Most Advice Businesses Failing to Seek Client Satisfaction Levels

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The majority of advice practices in Australia fail to seek feedback from their clients. This is the stark finding revealed by consulting firm, Business Health, in a recent review spanning the 21 years during which it has provided consulting and support services to Australia’s financial advice community.

Included in the second of a three-part summary series, After 21 Years – The Client, one of the six key observations outlined by the Business Health team was that:

At no point in our 21 year history has the level of practices seeking client feedback exceeded one in three…

“At no point in our 21 year history has the level of practices seeking client feedback exceeded one in three. This has meant that somewhere between 60% – 70% of Australian practices have been operating without an objective understanding of how satisfied, or not, their clients were.”

In what it describes as “…a somewhat misguided approach,” the firm’s view is that the effective failure of between 60% and 70% of advice businesses to seek feedback on their clients’ satisfaction levels is even more problematic in the light of current reputational issues impacting the advice sector, where Business Health cites fallout from the GFC, the Banking Royal Commission and corporate failures as examples of how the sector’s reputation has taken a hit in recent times.

The client summary report released by Business Health also contains another key finding which, while not directly linked with the client feedback finding, suggests that if more advice businesses did seek feedback, they may well receive a positive outcome. This finding reveals that ‘Business Relationship’ has been the most highly rated characteristic by clients every year for 21 years, with the percentage of clients expressing their intention to maintain an ongoing relationship with their adviser never dropping below what Business Health describes as “an impressive” 90%.

It says that when matched with the equally impressive percentage of clients willing to refer their own adviser, it’s clear to them that ’relationship’ is one of an advice businesses’ most valuable assets.

Click here to read After 21 Years – The Client.