[It is important and timely to share experiences on how financial services professionals are engaging clients during a time of crisis and confusion. Many advisors and firm leaders may not have had previous crisis management or crisis communications experience and, unfortunately, may be prone to actions or communications that rely too heavily on platitudes — not meaningful actions that truly engage and comfort clients.
Everyone is learning together how to best conduct client outreach during this unprecedented time, and the best results seem to come from deciding on a strategy in advance and tracking the client’s feedback to continuously learn and fine-tune responses. To that end, we’re happy to have Garrett Gish, director of global business services; Wesley Yuhnke, chief investment officer; and Robert Scharar, president of Houston-based FCA Corp, share their firm’s leadership decisions and actions during the coronavirus pandemic with us.
In our discussion with Garrett, Wesley and Rob, our goal was to dig deeper into what true client engagement looks like that can build relationships and trust. Client outreach is important but, being clear and focused about what you are communicating to the client is the key to success during a crisis. Remember that a “meaningful” interaction can only be defined by the client, so we sought to learn more about the management decisions and interactions needed for a message that is consistent and effective.]
What first actions did you take from a business perspective when the need for lockdowns due to the pandemic became clear?
Our first two actions as a management team was to thoroughly review our technology in context to the effects of the pandemic and develop a strategy for engaging our clients through this crisis. We had the technological capabilities within our organization to continue day-to-day operations remotely, but still needed to supplement and tweak how we used our technology based on our new real-time experiences.
At the same time, we began to focus on the logistics of keeping in touch with our clients, across different medium, with the expectation that they would no longer be able to be physically review documents or do client planning sessions in our office. In some cases, clients lacked the level of technology in their homes to effectively interface. We then helped those clients get set up remotely to ensure we would maintain open lines of communication with them.
How has FCA as a firm adjusted internally?
We have adapted quickly to using digital platforms for internal staff and client meetings. Our team has had to be flexible in dealing with the individual needs of our employees as we began working remotely and experimented with new technology. The video conference cannot fully replace the in-person meeting, but we have already seen how its usage will become a permanent part of our firm going forward.
Like most businesses, we also work with numerous providers ranging from office and hardware suppliers to IT support to sophisticated investment management and tax return programs. Each of these businesses faced disruptions as well due to the virus’s impact. Our team has had to be flexible in dealing with the individual needs of our employees as we began working remotely and experimented with new technology. Our management team and employees also did a great job in learning to work creatively with our different vendors.
How have you been engaging your clients during this time of crisis to maintain the relationship and trust? What specific range of actions have you taken?
In addition to the standard outreach mediums of emails and calls, we have been crafting hand-written notes to simply let our clients know that we are thinking about them and have arranged virtual meetings to follow up. Our client base is a diverse mix of individuals, institutions, and businesses. We have close relationships with most every client and reaching out in a more personal way demonstrates our commitment to maintaining that partnership.
How do you make these interactions meaningful during a time of upheaval and stress?
We have made a concerted effort to stay informed on government legislation and programs available to help clients during this time. As we continue to work with our clients on a day-to-day basis, we have used our understanding of these new legislative acts and programs to identify additional ways we can create value for them.
To leverage our efficiency while still maintaining that personal touch and feel, we have used video conferencing and invited a limited number of clients with an interest in the same topics to participate. This allowed us to not only relay pertinent information to our clients but also to walk them through general or tailored presentations to enhance their understanding of various topics that are most relevant to them personally. We also used a program to distribute personalized information by email to groups of clients.