Client Ghosting You after the First Appointment? Coaching Might be the Solution
Coaching is a specific professional skill whereby the coach partners with the client through a creative and thoughtful process – over a series of multiple sessions – that inspires the client to reach their goals and achieve their potential.
The inspiration from this post comes from a conversation that I had with a colleague at the 2019 AFCPE Symposium. We were in a workshop on personal finance coaching where I was the presider, introducing a professor who was offering information on different ways to frame a coaching engagement. I had offered to preside over this particular session since I am enthusiastic about all things professional coaching and I was interested in what I would learn.
During the workshop we were instructed to get into pairs so that we could try out the various concepts that the professor had shared with us. I paired up with a friendly man who told me that he ran the financial fitness center at a large western state university. I was eager to begin the exercise when he stopped me in my tracks. “I’m new to coaching,” he began. “Can you tell me at what stage we are allowed to give the client advice?”
Never. How about never.
When I told him that I don’t give my clients advice in a coaching relationship he looked genuinely confused. “But when my students come to me, they really don’t know what there are doing, and they are stressed.” I nodded in agreement. “So how do you meet with them and not give them advice?” He then asked if I would play the role of the coach in the exercise that we were asked to perform, and he offered that he would be a typical student that he normally sees in his office.
A Purely Fictitious Financial Coaching Session
And so we began. I asked him what bought “this student” into the office today. He told me that he was a first-semester freshman and that he was already having financial difficulties.
I asked him what “financial difficulties” looked like to him.
He replied that he was short on living expenses and was considering getting a part-time job because he didn’t want to go into debt.
I asked him what “going into debt” looked like for him.
He explained that his parents had had financial problems when he was younger and that he didn’t want to live with the financial stress that he saw his parents go though.
So I reiterated to him that “going into debt” meant to him the stress that he would feel if he owed a lot of money. “Okay, so tell me what getting a part-time job would look like?” I continued.
“Well, I am nervous about that because if I get a job and work too much then my grades might slip,” he conceded.
“Ah, I see,” I said. “So there is a tension between getting a job to bring in some money, and keeping your grades up so that you feel like you are doing your best academically?”
“Yes!” he agreed enthusiastically.
“And it’s hard to determine how much energy to put in each place because this is your first semester and you’ve never done college-level work before?” I continued.
“Yes!” he agreed enthusiastically again.
“So, it sounds like you need to figure out what makes sense in terms of how much energy you need to put in each place, working and academics. Is there a way that you could find this out?” I asked.
“Well, I have been paired with an upperclassmen mentor. Maybe I could ask him about how big the workload is during freshman year,” he offered.
“So, do you want to make this your action item for the week, and then when we meet next time you can tell me what you learned. then you can use this information to determine your next step?” I inquired.
“Wait a minute,” my partner interjected, “is this what you use to get your clients to come back? When I meet with students I am so eager to give them all of the knowledge that I have. Then they tend not to return for a second appointment. Maybe I can use some of these techniques that you used today to get my clients to come back.”
Sounds like a good idea to me!
Collecting All the Tools for Your Toolbox: Financial Education, Counseling and Coaching
Coaching is indeed an effective tool in creating a rapport with your client and improving the odds that you will meet with them more than once. That said, it is good to have a firm understanding of the three major professional tools that financial capability professionals can use to serve their clients:
Financial Education: This includes one or more session. The client is understood to be seeking out information on a variety of financial topics, and the instructor’s job is to convey that needed information in an effective way. Additional resources might be provided to students. At the end of the educational engagement the client chooses if and how they want to apply the information that they have learned.
Financial Counseling: This includes one or more sessions, typically in a one-on-one format. The client is understood to be in search of a solution to a financial problem, and may even be in crisis. The counselor is seen as the “expert” and their role is to lead the client through the process of solving the financial problem. The counselor frequently makes referrals to other available resources on behalf of the client, and may also act in the role of an advocate or mediator. The relationship typically lasts until the problem is solved or at least mitigated; the client might not return until the next financial crisis happens.
Financial Coaching: This includes two or more scheduled sessions. The client is understood to be in a stable state and is seeking improvement in their financial condition. The client determines the topic of each session and the coach and client work together in a creative process where the coach practices “active listening” and utilizes “powerful questions” to encourage the client’s self-reflection. Each session typically concludes with action steps for the client to take, and embeds accountability to promote forward momentum. Resources might be shared and it is up to the client to act upon them. The coaching relationship ends intentionally with an observation and celebration of the strides that the client has made during the engagement.
One note on financial counseling vs. coaching: For the past number of years nonprofit social service agencies have reported to me that their funders want to see “coaching” on grant applications rather than “counseling.” Some have reported to me that they simply cut-and-pasted the word “coach” on their financial counselor job descriptions and got on with business. As you can see in the descriptions above, these are two distinct skill sets and a simple cut-and-paste does not suffice.
Another issue that I have is that it implies that counseling is “bad” while coaching is “good.” This is a false choice, my friends! I maintain that both financial counseling and financial coaching have their rightful place in the financial capability space, and that it is not an either/or argument.
Rather, what you could be asking is whether or not your client-facing staff has the appropriate level of training and development that equips them to deliver the highest quality service for your audience.
Coaching: The Missing Tool in Your Toolbox?
I frequently work with nonprofit social service agencies that have a lot of trouble getting their clients to return after the first appointment. In essence, they are being “ghosted.” Some of those agencies devise a complicated set of carrots and sticks to up the percentage of clients that come to see staff more than once. But guess what? Your client may have gotten exactly what they needed to solve their short-term problem after the first appointment, and in their eyes, they don’t need your services anymore.
While carrots and sticks might work successfully with some clients, I contend that infusing coaching skills into your professional repertoire might indeed inspire your clients to come back. Because building genuine rapport with your clients, letting them lead the way, and asking them powerful questions is the most effective way to ensure that your clients will come back time and time again.
What say you, member of the Talking About Money Community? Do you think that by adding coaching skills to your professional toolbox, you would experience better client retention? We would love to know. Leave a comment and tell us what you think. And if you enjoyed this post, please take a moment and forward it to one or two people who you think might enjoy it too. Thanks.