above and beyond: how to work with an affluent clientle

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by Kenrick Cleveland

I saw an article recently about the Ritz Carlton Hotel. It’s a perfect example of what needs to be done in order to court and cater to (and persuade) an affluent client base. This is exactly the way to keep your clients interested and involved with you and your product or service.

It is the policy of the Ritz Carlton Hotel that any employee (ANY employee) can spend up to $2,000 without management’s prior authorization, to solve the problem or need of a client of the hotel.

A business man was staying at the Atlanta Ritz Carlton and headed out to Hawaii for a very important meeting and presentation. He realized he had forgotten his laptop in Atlanta. Without his laptop, he had no presentation. He called the hotel and his call was routed to housekeeping who had informed him that they had found his computer.

The businessman asked them if they would please send it by FedEx so that he could have it first thing in the morning for his presentation.

Early the next morning the man went to the front desk to check on his delivery. When he got there, there was a woman from the housekeeping department of the Ritz Carlton of Atlanta waiting for him. She said, ‘This was too important.’

Will this man ever stay anywhere else when he’s in Atlanta? Doubt it. Will he tell this story to all of his friends? You bet he will. And his friends will tell their friends who will tell their friends. And the publicity and good will that was created by this one interaction will further ingratiate an already well respected organization in the mind of the clientle they cater to: the affluent.

Of course, going the extra mile doesn’t mean we have to spend $2,000 a day on our prospects and clients’ concerns. It can mean a simple consideration — a birthday card, a note, a phone call.

I was talking to one of my coaching club students recently. She told me a story about one of her former clients which illustrated this point perfectly. My student, a high end financial adviser, had a one-year non compete clause which prevented her from seeking out former clients. This didn’t prevent her from sending out birthday cards to all of her former clients. One ex client (soon to be reinstated client) called her up to thank her for the birthday card and she said to my student, “My husband’s financial adviser sent out a birthday card as well. Only instead of addressing it to me, he sent it to my husband. My husband’s birthday isn’t for seven months.”

Mistakes happen. But this was totally avoidable and costly for that other financial adviser.

Attention to detail, going above and beyond, simple pleasantries, even a kind word. . . all of these things not only make other people feel compelled to do business with you, but they make the recipient feel good. Funny thing is, they also have the added bonus of making the person giving them feel good.

About the Author:

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.