutes just to sit with the clients and talk about family and the important stuff that is not business. Then when she’s done doing that, she’ll walk by my office and say, “It’s your turn” or “They’re ready for you.”

It’s funny, because after every meeting, my clients will make a point of going to her office and saying goodbye. It’s really a neat approach, because if a client comes in and they’re having a bad day or something is weighing on their mind, she’ll hear that first, and then it really diffuses the client. They become more comfortable and in a frame of mind for what we’re going to do.

Ryan: My office is similar to Layne’s. We don’t have full 10- to 15-minute conversations with our receptionist. But we’re lucky that we’ve had a receptionist with us now for about 10 years, so clients are super familiar with her on their way in and out.

She often has a bowl of candies or chocolates, and so lots of times, people get them on the way in or the way out, or sometimes both. Also, from time to time, when we finish our client meetings, they say goodbye to me and then stick around to chat with our receptionist on the way out, which is really nice. But typically, when clients arrive at our office we have a nice little waiting room set up where we offer them tea, coffee or water. I usually make them wait for just a couple of minutes to kind of say hello and just get acquainted.

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