The primary purpose of a client interview is to make an emotional connection with the client and earn their trust. You build trust by listening to their story - not yours. You need to understand your clients’ fears, concerns and desires for the future. By engaging with both your clients head and heart you are able to articulate their story visually so that you become a trusted partner in the decision-making process.
This view is supported by research done by Martin Seligman who tells us that all clients remember an experience as great if it stimulated strong positive emotions that were meaningfully connected to other people. From this insight, we can synthesize a short list of guiding principles for experiences that your clients will remember and appreciate:
1. Stimulates and engages attention
2. Produces positive emotions
3. Strengthens the relationship
4. Creates meaning
5. Promotes confidence and competence
6. Enhances feelings of autonomy
By creating a visual and collaborative experience that better understands your client’s personality, asks how they feel about their financial wellbeing, helps them determine their values and better articulates their goals, you are able to see how behaviour and emotion impacts your client’s decision-making. The more your client’s life choices are in alignment with their values and goals the more fulfilled they will feel. In behavioural finance, the alignment model helps bridge the gap between your clients ideal and present state and helps make financial decisions and the allocation of resources more efficiently so that clients have fewer money regrets.
Our visual storyboard ensures that every experience that a client has with you will be reflected on either as great or as something less. Because of this, you should see every client interaction as an opportunity to enhance the relationship, not just as an obligation to fulfill. When you make the emotional connection with your clients and help facilitate financial decisions you will have a significant advantage over your colleagues. Every client has a story to tell….