I Want You To Play Games With Your Clients

I almost didn’t want to write this post as most people will dismiss it out of hand. But trust me, it works.

So you want to build closer relationships with your clients? You might think sending them a Christmas card is a great way. Or, maybe you want to give them tickets to an upcoming hockey game? Or maybe you want to send them a basket of goodies? These are all great things, but I have something better that won’t cost a single dollar and will do what a Christmas card, event ticket or a big bag of chocolate could never do!

I want you to start playing games with your clients!

I know what you’re thinking, “you want me to play games with my clients?” (said in a condescending tone)

Yes, but guess what? Your clients are already playing games, they’re just doing it without you.

I don’t want you to play any old game, I want you to play the social games that are sitting on the phone you’re holding right now: Candy Crush or Clash of Clans or Words with Friends hold more power to build stronger relationships than any “product” ever could!

Take a game like Candy Crush, I know you’ve played it, everyone has played it! I play it, my parents play it, even my 91 year old grandmother plays it and of course you’re clients play it too. By playing this game with your clients (opposed to having them play it without you), you will do 3 amazing things:

• Establish common ground
• Increase familiarity
• Model reciprocity

Establishing common ground

The first thing you will do is establish common ground which is basically sharing a common experience together. In the real world, this might be taking a walk together or sharing a meal. In Candy Crush, it means playing a level together. As you’re well aware, some of the levels are very difficult and imagine just for a second as you are trying to beat one of these very hard levels that you “best” friend Financial Advisor is always sending you power-ups when you need them the most. If this is happening, I guarantee you this will increase conversation not just around the game, but also in unrelated conversations, maybe even around such things as investments, mortgages and insurance.

Increasing familiarity

This simply means that we are interacting more often because of the game. While the average contact between client and Advisors usually borders on a few times per year, if you’re playing a social game, this is likely a few times per day. As these interactions stay positive, this increases the odds of having a face-to-face conversation in the future.

Model Reciprocity

This means letting people know that we care about them and by doing that they will feel that they can trust us to offer help in the future. To model reciprocity, all we need to do is return a favour; if they send us a power-up, then we send one back. In everyday life, it is sometimes hard to do this, but is social games it is so simple.

As you can see, with social games like Candy Crush, they aren’t just about having fun, but are also about building stronger relationships faster, in part by having more frequent contact.