Advisers have contacted a perhaps surprisingly low number of clients to provide reassurance during the coronavirus pandemic, the lang cat’s Mark Locke has revealed.
Locke, communications director at the financial advice consultancy, posted a survey on Twitter asking advisers what proportion of their clients they had provided personal reassurance within the last few weeks.
Of the 111 respondents to the unscientific study, half (49%) said they have contacted between 75% and 100% of their clients in this way, a minor 11% said they had reached out to up to 50% of their clients, while a fifth (21%) had contacted up to a quarter of clients.
Locke said given the crucial nature of communication during the crisis, he was surprised the numbers were not higher.
“It surprises me that just under half of the people that responded said they hadn’t contacted the vast majority of their clients. [The fact] so many have contacted fewer than 25% also surprised me,” he said.
“I would have thought the proactive reassuring contact with clients would be overwhelmingly in the 75% bracket but it’s not, it’s basically 50/50.”
Yardstick Agency founder and director Phil Bray reminded advisers how they act now would determine their reputation in the future.
He tweeted: “It’s not too late to start if you haven’t already done so. But the window is closing.”
Locke agreed that the window was closing for advisers to reach out to their clients and said now was an opportunity not to necessarily sell products but to check in with people.
He said: “I don’t think advisers should necessarily contact clients every time there’s a market downfall, but at the moment with market turmoil and on top of that self-isolation and social distancing, it’s in our power to reach out and see if these people are ok and if there’s anything we can do.
“It might be an opportunity to look at someone’s risk profile, not to be to ‘salesy’ but a chance to be more human.”