Are you making these calls?

As technology becomes more and more prevalent in our society, financial institutions have gone through an interesting phenomenon. They used to see the client all of the time because they HAD to come into the branch to accomplish everything. Well now they don’t and the result is that many banks and credit unions have a very real problem on their hands … they have a lot of clients that only have one or two of their products and they never see them in the branch. 
 
What's the solution?
 
You have to reach out to them. In most cases that will mean picking up the phone and giving them a call. One of the most logical calls that is not typically leveraged nearly enough is the GIC renewal call. Too many financial institutions are in the habit of mailing out a renewal notice 30-60 days prior to the investment coming due. This is simply a reminder to their client that they need to do something - it's a prompt for the client to go shop that money around to the competition. The problem is, their client is now talking to someone else about their investment and even though they had the advantage in retaining their business; because the client is talking to someone else and not to them, they have given up that advantage.

Here are six reasons why to make an effective renewal call:

1. Enhance the relationship. With technology you see clients less. The renewal is a great excuse to talk to them.
2. Increase the odds of retaining the money. Not too many would argue that the percentage of times a client will keep the money invested have to be higher when you phone them compared to when you simply mail them a letter and make them do all the work.
3. The call increases the odds of getting additional investment dollars. If you play your cards right, and ask the right questions, you can attract additional money that they many have invested somewhere else.
4. We beat the competition to the punch - they are your client, you should be the first one talking to them about this money, not reacting after they have met with, and started a relationship with, two or more of your competitors.
5. Many clients don’t pay as close attention to their financial details as we may think. They may not remember that a term is coming due.
6. It shows the client that they are important to you. How often does money end up not renewing, going into a checking account and then 3 weeks later it's gone to another FI and no one speaks to the client! When their money is allowed to leave and no one notices or says anything it communicates to the client is that you don't care. I know you do care – but they won’t feel that way necessarily.

If you’d like more ideas and scripting on making effective renewal calls check out the video on this page 

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