There are four steps to harness the power of reviews:
1. Anticipate
Making the decision to embrace and encourage reviews requires advisers to first ensure they have an appetite to listen and learn and that they have, or are moving to, a more client-centric culture. It is particularly useful to anticipate the sort of feedback you might receive – good and bad – so that you can make proactive changes to your approach to client care. For example, if your practice has felt the effects of being understaffed or a new investment platform is allowing you to manage clients’ funds more proactively, these might come through in reviews.
A client-centric mindset will help to ensure that their experiences govern your decision making – which in turn will help to deliver a greater number of good reviews. Giving regular attention to how clients are onboarded, the proactivity of client communication, the nature of SLA commitments, response times and accessibility will all help here. It also provides an opportunity to think about how reviews will be responded to in advance and devise an online reviews policy so that it’s clear who should respond internally, and how to do so.
2. Respond
Reviews require responses. Negative reviews are what the industry fears but, when handled properly and proactively they needn’t be so damaging. Engaging with the review, responding in a friendly human tone and showing a desire to make restitution and improvements, can bring balance to poor reviews. It also provides an opportunity to thank reviewers for their feedback and to reiterate important key messages about your approach to client care. Also, whether a review is glowing or damning, every single one should be responded to. Research suggests that online reviewers expect a response within seven days. As 97% of those who read online reviews also read business’ responses, it’s important to act.
3. Be ready
Consider what happens when a prospective client acts on a positive review and reaches out – perhaps via email, a live chat function or Google click to call. For 56% of businesses, the phone remains the most popular way for customers to get in touch. This is in spite of the explosion in new communication methods, proving the unswerving importance of human interaction. They should be met with a first impression to match the glowing endorsement. Ensuring calls are answered promptly and efficiently, that call backs, quotes and queries are handled quickly and that websites are rich in information and interactivity are all vital in order to maximise the power of good reviews. Anything less could see a new client opportunity missed.
4. Invite
With the earlier steps in place, IFAs will start to feel more confident and willing to ask for reviews on external sites. Inviting people to give feedback and share their experiences proactively not only shows a degree of confidence in service levels and standards, but ensures that they don’t fall into the trap of only receiving bad reviews – it’s human nature to go online and complain about something, rather than praise it.
The increasing use of online reviews presents an opportunity for IFA practices to interrogate their service levels and look at the client experience as a whole. In doing so, they equip themselves with all the components for a glowing endorsement – and plenty of those will impact business development, revenue growth and brand reputation for the better.
