Advisors using some Fidelity services beware. The prospective client you are talking with may be a spy.
Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions is launching a "secret shopper" program to help firms discover what they are doing right and wrong when first talking with prospects.
The new mystery shopping program is designed to help advisors make a better impression from the moment they first meet a prospective client. Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions is a division of Fidelity Investments.
Fidelity helps the advisory firms work with a marketing firm that usees real investors, who meet a firm’s target client profile, to call or visit an advisory firm’s office to see how they are treated. Without revealing their involvement with the mystery shopping program, these individuals interact with the firm and then report on what they see as the positive aspects of the experience and the negative.
“You cannot underestimate the power of a first impression. It's critical for firms to have a good grasp on how prospects feel about them from the first click on their websites or first steps into their offices,” says David Canter, executive vice president, practice management and consulting, Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions.
“Once in the door, the power of listening to those prospective clients is critical. Investors have many options for financial advice, and advisors need to be keenly aware of how they may ‘fit’ with each prospect. Mystery shopping can provide that outside perspective to firms so they improve their first interactions with clients,” he says.
Fidelity's mystery shopping program is collaboration with HawkPartners and GfK, market research firms with experience in mystery shopping for various industries outside of financial services.