INTRODUCTION

Companies, practices, professionals, in fact any organisation or individual that provides goods or services to a client or customer base should never be afraid to ask if they’re doing a good job.

Call it good housekeeping, a customer satisfaction survey or market research, either way, to all forward-thinking business people, this is good practice and represents an essential part of an organisation’s business development programme.

That’s precisely why, in the early summer of 2005, Ken Room Asset Management Limited commissioned The Public Relations Company to speak to a cross section of the firm’s clients and to submit an unbiased, honest report based on their conversations. Here is an edited version.

WHAT THE CLIENTS SAID

The Public Relations Company’s managing director, Mike Stathers, put a series of questions to each client, questions that were styled to draw honest comments relating to two main topics:

1 - Did the client have a preference to paying for financial advice by the usual commission route or by fees agreed in advance with the financial adviser

2 – Was the client satisfied with the service being provided by Ken Room Asset Management Limited

The financial scene in general often creates a degree of nervousness among clients. While most are aware of their actual level of wealth and have a basic financial plan, especially for retirement, the vast scope of financial products available today means that almost all of us would much rather leave the route to financial stability to someone like Ken Room.

We are all different. We have our own singular ambitions for our later years. Our savings ‘pots’, our income and our financial needs are fundamentally individual. Put these factors on one side of the equation and the multitude of financial products currently available on the other and, in most cases, the result would be utter confusion.

That’s why people turn to Ken Room Asset Management Limited, offering a professional and skilled approach to matching the client’s financial needs and capabilities to a product package that is likely to meet the investment aims.

My conversations with the clients answered a number of key questions, but the most obvious generalisation was that these people were at the very least comfortable with the service being provided by Ken Room Asset Management Limited.

To describe these clients as ‘satisfied customers’ is simply not enough. They have expectations of their financial adviser; their demands can be weighty. However, in every case, the client

expressed total confidence in the knowledge shown by Ken Room

valued the strong the client-adviser relationship

expressed trust in the advice given

Here are a few notable comments made by the clients during this exercise.

“I’m satisfied that he (Ken Room) will offer me the best deal to suit my needs”

“It’s vital that I receive proper, independent advice. I don’t want to be tied to one set of products”

“I believe the advice given to me by Ken Room is relevant to my financial plan”

“I need someone like Ken to make a full and honest assessment of my financial state and my financial needs and to recommend a way forward that I can understand, a plan that is sensible and a final objective that is attainable”

To conclude, the research showed that there are four key areas in the relationship between financial adviser and client. They are:

PERFORMANCE IN INVESTMENTS
STANDARD OF SERVICE
KNOWLEDGE OF ADVISER
and QUALITY OF SERVICE

In each case, Ken Room Asset Management Limited passed with flying colours.

Mike Stathers
Managing Director
The Public Relations Company

THE PUBLIC RELATIONS COMPANY is one of the Yorkshire and Humber region’s oldest and most respected PR and media relations specialists. Founded in 1970 and based at Hesslewood Hall, Hessle, near Hull, the consultancy has been retained by several Government agencies and many national and international organisations. Today, it provides a full PR, media and marketing services package to a wide range of local, regional and national clients.

Tel: 01482 647575
e-mail: mike@tprc.co.uk
website: www.thepublicrelations.co.uk