Understanding your clients is fundamental to your role. However, many financial professionals limit their client knowledge to statements, assets, retirement accounts and financial goals. In today’s experience-driven economy, this is not enough. 

With online search engines and AI tools, it’s easy for clients to go online and try to create their own financial plans, so to retain them, you need to offer them something the internet can’t. Human connection. While technology may be able to handle data and planning, it can’t replicate the personal touch that builds trust and loyalty. Exceptional financial professionals who excel in client retention and referrals understand this  distinction. They know that they key to standing out lies in the genuine relationships they cultivate, making sure their clients feel valued and personally attended to.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to step up your client intel game and why it’s so crucial for delivering a lights-out client experience.

First, Why Personalized Client Intel Is So Important

Today, we live in an experience economy. People are looking for more from a financial professional. It’s no longer enough to just craft a financial plan—there are countless professionals who can do that.

Personalized client intel refers to non-financial information about your clients, such as their interests, hobbies, preferences, and personal characteristics. This more personalized process allows clients to feel truly seen, heard, and valued. When we incorporate this intel into our conversations—recalling specific details and understanding their unique preferences—clients feel remembered and appreciated on a deeper level.

You might be wondering, “Does this really impact business?” Financial professionals who invest in an elevated client intel process often see higher client retention and more referrals. Meanwhile, those who stick to basic intel spend more time and resources on marketing and finding new clients.

If you want to prioritize quality over quantity, then leveling up your client intel is the way to go. No one wants to juggle disengaged clients and constantly chase new ones. It’s more effective to give your clients an amazing experience and watch them turn into referral-generating machines

Next, we’ll discuss how you can get this important client intel.

Second, How to Gather and Store Client Intel

There are several ways to gather client intel but two stand out amongst the rest: Double clicking and intentional gathering.

Double Clicking

Double clicking means diving deeper to gain more insight into your client. It can be through conversations, emails, or your observations. One of the goals of double clicking is to reveal valuable information that helps you personalize the client experience.

Example: A client mentions they’re going fishing over the weekend

• Basic Response: That sounds great, hope you have good weather!
• Double clicking: That sounds great! I don’t know much about fishing, what type of fishing do you enjoy?

By asking what type of fishing your client enjoys, you might discover that they take a two-week fly-fishing trip to Canada with their grandson every summer. If you left it at “have fun” you may have never found that out. Double clicking can also be observing something, then asking a question. These details can help you personalize their experience going forward. Adopt a mindset where you tell yourself, “I want to learn three things about my clients.” Ask three questions and listen closely to their responses. By being attentive, you’ll notice opportunities to dive deeper and double click.

Intentional Gathering

Intentional gathering involves deciding in advance what information you want to collect from your clients. Your firm may have guidance on this, but I try to gather the info below:

Remember, you don’t have to learn every personal detail at once. Asking back-to-back questions may seem inauthentic, and it’s not going to strengthen the relationship. Instead, you should strive to gather all the intel on the sheet in 3-4 years for each client.

Is This All on Me to Gather?

No, this is something you and your team should be doing together. It could be multiple people gathering intel at multiple points. Everyone should be aware of the client intel sheet.

In many practices, the front-office staff greets clients, seats them, and then leaves them waiting. In our office, our front-office person sits with clients if they arrive early and engages them in conversation. If they learn the client is a tea drinker, next time they can have various teas waiting for them. While it’s often best complete your client intel sheet over time, there’s a fun way to gather lots of intel at once. You create a “10 things that you might not know (your name)” sheet, based on client-intel categories, e.g., first job, favorite sandwich, Then, you can send that to clients and ask them to fill out the same 10 questions about themselves.

Storing Client Intel

Once you gather client intel, you need to store it so you can effectively reference it. Use tools such as Salesforce, your CRM (client relationship management), or even a fillable PDF template with categories and facts you hope to learn about your clients. This document should be updated over time.

Third, How to Use Client Intel

Once you have this client intel, you can use it in different ways.

In conversations: First, start weaving it into conversations. Follow up on things that you’ve talked about previously. For example, you have a couple coming in and you review their sheet beforehand and are reminded that they went to Disney recently. This is a nice way to start your meeting: “How was Disney? I know the girls were excited to see Cinderella, were they able to meet her?” Emails: Your notes tell you that your client is an Ohio State fan, before sending an email you check their schedule and see they have a game Saturday. At the conclusion of your email, you note “Good luck to Ohio State this weekend, hope they beat ___”

Other examples: When you or your team sends an email, make sure to include one personal thing like: Are you looking forward to that cruise you have coming up? Have you been keeping up with Ohio State this season?

Meeting Prep: When you’re getting ready for a meeting, make sure to include some client insights in the agenda. For example, if a client mentioned that their son graduated from college and is job hunting, you could mention it during the meeting. They might say, “Yeah, he got a great job and is moving to California,” or “We’re still looking. Do you know anyone in the engineering field who’s hiring?” This way, you’re gathering even more useful information for future conversations.

Gifting: Imagine one of your clients saved a long time for an African safari and it’s finally happening. If you know they love wine, you could send a bottle to their first hotel. Find out who their travel agent is and ask for details. Make sure you know if they prefer red or white wine. It’s all about being intentional with the information you gather.

Planning: Client intel can help personalize financial plans. For instance, knowing your client enjoys annual fishing trips with family can help inform retirement planning. Maybe you ask if they have any valuable fishing equipment that they want to put in their estate plan, or if they have any boat expenses, or ongoing trips that they want to budget for. Incorporating these kinds of details into a plan makes clients feel that their financial and personal needs are both understood and valued.

Client events: If you’re planning an intimate client event with a golf pro, it makes sense to invite your clients that love golf, not your clients who don’t golf at all. It’s all about knowing their interests and planning events that they’ll enjoy. This way, you’ll increase their interest and attendance because the event aligns with what they like.

To Summarize

First, gathering, storing, and using client intel can strengthen client relationships, increase retention, and cut down on marketing spend. Second, you can gather intel by double-clicking or intentional gathering. Third, one of the easiest ways to use client intel is to weave it into conversations. Simply follow up on things that you’ve talked about previously.

Client Intel Helped Me Make My Clients Feel Like Family

In the early days of my practice, I could remember every detail about my clients. But as my practice grew, it became harder to keep track of everything. I needed a way to store that information to maintain our high level of client experience. We wanted our clients to feel like family, not just account numbers.

By effectively storing and using personal details, we achieved that family feeling for both clients and employees.

Next Steps:

Try double-clicking with three clients this week. Gather the intel and store it.