Euphemism of the Week: “Poor Phone Management”

What's the number one reason for high-net-worth clients to drop their investment advisers? As Investment News describes the findings from a Spectrem survey, it's "poor phone management."

It's "cuckoo," says Investment News, but millionaires really don't like it when their advisers don't return phone calls promptly.

Guess what? That's no cuckoo. Anyone who has worked in advertising and marketing knows clients will give you another kind of bird if you don't get back to them promptly.

Investment clients expect calls to be returned ASAP because

1. They actually may need you to do something.

2. They want to feel their business is important to you.

Most will make allowances if you're tied up in an all-day meeting or on vacation. But if you're on the job, you better respond promptly. Returning a client's call within the hour may not make the client forget you thought Apple was a "sell" at 150, but it should help the healing process.

Need another reason to treat every client like a VIP? Millionaires aren't as plentiful as they used to be. Spectrem counted 7.8 million households with investable assets of $1 million or more in 2009. That's down from 9.2 million in 2007.