So after my nightmare experience with the big phone company and their horrid web site and the order confirmation that thanked me for buying something I had not bought, the right product (an air card) did arrive. And it actually worked just fine. Had I been too quick to judge? Was I too harsh about the lack of user friendliness in the “order to fulfillment” process chain? Did I need to offer an apology? After all, I did get the right items.
Well, two days ago, I received an e-mail that thanked me for my order and said that a text message would be sent to my new phone with my temporary password so that I could view my account usage online. Now as far as I know, there is no way my air card can receive a text, nor is there any way I can view that message since, well, it’s an air card. It is impossible for me to believe that the incompetence can compound at this rate. But it seems to in spite of what I think.
By the way, my bank finally did call back. Three different people called back, none of which knew that someone else had fixed the problem. No wonder it took them so long to get back to me. They were all making unnecessary calls to customers who no longer had problems.
Customer contact is EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.
July 15th, 2008
GenSpring Family Offices just released its most recent study, entitled Men & Wealth. You can read all of the pertinent data by downloading the study, of course, but there are some things I find particularly interesting and puzzling.
First, most of the men fit the InKnowVision client demographic perfectly: over $10 million of net worth, over age 50, working, self-made, married, etc. What is puzzling to me is that the sample here, of over a hundred individuals, provides responses that are very different from what we experience.
For example, most (70%) state that they have clear goals for their wealth; most (56%) state that they are worried how their children will handle wealth; most feel it is important to give money (83%) or time (70%) to philanthropy. These results are astonishingly different than our own anecdotal evidence. Our experience at InKnowVision is that goals are often not well defined, parents don’t talk about their children in terms of “managing wealth”, and involvement or discussion involving philanthropy is minimal.
This raises some questions for me. Do respondents alter their answers to “say the right thing” in surveys? Or, do the people at GenSpring (and others like them) know how to ask better questions? Are “our” advisors asking the right questions or avoiding the tough ones and just collecting “facts”?
It’s both interesting and frustrating to me that this disparity exists. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this phenomenon. And I don’t know what to do about it. Our job would be so much easier if we could get those “clearly defined goals” and understand where the concerns are about the children and know what the philanthropic intent and goals and passions are. How do we get those answers? How do you ask those questions?
Ideas?
July 8th, 2008