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Online surveys help firms measure client sentiment

Thomas Coyle

23 January 2007

Client Opinions feedback takes (some of) the sting out of gauging success. Like summoning the courage to head in for a years-deferred medical check-up, setting out to find out what your clients really think of your firm can be an unnerving task. For some -- especially if they suspect that all's not well -- it seems easier to assume the best and keep going. But, as with the delayed health exam, putting off finding out what your clients really think can make problems that are much tougher to set right.

In any case, says Colin Wahl of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Client Opinions, "You're going to hear from product service and the concept of continual improvement."

Ultimate question

Peters, one of the early architects of SEI's Wealth Network, says his interest in probing client sentiment was also peaked by Fred Reichheld's book The Ultimate Question, which posits the notion that customer satisfaction is more important than any business criterion except profits and that it's is best measured by asking whether the client would recommend the business in question to a friend.

"This business is built on referrals," says Peters. "More than seminars, more than marketing, more than anything else. If you're going to be successful, you've got to have 'referencible' clients."

In fact, another Tiburon report finds that well over two thirds of fee-only investment advisors' new clients come from "passive" or "proactive" present-client referrals. Client referrals bring in around 56% of an independent broker's new business.

As it happens, VisionQuest scored very highly in its client survey, though Wahl and Peters say allowances have to be made for the firm's youth -- it's been open for business since late in 2005 -- and the consequent smallness of its client base. A larger base interacting with a firm over a longer period might find more to complain about.

VisionQuest got a 57% response rate to its online survey; Client Opinions says the average for advisories is around 40%. Of those who responded, a respectable 88% replied "Yes, definitely" to the question "Would you recommend our firm to a close friend or colleague that needs wealth-management assistance?" The balance of responses -- 12% in all -- was divided equally between clients who considered themselves "Likely" to do so and those who answered the question with a "Maybe." Client Opinions pegs the Maybes -- along with Unlikelies and definite Nos -- as firm detractors. The Likelies count as neither boosters nor detractors, giving VisionQuest a "net promoter" or "client enthusiasm" score of 82%.

That's a strong outcome, according to Reichheld's The Ultimate Question, which assigns client-enthusiasm scores to a range of big-name companies.