“During our last client appreciation event with Shari, one client, in particular (I’ll call him Don), had been a tax client for over 10 years and quite a wealthy man.  He has always been pleased with his financial planner and basically told us many years ago that he didn’t plan to use our services – other than for income tax advice.  Don’s son, who lives elsewhere, was somehow involved in his father’s investment planning.   The son told us that his father’s investments were “hands off” for us.  Long story short, three weeks after our client appreciation event, Don moved his entire account over to us.  This resulted in $15,000.00 annual revenue in management fees, along with some up front commission of other products.  We know that our excellent service to him over the years, along with our regular communication, played a major part in landing the account.  But we cannot deny that the client appreciation event played a big part. After all these years, it’s no coincidence that Don brought us his account right after the event.”

“I think Shari’s client appreciation events have the potential to increase client loyalty.  Since my first event – the first in a while -- took place only a few days ago, I don't believe that we have a complete picture of its impact yet.  That said, I received excellent feedback on the quality of the event.  Clients that I talked to immediately after the event were raving about it and thanked me for including them.  I had one couple attend who were actually children of a now deceased client and they expressed a desire to do business with me after attending.  Another relatively new client, who met with me the day after the event, expressed a higher level of trust and commitment to me at the meeting in committing to invest new dollars with me and following my advice to de-leverage their investment portfolio.
Clients, by-and-large, seemed to network well together at the event and, I believe, this cements our relationship with them going forward.  We have not provided regular client appreciation events to date but I think this event proves that, as advisors, we benefit from social interactions with our clients that extend beyond investment meetings, seminars and newsletters. “

"Our event with Shari was mostly geared towards our business partners who we are looking to for more referrals.   From their feedback, they felt very appreciated for their dealings with us and reconfirmed our commitment to them as our core referral partners.   Since the event, we have noticed a significant increase in referral opportunities from these individuals and introduction to many new referral partners through word of mouth from the attendees.