The next generation of clients is here. Many of us still think of millennials as the 20-something, just out of college crowd, when actually they range anywhere from 26-41. That means the next generation of working, business-growing clients are here and need advice on everything from retirement planning to college savings, to tax strategies for their small businesses.
In a recent white paper published by Accounting Today discussing the advice of this generation, the biggest takeaway was the need for firms to be tech savvy. I still remember my parents “gifting” us the internet for Christmas one year, but despite that little trip down memory lane, we were the generation raised on Blackberry and Facebook.
Tech is how you get their attention.
Millennials are looking for advisors who offer cloud-based, mobile technology. Everything is done from our phones. If we cannot access it with the click of a button on our mobile technology, chances are you lost them. I know it seems unfair that they have such a short attention span, but realistically everything they want is at the tip of their fingers 24/7.
They can have anything they want drop shipped from Amazon within two days and never have to leave the house. When thinking of terms of how to access us from a client perspective, you need to think easy, mobile and streamlined. Mobile portal apps are key.
Set them up to access everything they need from you, and everything you need from them digitally and you are headed in the right direction.
Millennials are looking for advisors who offer cloud-based, mobile technology. Everything is done from our phones. If we cannot access it with the click of a button on our mobile technology, chances are you lost them.
Make sure your online presence is strong and you have a solid tech team in your corner. Millennials don’t trust anyone who does not have Instagram followers and is still calling their IT guy to fix their fax machine.
Okay, I get that we all still must fax the IRS, but you get the picture here. You need to be available on the world wide web.
Everything from your website to your blog posts, to your social media presence, must present your firm as being up with the times. Want to really impress them? Make sure they know your tech stack at the onset of the engagement.
There is no greater music to a millennials’ ear than telling them on the first call that you can easily send a link to their phone or email and upload everything, and that they can access their mobile-friendly portal from your website.
Don’t overdo the digital emails. Their inboxes are cluttered from everything they just bought on Instagram. They delete a lot of emails. Text advertising is the new way to get their attention.
Keep it simple, short, and infrequent though.
Links to more information are invaluable. Then add value. Text a tag line to grab their attention of something they need to know, like “reminder valued clients, tax estimates are due 9/15, click here to schedule a tax planning call.” Now link them to your calendar and you just booked an upsell without ever having to get on the phone with them.
When in doubt, just think, faster, simpler, cleaner. Pour tech tools on that formula and you have a recipe for building your millennial client base.
