Background: November and December are often the months when advisers hold client appreciation events.
This year, standard events — such as dinners and parties — may not make sense. The economy and the markets are in the doldrums and clients whose accounts have shrunk do not feel like celebrating.
The challenge: Finding a way to show clients that you appreciate them and care about their concerns in a way that takes their minds off the dismal state of the economy.
The solution: Why not conduct events that enable clients to gather together, share ideas and engage in activities that help others?
My suggestion is to help clients focus on those who truly face hard times.
Let’s start with an idea we shared earlier this year. It centers on Thanksgiving but works in early December, too.
Centering your annual client appreciation event on giving something back and involving your clients in doing good makes more sense now than ever. And even with just a few weeks to go until Thanksgiving, there’s still enough time to get it done. Follow these steps and this event can be organized within two business days.
The event: A two-hour Thanksgiving-related event at a local hospital where your clients pitch in and serve as volunteers to help patients. The goal is to bring your top clients together to provide an opportunity for them to give back to the community. They will feel great about their participation because you are taking care of all the organizational responsibilities.
All they have to do is show up, spend time with patients, and feel good about themselves. They’ll walk away believing that you are a thoughtful, caring professional — as will their friends, whom you can invite to help out as well.
This will become an annual event that everyone will remember and look forward to.
Planning: Normally, arranging an event of this type can take several weeks. But let’s keep it simple and get it done.
First, select a local hospital. I’m a supporter of the Comer Children’s Cancer Hospital in Chicago, and the kids there absolutely love it when guests visit. If many of your clients have a relationship with a hospital, use that one. If a hospital doesn’t work, consider a homeless shelter, nursing home, children’s home, soup kitchen, food pantry, women’s shelter or other similar venue.
Next, ask to speak with the facility’s volunteer coordinator or planning team. They’ll assist in planning your event or suggest an event already in the works that you can tie into. Make sure your guests will feel they are involved in a special, uncrowded activity, as this will be replacing your yearend client appreciation dinner. Scheduling the event for Thanksgiving Day itself may be too difficult to pull off at this late date (the hospital or other facility already may have sewn up its activities, and your clients probably have already made plans). But an event of this type can be done anytime over the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov. 22 and 23), on the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving. The first or second weekend in December would work as well.
Approximate budget: Plan for about $30 per person for a breakfast or lunch you will host before or after your clients spend time volunteering at the hospital. If the volunteer time runs later in the afternoon, you may want to hold an informal dinner afterward.
For that, budget about $60 per person with drinks. If a mix of 50 clients and their friends or family members attend, this translates to about $1,500 for the breakfast or lunch and about $3,000 for dinner. Also plan for a few extras, such as a clown or other entertainment for children and token gifts to the patients.
Getting Started: Here’s a sample invitation:
JOIN US FOR A THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION AT THE XYZ CHILDREN’S CANCER HOSPITAL
The Smith Financial Planning Team supports the XYZ children’s cancer center and would like to invite you to join us for an afternoon of reading, singing and playing with the children in celebration of Thanksgiving.
Many of these children are spending this time of year at the hospital due to their treatment plan and we want to let them know how special they are and the difference they make.
We will be meeting at 1 p.m. in the hospital lobby and the staff has arranged for us to work with several key areas at the hospital.
We will be rocking babies, reading stories to the younger children and challenging the 12- to 14-year-olds in a game of ping-pong.
You are welcome to bring your family or a friend. We will be hosting a lunch immediately following to give thanks to our volunteers.
Date: Saturday, Nov. XX, 2008
Time: 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (meet in the hospital lobby at 12:45 p.m.)
Location: 123 Anywhere Street
Lunch: 3:15 p.m. — Following our hospital visit, you are invited to a Thanksgiving lunch at the (restaurant name and address) to thank you for making a difference with the children and helping this wonderful hospital.
RSVP: Please call John at our office at XXX-XXX-XXXX to volunteer and select an area you would like work in.
Event planning checklist
Immediately:
* Select your charity, create the invitation (see above), and consider inviting a surprise guest (e.g. a clown or magician for a children’s hospital).
* Send an e-mail to clients telling them to hold the date.
* Confirm a nearby restaurant for the breakfast, lunch or dinner. We suggest dining after the event, so clients can share their stories and enjoy the group.
* Pre-select a menu and ask for group tables of eight.
* Meet with your internal team to confirm the event goals and date, responsibilities and the checklist for the person tracking attendees and meal requests (create a spread sheet the team can share).
* Send out client invitations. Have clients return e-mail confirmations and food choices.
Two weeks ahead:
* Check with your assistant on the count and start following up with clients.
* Call the restaurant with a preliminary count and confirm food choices, time and room setup.
* Make arrangements for a projector for a slide show if you are planning to take digital pictures at the event and show them at the restaurant when guests arrive. This is a nice touch, so be sure to assign someone to take the pictures and download them onto a computer for the show.
* Call the event contact to confirm the date and time your group is coming, areas to volunteer in and if a guest entertainer is coming.
One Week Ahead:
* Call each attendee to confirm they and any family or guests will be attending, their meal choice.
* Call the restaurant for a final count with menu choices, starting time and beverages.
* Print name tags for the volunteers with their assigned area or team name if needed.
* Prepare your follow-up/thank you e-mail and have it approved by compliance.
The day of the event:
* Bring name tags and arrive one hour early to be sure everything is set.
* Have your assistant stop by the restaurant to check the room setup, meet the servers, confirm the meals and serving time. Don’t use place cards — it will feel too formal.
* At the hospital, welcome guests, introduce your team and introduce clients to each other. Foster conviviality among the participants — this isn’t a business meeting.
* At the luncheon, welcome the guests again and play the slide show, which will depict all your clients helping out during the past couple of hours.
* Close the session while everyone is finishing dessert and announce the date for next year’s event. It may be easiest to say mid-November in case of conflicts.
Follow-up:
* Send an e-mail to thank your volunteers for their help and again, have a few pictures for the day on the e-mail.
* Consider a follow-up phone call to guests with your contact information.
* Call each of your clients personally and thank them.
Next week: Sharing the charity event secrets of one top advisory team.
Maureen Wilke has helped thousands of advisers increase the value of their businesses. The founder of
Wilke Associates Inc. in Glen Ellyn, Ill., Maureen has spent nearly two decades in executive positions in wealth management, sales and training. She has been associated with several highly regarded firms, including Nuveen Investments, and currently advises many product and advisory firms on issues of practice management and adviser productivity.
Read our weekly online columns:
MONDAY:
IN Practice by Maureen Wilke
TUESDAY:
Tax INsight
WEDNESDAY:
OpINion Online by Evan Cooper
THURSDAY:
IN Retirement
FRIDAY:
Tech Bits by Davis. D. Janowski
