It's no secret that referrals are the single most popular way that financial advisors attract new clients, but according to Fidelity's 2016 Millionaire Outlook Study, out today, only 55% of advisor clients surveyed are likely to recommend their advisor to others. Moreover, 20% were likely to discourage others from working with their advisor or to drop that advisor altogether.
"The first thing advisors need to recognize," says Bob Oros, head of the RIA segment at Fidelity Clearing and Custody Solutions, "is that consumers have a lot of power in the world we're in now. Anyone who has a negative opinion of you can actually share that with hundreds if not thousands of individuals…. If you create a negative experience it can get propagated very quickly."
The challenge for advisors, then, is to minimize the negative experiences of clients while maximizing the positive ones, which sounds like a no-brainer but can be challenging.