You will be able to describe the moments that build or damage an adviser's reputation.
Wei Ling (an invented adviser) told a client, Siew Lan, to keep an old critical illness policy instead of replacing it, and lost the case as a result. A year later, Siew Lan sent Siew Lan's sister to Wei Ling. This example comes from Lesson 4.3, Replacing an existing policy without hurting the client, and it shows how reputation works in this job.
Ask a client who has been with an adviser for ten years why they stayed, and they rarely mention a product. They usually describe a moment: the adviser visiting them in hospital, the adviser telling them not to buy something, or the adviser calling back within the hour when they were panicking about a letter. Clients who left usually describe a single moment as well. Reputation in financial advice is built and lost in moments like these, and most of them happen long after the sale.
A handful of moments are the ones clients remember and pass on to others. Three come up most often.
The claim is how you behave when something goes wrong in a client's life. During a claim, clients and their families remember who answered the phone, who helped with the forms, who kept them informed, and who disappeared. Lesson 7.2, Supporting a claim when it counts, covers how to handle this well.
The honest no is telling a client not to buy something, to keep the policy they already have, or that their existing cover is enough. These moments surprise clients because they expected to be sold to.
The fast reply is returning a worried client's call the same day, or answering a question properly when brushing it off would have been easier. Clients judge how much you care by how quickly you respond when they need you. They also notice when you reply faster about a new policy than about their problem.
The product itself is missing from this list. Clients rarely tell friends about their policy's features. They tell friends how they were treated.
Telling a client not to buy something is one of the strongest trust signals you can send. It is also one of the hardest, because it costs you a sale in the short term.
Ravi came to Wei Ling to discuss retirement investing. Wei Ling told Ravi that his parents' cover and his emergency fund should come first. Ravi was surprised, and told his colleagues about it.
Lesson 7.1 of Sales foundations, Sell what the buyer needs, even when it pays you less, makes the same point for sales in general. It carries more weight in financial advice because clients expect the opposite. If you say no when no is the right answer, you become the adviser people trust when the answer is yes.
Reputation is not built and lost at the same speed. Damage spreads faster. A mishandled claim or an unjustified switch can travel through a whole family, an office or a WhatsApp group in days.
A client whose claim was badly handled tells their spouse, siblings and colleagues. A client who was switched out of an old policy and then found a pre-existing condition excluded tells everyone who asks them about insurance, for years. Everyone they tell already knows your name, and some of those people would have become your clients.
The habits from earlier modules exist partly for this reason. The replacement process in Lesson 4.3, the disclosure habits in Lesson 4.2 and the claims preparation in Lesson 7.2 are about compliance, and they also prevent the moments that cost you your reputation.
Clients and prospects now look you up before they meet you. Your social posts, your LinkedIn profile, reviews and comments on your posts all shape how they judge you.
Your online presence falls under your firm's rules. Posts that mention products, returns or the firm need approval, and testimonials get extra checks. Lesson 6.2, Social posts, ads and roadshows need approval, covers both. A positive review from a client can still cause problems. If it mentions a specific claim outcome or product, your firm may not allow you to share it, even though the client wrote it freely. Before you do anything with a review, check whether it mentions a specific claim outcome or product, and if it does, check with your firm before you repost it, pin it or reply to it.
The safest online reputation is built the same way as the offline one. Be consistently clear, honest and helpful in general education, and keep product talk for proper meetings. People who see that pattern over months arrive at their first meeting already trusting you.
You cannot control what clients say about you. You can decide which moments you want them to talk about and make sure those moments happen. Start by choosing the moments, then put a habit in place that produces each one:
To be known for claims support, prepare a claims guide for every insurer you work with. To be known for honest advice, make "keep what you have" a normal outcome of your reviews. To be known for fast responses, set a rule for same-day replies and keep it.
In the activity below, name the three moments with your clients that you most want them to talk about, and write down what you do, or will do, to make each one happen.
List the three moments with your clients that you most want them to talk about, and next to each one, write what you do to make it happen.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).