In this episode of The RARE Advisor, Aaron Grady welcomes back frequent collaborator and practice management consultant Allan Oehrlein to continue a conversation that began in their previous discussion of time allocation. That earlier episode focused on designing an advisor’s calendar around priorities rather than reacting to whatever enters the day. Naturally, this leads to the next step: operationalizing those priorities across the entire team so that the phone and the calendar support the advisor’s goals rather than undermine them. Aaron and Allan transition into the question that often follows time allocation work: “How do we execute this across the firm so the practice runs like a business rather than a personality?” Their answer begins with two foundational tools—telephone protocol and scheduling protocol.
Aaron frames the challenge clearly: most advisors see the phone and the calendar as administrative functions. In reality, the phone is the front door of the firm, and the calendar is the engine room. Every phone call shapes client trust and every meeting scheduled shapes advisor capacity. Yet most firms treat both as situational, allowing different people to answer calls in different ways and allowing meetings to be scheduled reactively. Instead of being strategic, the practice becomes accidental. Allan notes that elite firms never leave these moments to chance. They design them. They understand that enterprise value is not built on AUM alone but on whether the business operates as a firm rather than an advisor-dependent service. If clients frequently hear “he’s in a meeting” or “can you call back later,” the practice demonstrates it is still personality-driven. Buyers and successors recognize this immediately. A firm dependent on heroic availability is not structured for scale, longevity, or transferability.
The conversation shifts to the telephone protocol, and Allan underscores a key phrase: every time the phone rings, it is a brand moment. The tone, clarity, professionalism, and consistency of how a call is answered communicates far more than most teams realize. Pareto teaches that processes create freedom, and nowhere is that more evident than in how calls are handled. Without a defined process, everything feels urgent and everything becomes reactive. But with a script and a standard, the team gains confidence and the client gains reliability. Allan introduces the power of the word “unavailable.” It is a single word that protects professionalism, eliminates the need for improvisation, and reduces what he calls “emotional leakage”—that anxious impulse to explain why the advisor cannot take the call. “Unavailable” covers every scenario without disclosing personal details or undermining the advisor’s authority. Aaron reinforces that this is not about hiding the advisor; it is about designing access instead of surrendering to it. Teams that rely on improvisation create inconsistency, and inconsistency erodes trust. A simple, unified script that incorporates “unavailable” empowers the team and protects the advisor’s most valuable resource: time.
Aaron goes further, explaining that this protocol is not only tactical but cultural. High-performing teams thrive when empowered. They no longer need to guess whether the advisor is available. They no longer need to invent explanations. And they no longer need to push everything back onto the advisor out of fear of overstepping. Instead, they follow a consistent process that communicates reliability. Top-tier clients may receive elevated handling when appropriate, but even then, the process guides the interaction. Service standards are introduced to set expectations, such as returning calls the same day or within a defined time frame. Clients do not get upset when they know something; they get upset when they get surprised. By aligning the telephone protocol with time allocation—using designated windows for returning calls and emails—the advisor reclaims control of the day without sacrificing client care.
Shifting to scheduling protocol, Aaron highlights that an advisor’s calendar is not a diary—it is a capacity model. Allan describes how elite firms use intentional meeting structures and boundaries to protect both energy and consistency. They typically define specific appointment days—often Tuesday through Thursday. They cap the number of client meetings per day, implement mandatory buffer times, and avoid back-to-back meetings entirely. These boundaries are not restrictive; they are protective. They create the conditions for excellence, preparation, and follow-through. Allan notes that unlimited availability is not a sign of superior service. In fact, it can harm a client’s perception. When a professional is instantly reachable at all times, the client may begin to question why. Structured access conveys professionalism and aligned priorities. Aaron compares this to calling a doctor’s office. No one expects to reach the doctor directly. They expect a team, a process, and a system. Advisory firms should operate the same way.
Aaron emphasizes that these are not arbitrary rules—they are capacity guarantees. They prevent burnout, enhance reliability, and give clients a far better experience than reactive availability ever could. He encourages advisors to start with one guardrail, such as a daily meeting cap or a defined start or end time, and build from there. Once these rules exist, the team can stop guessing, the advisor can stop apologizing, and the culture shifts from chaos to clarity. Trusted advisors are not those who respond instantly—they are those who respond consistently.
The episode closes with a powerful question Aaron challenges teams to ask internally: “What do our phone and calendar protocols currently teach our clients about us?” For many firms, the answer reveals opportunities for improvement. Elite firms do not rely on heroic effort. They design experiences that work every day, whether or not the advisor is present. When the phone is intentional and the calendar is protected, trust grows, consistency strengthens, and enterprise value rises. This is the essence of client experience by design and the always-on advisor—not doing more, but building a practice that works by design, not by accident.
Allan Oehrlein, Practice Management Consultant at USA Financial - Great to be here as always. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
Aaron Grady - Well, so Allan, the reason I asked you be back today is we were having a conversation during our last episode where we were talking about time allocation, the need inside of an advisor's practice to align elements of importance inside of their practice in a weekly calendar to make sure that they are carving out time for those things that are most important. And as part of that conversation, one of the things that kind of raised its head is what's next? What's the next step in executing something like that inside of a practice and you and I know this and so it made sense to kind of step back and share this with our audience is the idea of operationalizing this across the team. And to do that, we typically follow the process around using a defined telephone script for answering the phone and a defined process for how you set appointments or meetings. And so the idea there is, if you think about it this way, most advisors think of the phone and the calendar, for that matter, as admin functions. The reality is the phone is the front door to their firms and their calendar is the engine room of their business. Every call, shapes trust, every meeting shapes capacity, and yet most firms let both of these things happen by accident. And so today, what I'm hoping we're going to do is show how elite practices design these two moments so that their clients can feel cared for, their teams can have clarity, and the advisors themselves can regain control of their time.
Allan Oehrlein - Great.
Aaron Grady - So with that kind of table setting, let's kind of step into the strategic framework of what we're talking about. Really the why this matters. Most advisors think that enterprise value is built through AUM revenue and growth. However, buyers and successors evaluate something deeper.
Allan Oehrlein - Yep.
Aaron Grady - Is this business dependent on the advisor or does it operate like a firm? Every time a client hears he's in a meeting, can I take a message or get squeezed into a last minute appointment? Unfortunately, advisors are reinforcing a personality driven practice. Enterprise values built on consistency and capacity, chaos at the front desk and chaos in the calendar erodes trust, it trains clients to expect interruptions, and it turns the advisor into a bottleneck, which is something that you and I have talked about and run into many times. You and I have sat into complete consulting sessions with advisory practices where the support staff and team, when we start uncovering the layers of opportunities, one of things that often raises its head is that the advisor is the bottleneck in the process because everything flows through them.
Allan Oehrlein - Yep.
Aaron Grady - And so I think this is kind of important that we're having this conversation.
Allan Oehrlein- Excellent point.
Allan Oehrlein- Absolutely, and it's a problem that most if not all advisor offices encounter at some point. When we talk through this topic and the subject, Pareto teaches that processes create freedom and consistency, which also creates more confidence. So when the phone and the calendar processes are undefined, everything becomes urgent. Everything becomes reactive to both the advisor and their entire firm. So think about this way. Every time the phone rings, it's a brand moment. And really anchor that thought in your head and in the heads of your entire staff. Every time your phone rings, it's a brand moment. Every time a meeting is scheduled, look at it like it's a strategic decision.
Aaron Grady - Mmm. Mmm.
Allan Oehrlein - So let's shift here a little bit to the specific telephone protocol, right? So that's why we say that when, with the telephone protocol itself, every call is answered, again, within two rings, and uses the word unavailable, right? Unavailable. It's a single word that protects the professionalism, the mystery, and also just the authority as well. And just by having a scripted greeting itself sets the tone and confidence for the firm. So there's a lot of power in the word unavailable. You don't need to be searching for an answer. If someone calls in and says, is the lead advisor available? I need to talk to him. It's urgent, whatever it happens to be. You don't need to try to get creative with what they're doing. You don't need to tell them, hey, they're golfing. They're on vacation. They're doing research. Unavailable covers everything.
Aaron Grady - They're at the doctor, you know, nobody needs all this detail.
Allan Oehrlein - They're at the doctor. Yeah, it's unnecessary and it can get awkward in some scenarios depending on what the activity is, right? There's great power in the word unavailable. It covers everything without having to over explain. It preserves that professionalism and it protects the advisor's time as well. One thing that you mentioned before is that it kind of helps, it removes that need for improvisation. It removes that, what's the term, emotional leakage that can come forth from whoever's manning the phones, right? And it tells the clients that the firm is in control.
Aaron Grady - I love that thought around the unavailable. We use the term all the time, the words matter. Even something as simple as interjecting unavailable, which covers a myriad of possible scenarios, creates a place where now you can start training your clients to understand that there, you know, we talked about the idea of the gatekeeper, right? And that first line of defense to protect the most valuable asset time for an advisor. So interjecting something as simple as unavailable. Now I can create a standardized script that I don't have to have one for every different thing. It can be as simple as they're unavailable. Can I help you? Is there something I can help you out with? So I love that thought process of the simplification of it, but the power that it brings as well.
Allan Oehrlein - Right.
Aaron Grady - And understand, you know, this isn't about hiding the advisor. This is about designing access instead of surrendering to it, which is, you know, if you, you know, the whole idea of that, if you raise your practice to be a spoiled and petuous child, you know, we talked about that last time. It's my business is not running me. I'm running my business, you know, so these aren't specifically, they are scripts, but they're not scripts in the sense of script scripts, they're signals. What we're really doing is the phone protocol says your clients are valued, the advisor is protected, and the team has been empowered, which I think that's another big key concept. The idea of for high leverage situations and for elite teams, the ones that really excel are the ones that have, the advisors or the leadership has empowered the team to do their jobs. So where it doesn't all have to wait for a decision or an answer from the advisor.
Allan Oehrlein - Right?
Aaron Grady - The support staff has the empowerment to handle things as needed. And so the way this would evolve in this situation is, so the phone call would come in unavailable. Understand that this doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is an art and a science to it. So top tier clients, they probably get served immediately when possible. So the unavailable is this the first line of defense. Can I help you with something? No, I really need to talk to the advisor. Well, let me have them call you right back. For other clients, they're still gonna be cared for, but you're gonna be able to set expectations. This is a perfect opportunity for teams to start implementing things like service standards. So we guarantee or we strive to return phone calls on the same day or within 24 hours or whatever it is by setting service standards.
Allan Oehrlein - Great.
Aaron Grady - We can lean into saying that we use all the time is people get upset when they know something, they get upset when they get surprised. So setting clear guidelines, people know when to expect a call. doesn't happen unless it's an emergency. know, so this is the opportunity to have a defined time for when also when the advisor is going to be able to return calls. So if we circle back to what we talked about last time, we talked about time allocation. This is why in an advisor's week, having those time slots, those time allocations, slots in a calendar day where you can return an email or you can return a phone call. Now those are the things where these things become a route reality without them running your calendar. So what I would share with advisors are if you want to take a takeaway from this conversation is here's the challenge this week, rewrite your phone greeting and your advisor unavailable language. So make sure that that that how they're answering the phone. Now your team is using unavailable. Make it one script, one standard where we're going to eliminate the improvising. It's this is what we're going to do. So start using this and let's see what the impact is. So we talked about the telephone script. Let's shift gears and let's talk about how we use this kind of same process of protecting the advisor's time to shift towards how do we schedule. So what is our scheduling protocol for whether it's meetings with clients or meetings with others? Understand that as an advisor, your calendar is not your diary. It's a capacity model.
Allan Oehrlein - Yeah, right.
Aaron Grady - Every firm touches or teaches, I should say, clients how accessible or unavailable the advisor is. The scheduling protocol says that your time is finite, energy matters, and meetings are intentional.
Allan Oehrlein - Yes. Yep, and that's a great point. So when you're looking at the calendar and just figuring out what kind of processes you want to implement and what kind of buffers you want to throw in there, it's important that you limit the meetings to three days a week, cap them at three or four per day, and also enforce those buffers. I know we talked about that on the last call, is the importance of having those buffers just to avoid burnout and being able to prepare and follow up if need be on anything after the actual meeting is done with. Again, you're essentially protecting your sanity, but it's more than that, right? You're also creating a business that can be transferred. One where success isn't completely reliant on this, term of, I think you coined it on the previous call, that heroic availability. The expectation isn't that you're going to be available at all times. Think about liken it to a doctor's office. you're following up with your doctor and you want to reach out to them and ask a question, when you call into the hospital, you're not expecting to get the doctor. The doctor's too busy, the doctor's doing other things, he's meeting with other patients, he's doing research, whatever happens to be. Chances are you're going to get the nurse's station, you're going to leave a message with them, or they're able to help you out going forward. If you are available 24 hours a day or whenever they call, this can kind of serve as a deterrent. know, the client starts to think, wait, why is the advisor available every single time I call? Are really that, you know, that short on business or nothing else better to do than sit around and wait for my call? Again, so that's where it can sort of become that deterrent.
This is sort of how a practice becomes a firm, right? Those strict guidelines that you stick to. Appointment days, they're going to be defined, right? It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Meetings start at nine, and you're going to end by four. Maximum meetings per day that you're going to implement, three to four meetings a day is usually what we see. And then throwing in those buffers, know, 30-minute buffers, absolutely nothing back-to-back at all. And then typically a lead time as well, you know? Calls in, they want to meet with you, looking out, you know, five to ten days, if not two weeks, this is the first available time they have, you know, and it's ten days, two weeks out.
Aaron Grady - You gave a lot of great detail there as far as how we execute the implementation of these strategies. You know, I could touch on a couple of things. You know, the idea of the deterrent, it's not just a deterrent for the clients. This Uber availability— which, you know, you and I have both dealt with this with advisory teams where, well, yeah, I'm just super available for my clients, which is great. And I understand that service model. However, it's not scalable. And then at the end of the day, the practice that ends up buying your firm, if that's not model, how does that impact retention on that sale? And then all of the other elements that you shared, you know, the when meeting start, you know, we're pretty hard and fast on the appointment days, but understand there's some art and science to some of this. And the lead time is important too, but I think all of that speaks to what we were talking about a moment ago of training your clients. The power in, as opposed to saying, you know, well, let me check, let me do this. It's defining the next available day is this day. I don't need to get into, well, no, I need Monday. Well, the next available is Tuesday at this time. It's, we can be the director of what happens on the calendar. And now, we train our clients to when things happen as opposed to being reactionary to things.
What I would speak to advisors and what I would share is understand, again, there's some art and science to this. When we get into this with teams, we evolve this to fit their specific practice. But understand, these aren't restrictions. What we're doing is they're capacity guarantees for clients and for you. It's allowing you to do more with less. As we talk about, with order comes liberation. And so if I was to challenge an advisor that's listening to this today, I would say to start, pick one calendar guardrail. whether it's a start time, an end time, a daily max number of calls, and install it into your process this month. Now, if you're real aggressive and you say, hey, this sounds great, let's just go ahead and put it all in place and starting next week we're gonna do it. But I think for most teams, it starts with pick a couple of these things and start utilizing those, get it into a rhythm, and then kind of step on from there. So, you know, when we talk about these, you know, the impact that this approach has, understand that these protocols don't create distance. They're about creating trust and scale. You know, where your teams feel safe when they have rules that exist. Your CSAs stop guessing as to, is he available? Is she available? You know, when's their next? It's—we have a defined track. We know what's happening. And as an advisor, you get to stop apologizing. You don't have to say, sorry, I wasn't available on this day, or sorry this or sorry that. We have a process and we follow it. And what it does at the end of the day ultimately, it optimizes your availability so that you are appropriately available and it frees up more time so that you can create a personalized client experience.
Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And the cultural impact that you lead to is huge. You want your team and everyone that works underneath you to enjoy coming to work. You don't want it to be a reactive environment because if you're in that spot where it's reactive and you're putting out a fire here to put out a fire there, it's going to trickle down to the rest of the team. And you're right, when you establish those rules, the CSAs can stop guessing, they can stop worrying, and worry about things falling through the cracks at the same time. So when the rules exist it's better for the entire environment and the whole culture of the firm.
Aaron Grady - I love it, I love it. Too often though, many advisors resist this because again, it feels restrictive. But the reality, as we said, with order comes liberation. I think truly when advisors and practices and teams kind of settle into this, they're gonna find out that it frees the advisor from being the bottleneck and it's going to free the team to act more with confidence. And then it's also gonna free your clients from uncertainty. Clients don't want unlimited access. You mentioned it a moment ago, Allan. They want reliable access and reliability comes by design. You're not becoming harder to reach, you're becoming more intentional about how you're reached. And so again, if I was gonna add another challenge or talking point or another thing to kind of push teams a little bit on this call, I'd say start by asking your team one question this week. What do our phone and calendars currently teach our clients about us? Let me say that again. What do our phone and our calendars, our phone answering protocol and our calendar protocol currently teach our clients about us? And I think it should be eye-opening. Great firms don't rely on heroic effort. They rely on designed experiences. If you want a practice that someday becomes an asset for the firm, one that can be transferred, scaled, and even sold, you got to stop running it like a personality and start designing it like a firm. Your phone is the front door to your practice. Your calendar is the engine. Design them or they're going to end up designing you. When your phone is intentional and your calendar is protected, you don't just reclaim time. You elevate trust, consistency, and enterprise value. This is why on a previous call when I had Duncan on, this is what we mean by when we talk about client experience by design or the always on advisor. It's not about doing more. It's about building something that works.
Allan Oehrlein - Right.
Aaron Grady - Even when you're not there. So I know we covered a lot today, Allan. We touched on a lot of things and we just barely scratched the surface on the scripting and messaging for the telephone answering phone call and then the protocols for setting appointments, but if, for those of you who are watching today, if you want a copy of the telephone answering and meeting scheduling protocol we referenced—complete with the scripts, the standards and implementation guidelines—go ahead and reach out to us here at USA Financial and we'd be more than happy to share a copy with you. So again, thank you, Allan, for being with me today. And for those listening, thank you again for listening to another edition of the Rare Advisor. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you like and subscribe. We always like those subscribers. And as I always say: when the why is clear, the how becomes easy. Never lose sight of your why.
