surveyRecent articles on 28 and 29 October in Straits Times highlighted that customer satisfaction fell in various industries like retail, food and beverage and education. This is despite four years of efforts in various ways, such as training and awareness campaigns.What exactly is happening? And how does that affect your Financial Advisory Business?

As customers become more affluent and discerning, competition for products become keener and information becoming easier to obtain, the expectation of customer service standards will rise. In the western developed countries, with a rich history, they have been through the phases and have come to embrace customer service standards as a key Strategic advantage.

In Singapore, one just needs to survey the job market for sales-staff, promoters and you will see many part-timers and people who are not well-trained. It also does not help that they are not necessarily well-paid.

Another aspect that is lacking is Management and Leadership in the company to adopt excellence in Customer Service as a key component of their business.

In the financial planning arena, as consumers have more choices, become more well-informed, they naturally start to compare. At first, price and value would be a concern. However, when there is a lack of differentiation or keener competition, it may boil down to customer service as one of the key strategic advantages.

This forces many Financial Advisers to reconsider their business model. Does their model rely on new clients’ business or retaining old clients? How well do they service their old clients? Is the longer-term strategy of excellent customer service  more profitable and yet have more time freedom in the long run?

Like it or not, the market is evolving, and eventually customer service standards will be one of the key sustainable factor for any Financial Advisory Business.

See articles on Customer Service standards:

“Customers today harder to please“, Straits Times 29 Oct

“Customer satisfaction drops again“, Straits Times 28 Oct



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