Emily Wastie, Head of Firms at VouchedFor, explains how client feedback is transforming advisory businesses. Firms are using insights from prospects and clients to boost conversion, increase referrals, uncover cross-sell opportunities, and strengthen retention.
Most advisers believe they deliver great service. But believing isn’t knowing – and in a market where trust drives acquisition and retention, the difference matters.
Forward-thinking firms are discovering that client feedback isn’t just about Consumer Duty compliance. It’s become a powerful tool for growth, helping them improve prospect conversion, increase recommendations, and unlock cross-sell opportunities. Firms that show they’re acting on their clients’ feedback often retain those clients for longer, too.
Transforming prospect conversion
When James Reiss founded David James Wealth, a boutique firm advising leaders in music, sport and business, he built feedback into the culture from day one. The firm discovered that asking prospects for feedback – even those who don’t convert – transforms conversion rates.
“Initially, people are reluctant to get feedback, for fear of what it might be,” admits Reiss. “But it’s a gift.”
The firm requests feedback from everyone they meet, revealing development opportunities in their initial meetings. After implementing prospect feedback and acting on the insights:
- Prospect understanding of fees jumped from 50% to 87.5%
- Prospects feeling comfortable discussing anything rose from 62.5% to 100%
- Prospects intending to become clients leapt from 62.5% to 93.75%
“It’s a process,” Reiss notes. “If you just slowly build on things every day, week, month, quarter, year, then it all adds up.”
Increasing referrals
GPFM Financial Partners generated an extra £11.5 million AUM in 2023 by identifying which clients were passionate advocates but hadn’t been asked to refer.
“It’s great to have data, but unless you act on it, it doesn’t have much value,” says Scott Atkinson, Director at GPFM.
The firm’s approach focuses on a critical distinction: clients who say they would be ‘passionate advocates’ for their adviser generate 2.7 referrals annually versus 1.6 from those who’d merely say ‘they would recommend their adviser’. By systematically identifying these advocates through feedback and training advisers to ask for referrals properly, GPFM achieved a 289x five-year ROI.
Atkinson’s advice is practical: “Our advisers share their VouchedFor profile with prospective clients before the first meeting. This way, they’re familiar with the platform and aware we ask for feedback as part of our process.”
Uncovering cross-sell opportunities
The biggest revenue opportunity often sits within existing client bases. GPFM discovered this when they started asking about intergenerational planning through their feedback process.
“We’ve already secured 28 new clients as a result of acting on Elevation’s intergenerational data,” Atkinson reveals.
The numbers tell the story: 60% of advisers had at least one client say they’d appreciate help with family financial planning or weren’t sure about their arrangements. Each of these conversations unlocks an average of £1,875 in potential value.
VouchedFor data shows that a single piece of feedback can unlock £2,000 in additional revenue. But you need to ask the right questions – about confidence in achieving goals, understanding of recommendations, and plans for helping family members.
Building stronger retention through responsiveness
Westminster Wealth, with 60 advisers managing nearly £3 billion, demonstrates how systematic feedback responses strengthen client relationships and retention.
The firm embeds feedback into weekly operations. Every Monday, advisers receive feedback categorised as must-dos or should-dos. They track responsiveness, not scores – if an adviser receives red flag feedback, they have four to eight weeks to address it.
“In every one-to-one meeting, we talk about VouchedFor feedback,” explains Pete Summerbee, the firm’s T&C manager. “What’s come through, what their view is, how to be better.”
This approach helped one experienced adviser transform his fee communication. Despite discussing fees thoroughly, clients weren’t retaining the information. By changing his approach to reconfirm key points at meeting ends, he went from the lowest to highest scores for fee understanding.
When their first adviser retired in January, transferring 100 families, this feedback-driven approach ensured smooth transitions and retained relationships.
The competitive edge
The evidence is compelling. GPFM generated £11.5 million extra AUM. David James Wealth supercharged their conversion rates. Westminster Wealth won two VouchedFor Client Experience Awards – recognition based entirely on client feedback strength.
“Unless you measure it, you can’t take action,” says Martin Lockyer, Westminster Wealth’s managing partner. “The quicker we know the state of play, the quicker our businesses become better and more valuable.”
The message for growth-focused advisers is clear: stop treating feedback as compliance. Start treating it as intelligence for conversion, advocacy, cross-selling and retention. In a profession built on trust, the most powerful growth tool might simply be asking the right questions – then acting on the answers.
Emily is Head of Firms at VouchedFor, the UK’s leading review site for financial advisers.
