How responsive was the adviser / their team?

Set expectations

How & where. Tell your client how it’s best to contact you. Would you prefer them to:
- Call the office and leave a message
- Email you
- Message via the client portal
- Call your mobile 
- Send a text

Client preferences. Ask them how they would prefer you to contact them. That way you respond in the most appealing way to your client, making them feel valued. Find out the best times to contact your client and record this in your Client Relationship Management software.

Anchoring. Anchoring is a technique where you set an initial expectation, or anchor, as to when something will happen. Once the anchor has been set, your client will judge everything in relation to it. For example:

“I’ll get back to you within 48 hours” – sets the anchor at 48 hours for call-backs. If you call back after 36 hours, your client will see this as exceeding expectations and “very responsive”

“I’ll call you back the same day” – sets the anchor on that day. If you call back the next day, your client will have a negative perception around responsiveness, despite getting back to them sooner than in the first example."

Acknowledge 

Nothing kills passionate advocacy like being ghosted! If your client has left a message and not heard back for several days, they’re probably thinking they’re not important to you, and wondering if they made the right choice in coming to you for their mortgage and are more likely to chase you for an answer. 

Acknowledge your client’s contact with a quick message or email saying, “I’m in meetings all day today but I’ll call you tomorrow/this evening/next week”. Most clients will be happy to wait if they know when to expect a call from you. Just make sure you call when you said you would.

It can take up to 20 minutes to refocus on a task after a disruption (such as taking an incoming call or answering an email), so why not block out set times each day to respond to messages. Now, you’ll always have time to respond quickly to client questions and the “non-responding” time will be more productive. This approach doesn’t work for everyone, but it can be a game changer for productivity.

Be careful using an out of office email because you’re busy. There’s nothing more annoying than getting an out of office email saying, “We’re busy, so it might be a while before we get back to you”. It’s OK to use an out of office message saying you’re busy, but you MUST say when you’re going to respond and stick to it.

Your clients want to feel that you’re there for them whenever they need you. By controlling how communications from clients come in, setting clear expectations on when you’ll respond and ensuring you get back to them when you said you would, you’ll create the feeling of responsiveness, whilst still having time to do your day job.