The way to build up a base of completely satisfied clients by strengthening trust and loyalty was imparted to Financial Planners in the first key note speech of the 2014 IFP conference this afternoon.

Doug Carter, president of Carter International Training and Development, delivered the speech entitled clients forever - the missing piece for on-going success in Financial Planning.
He cited a 1995 Harvard Business Review article called 'Why satisfied customers defect' to illustrate his points.
Their research indicated that a satisfied customer isn't loyal, whereas a completely satisfied customer is over six times more likely to buy multiple products and services and provide you with unsolicited referrals.

He said asking how many unsolicited referrals did you get last year is one measure of the success with your client base.
He stressed that the quality of the relationship with clients is crucial. He engaged delegates in a number of exercises throughout his session, which was highly interactive with lots of audience participation.

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He asked how delegates felt about receiving a letter of appreciation and then asked them to write one to someone themselves. He said it builds a feel good factor.
He asked what they thought would happen to their firms and their life if they wrote a letter of appreciation five times a week for five years.


Mr Carter said: "If you wrote over 1,000 letters what would happen to your practice and to your brand? If this was just 100, would this still have an impact?
"The challenge here is like building a practice under any circumstances. Almost any friendship, one person took a risk, became more transparent, opened up, so it became a friendship. They crossed a threshold. We can do that more purposefully, but not in a slimy way. We want it to be real.
"Trust is the key and this can be a shared experience even if you are not there."

Conference chairman Mike MacLeod CFPCM said: "Having trained with Doug I can state with confidence that he is the epitome of 'Keeping it Real'.

"He is a practical, down to earth speaker who delivers messages and lessons that you can pick up and use in the real world."