Mastering the Service Matrix: Elevate Client Experience & Drive Advocacy

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Rare Advisor, Aaron Grady and Allan Oehrlein explore two critical tools that can transform an advisory practice: the service matrix and the stewardship framework. These concepts go beyond operational efficiency—they are strategic levers for creating consistency, scalability, and client advocacy. The conversation is a deep dive into why these frameworks matter, how they work, and what advisors can do to implement them effectively.

Aaron begins by addressing a common pain point among advisors: the tendency to operate reactively. Many practices run in a state of constant urgency, responding to client needs as they arise rather than following a structured plan. Allan reinforces this observation, noting that advisors often feel like they’re “running with their hair on fire,” juggling tasks without clear direction. This reactive approach leads to missed opportunities, inconsistent client experiences, and ultimately, diminished loyalty. The solution, they argue, is a proactive system that ensures every client receives the right level of care at the right time.

The service matrix is introduced as the cornerstone of this system. Contrary to misconceptions, it’s not a checklist of operational tasks like paperwork or withdrawals. Instead, it’s a strategic internal tool that defines service levels for different client segments. It captures the experiential elements—touchpoints, meetings, events, and personalized touches—that create a high-value relationship. By mapping these elements to tiers, the service matrix provides clarity for the entire team: who gets what, when, and why. This eliminates confusion, enables delegation, and ensures consistency across the practice.

Allan highlights three key benefits of the service matrix. First is consistency, which builds trust and predictability. Clients notice when their experience feels structured and intentional. Second is scalability. With clear processes, advisors free up time to focus on revenue-generating activities and deepen relationships with top-tier clients. Third is professional contrast—a concept that sets a firm apart from competitors. When clients see a well-defined system behind the scenes, it signals professionalism and elevates the advisor’s perceived value.

Aaron expands on the strategic “why.” A robust service matrix helps advisors combat loyalty fatigue and the law of familiarity—the tendency to take long-standing relationships for granted. By continually elevating the client experience, advisors reinforce their value and remain advocacy-worthy. This intentionality also prevents client drift, ensuring that top-tier clients never feel they’re treated the same as lower-tier relationships. In short, the service matrix is not just about organization; it’s about protecting and growing the most valuable relationships in the practice.

The conversation then shifts to the stewardship framework, a client-facing adaptation of the service matrix. While the matrix is an internal guide, the stewardship framework is a tangible resource that communicates value and sets expectations. Aaron and Allan acknowledge that this concept often meets resistance. Advisors worry about overpromising, underdelivering, or offending lower-tier clients. Allan explains that these concerns are valid but manageable. The key is to start with what you can confidently deliver and treat the framework as a living document. Over time, advisors can add new elements, creating an opportunity to showcase continuous improvement.

Another common objection is the fear of offending C- or D-level clients by revealing tiered service levels. Aaron addresses this head-on: the real risk is not offending marginal clients but failing to differentiate service for top-tier clients. If your best clients ever sense they’re treated the same as everyone else, you risk losing relationships that drive the majority of your revenue. The stewardship framework flips this dynamic by honoring and celebrating your best clients. It reinforces the idea that “membership has its privileges” and gives clients a path to grow deeper into the relationship.

The stewardship framework also plays a pivotal role in onboarding. Presented during the latter stages of the process, it shifts the conversation from financial planning basics to relationship-building. It outlines tiered engagement levels—AAA, AA, A, and legacy tiers—along with the concierge touches and value-added services each tier receives. This transparency not only reinforces professional contrast but also sets behavioral expectations, such as timely communication and mutual respect. These subtle cues strengthen the advisor-client partnership and create alignment from the start.

Aaron underscores another critical benefit: ongoing value reinforcement. Clients view their advisor’s work through a narrow lens, focusing on a few priorities at any given time. Without reminders, they may overlook the breadth of services provided. The stewardship framework solves this by giving advisors a physical reference point to highlight new initiatives, events, or technologies during review meetings. This keeps the relationship dynamic and demonstrates continuous improvement—a key driver of advocacy. It also creates natural opportunities to discuss introductions and referrals as part of the advisor’s “sounding board” services, reframing them as a benefit rather than a favor.

As the episode wraps up, Aaron and Allan offer practical advice. Start by reassessing your current client experience. If you already have a service matrix, refine it to ensure it reflects your ideal process. If not, build one as the foundation for consistency and scalability. Then, consider creating a stewardship framework to communicate your value and deepen client relationships. These tools are not optional extras—they are essential components of a modern, advocacy-driven practice. By systematizing value and making it visible, advisors can transform client relationships from transactional to truly exceptional.

Ultimately, Aaron and Allan’s message is clear: when the “why” is clear, the “how” becomes easy. Advisors who embrace these frameworks position themselves for long-term success, creating a practice that is not only efficient but also memorable, meaningful, and advocacy-worthy.

TRANSCRIPT

Aaron Grady, Advisor Consulting Director at USA Financial - Welcome back to another edition of the Rare Advisor. I'm your host, Aaron Grady, and with me today is my cohort, my fellow coach, Alan Orline. Alan, thanks for joining us today.

Allan Oehrlein, Practice Management Consultant - Thanks for having me, Aaron. Always a pleasure to be here.

Aaron Grady - Well, I'm glad you could make the time. Today, we're going to dive into a topic that I know you and I, I really enjoy coaching to this. It may not be as much of a joy for you, but I enjoy talking about this. It's the idea around the service matrix. The service matrix is a foundational internal tool that teams use. And we're going to talk about how you can evolve that tool into a powerful client facing resource that really drives loyalty. It drives advocacy and ultimately drives predictability in your practice. And I know these are two really big, powerful concepts. And so let's jump in and let's kind of really kind of talk about how the service matrix and the stewardship framework, how those two things work together inside of a practice. So to kind of kick this off today, Alan, let's talk about the why. Specifically, let's talk about why you would want a service matrix. We'll talk about

Allan Oehrlein - Thank you.

Aaron Grady - What exactly a service matrix is. you I know you and I were discussing this before the call, maybe we're getting the cart before the horse, but I think through our conversation, helping an advisory team understand why this matters before we tell them what it is, I think really makes sense in this individual situation. So let's talk about, you know, what are some of the reasons or some of the pitfalls that come with not having a service matrix for your advisory practice.

Allan Oehrlein - Well, I think a lot of the times it comes down to that reactive versus proactive stance when it comes to the level of service that you're providing for your top clients. When we typically get into coaching relationships with a brand new advisor and we're talking through some of the opportunities and challenges and concerns that they have, many of the times it's they feel like they're just kind of running the practice with their hair on fire with not a lot of direction and they're becoming incredibly reactive to what's happening in the practice. When something comes up along the lines of, have we had that outreach or that touch to that top client? When's the last time we talked to them? Do I need to make a quick call just to touch base and make sure that they know I'm still around and doing some work behind the scenes? And so many times that becomes sort of a snowball effect where you start to notice it with a couple of your top clients, then a few more, and then something gets thrown on the plate of the firm that has to be done, like RMDs, for example and a lot of those top clients kind of fall to the back burner inevitably. So by being more proactive in creating a process and a system around having those high touches around those top clients, it really alleviates that problem and takes away that one particular pitfall, which in turn ends up freeing up a lot of time for them. With that also forms the level of inconsistent client experience, which I think you're going to maybe touch on.

Aaron Grady - I love the... No, no, you're good. I was just gonna say I love that idea of the being more proactive, stop being a reactive firm and be more proactive in the approach. That's great.

Allan Oehrlein - Yep, advisors, obviously everyone always has the best intentions. They want to provide that high level of service. And most of time it's executed very well. Sometimes, again, variables will pop up that won't allow you to be as consistent as you'd like to be. And that can, of course, lead to more problems down the road as well, especially if you're onboarding a brand new client, they go through a fantastic first impression and client experience, they go and tell their friend about it. And the worst thing that can happen there is they don't get the same level of experience and high touch that the previous person that referred them over did. And again, that can lead to some issues as well. So just another thing about the consistency of having that process in place and the benefits behind having that process.

Aaron Grady - I love it. I love the idea of creating consistency in a client experience. It's, you know, we use the word predictability, but I consistency is something that clients can feel. You know, when I, when I talk about this a lot with advisory teams, you know, there's, there's always the want to, right? There's the want to, and you address that people want to, and then they're, they're inconsistent about the execution. But I think there's another element to it as well is the, when we talk about the why behind doing this is we're insulating our clients, you know, by continuing to work to elevate the client experience, being more intentional about stepping outside the bounds of just being a financial advisor who, you know, it's the blocking and tackling of what you do. It's the, you know, we build a financial plan, we manage the assets, and then we meet once a year you get paid to do that and no disrespect. It's sometimes a little bit of table stakes. And so a lot of advisors, like you said, try to elevate this approach. And the answer is, or the question is always why? Well, the why is what leads to advocacy? What leads to client retention? It's when you step outside of the bare minimum and you start doing these little things sometimes, and sometimes big things that continue to insulate your clients, that continue to create top of mind awareness that continue to help you drive advocacy. You there's a couple of ideas and concepts that we talk about, you specifically around loyalty and client retention. You know, having a consistent delivery of your service matrix helps war against loyalty fatigue and the law of familiarity. The idea that the longer that a relationship's in place, the more likely it is that you're going to take it for granted. And we all face that in our day-to-day lives. And so as a financial advisor, you know, how do you

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - How do you continue to insulate your clients from all those outside forces? And part of that is something that's strategically process driven and intentional about creating an experience for your clients. The other part too, is it's simply an internal tool for your clients, or not for clients, I'm sorry, for your team to cut off the confusion. It helps your team understand who gets what, when do they get it, and probably more importantly, why do they get it? You know, it's, you why does,

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.Yes. Great.

Aaron Grady - Why does this client receive this level of care and this client receive this level of care? Now, we're going to talk about something in a few minutes, Alan, that in a lot of circumstances when we engage with teams, there is no this person gets this and this person gets this because of a certain thing. It's everybody gets treated the same. Why there's only any differences is what you said is there's inconsistency in the delivery. Hey, we intend to give everybody the same level of care, but we're inconsistent about executing the care at all.

Allan Oehrlein - Right. Yeah, right. Absolutely.

Aaron Grady - So, there's some key things. So definitely, you know, if you're looking to drive advocacy, if you're continuing to insulate against your clients, if you're trying to create more predictability, less chaos, and more proactive, you know, this is why you want to define a service matrix. So let's step away from the why, let's talk about the what. So when we think about what is a service matrix, now there may be some confusion. Some people think about

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - a service matrix as a tool that basically captures all of the nuts and bolts of the stuff you're doing. Well, we process paperwork or we make sure that your withdrawals come out. So that's operational stuff. What the service matrix really is, it's an internal structure to capture the defining service levels, the experience type stuff for different client segments. And it allows you to delegate

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - and create process clarity for your entire team. And so this is really about allowing you to say, you know, some examples might be, you know, you're, going to, you're going to get your strategy and tactical meeting twice a year for this level client. And this level client is going to get once a year. And then we're going to have our newsletter is going to go out to these people. And then we're also going to do our email drip campaign for these people. And then maybe we do a personal financial organizer. And we're going to do that for these clients at this level. Maybe it's a topic that we've talked about in the past, Alan, the personal financial organizer. Well, we're only going to do it for these clients. Maybe it's the concept around the moments of truth, the seminal moments in a client's life, which we did a rare video on that talks about, you know, that a moment in time in a client relationship that you can take advantage of these seminal moments.

Allan Oehrlein - You're right.

Aaron Grady - to really deepen and personalize the client experience and the relationship and drive advocacy. If you don't have a process behind that, how do you do it? So this is an internal resource that you build out that tracks all of these things, both things that you do behind the scenes to create an amazing client experience, but also things that you may do outward, like ideal client events, where you may tell your clients we're gonna do events. And so all of those are captured on this resource so that your team can know who does what, when, and for who.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. here.

Aaron Grady - and why. So I know you've got some thoughts there as well, Alan.

Allan Oehrlein - Yeah, and in my mind, ultimately what it's doing is helping create that level of consistency, scalability, and also a very high level of professional contrast. So look at it like it's not just organizing your practice, but it's about systematizing your value that you provide. So if we back up to the consistency aspect, I know we talked about this just a few minutes ago, but having that consistent model of knowing exactly what to do in every single scenario that could potentially come up on the service side is going to do drastic things for not only the internal team, making sure that they're operating at the most efficient level, but it also shows that level of professional contrast that you do have when outward clients are looking in at your firm and at your practice itself. The next part of that is scalability. Again, getting these systems down freeing up more time, allowing you to spend more time on the revenue generating activities for the top level clients, the AAAs and the AAs. And once you're really able to put the right parts in place and the foundational aspects of your practice, knowing who you want to bring on, what that ideal client looks like, allows you to start bringing on more of those ideal clients, those AAA clients from that point on. And then kind of to wrap everything up in a with a nice bow on top is that high level of professional contrast that is going to be shown throughout just demonstrating the system that you put together and being consistent and people will start to see you as someone above and beyond of what a typical financial advisor does. You know, it's not just the, you know, the, managing the assets and the investments and obviously that's very important. It's crucial to what we do, but what are you doing above and beyond that, that is going to make you advocacy worthy? So keep

Aaron Grady - I love it. Yeah. Well said. You know, the advocacy worthy is such a key thought in all of this is how do you continue year over year to, as you said, professional constructs, but advocacy worthy. How do I continue to stay top of mind, which we know that's a big part of client advocacy. How do we stay top of mind in a way that makes us worthy of that?

Allan Oehrlein - He thinks to remember.

Aaron Grady - going out there waving the flag. So I absolutely love that thought. And the scalability one too, I think that was one that we face a lot when we talk to advisors, when we first engage in this concept is, for advisors so often, they're doing the same thing for everybody. And if you've got 200 households, it's hard to create a high level of care for that many people. And so the idea of saying, okay, and this goes back to another conversation we could have around segmentation, which we probably should do a rare video on that as well is the idea of why do we compartmentalize and segment for different, but the idea ultimately is around that top 20 % of clients that generate 80 % of your revenues and how do we replicate them? And if we're targeting a smaller audience, we can create a higher level of care for a smaller group.

Allan Oehrlein - Right. Right.

Aaron Grady - Love those thought down. That's really well said. So let's pivot. So we talked about the service matrix. I think the service matrix is a foundational fundamental element that every practice should have in place. Regardless of size of practice, regardless of product offerings, I think every practice should have a service matrix.

Allan Oehrlein - 100%.

Aaron Grady - The client facing version, which is what we're going to talk about now, what we call the stewardship framework. We gave it a name, the reason we did, some people will just say their client facing service matrix. The reason why we gave it a separate name was to help internally help the teams and advisors delineate the purpose and the function of the two resources ultimately, but essentially they're akin to one another.

Allan Oehrlein - Right.

Aaron Grady - But one's an extraction of the other. The stewardship framework, we'll talk about the elements, the what it is and how to execute some elements of it. But first let's talk about the why. what I would share with most advisors is, as I said, get your service matrix built, make sure that your service matrix runs efficiently, make sure you're comfortable with that service matrix.

Allan Oehrlein - Right. Sure. Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady -First, and then let's talk about how do I take that and turn it into a client facing resource that can help me drive value in my practice, but also drive advocacy. And we'll talk about those whys here in a second, this brings me, this is important for us to start here, Alan. So we've done this long enough and we've done this in live studio audiences in front of groups of advisors. Whenever we bring up this concept,

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Yep.

Aaron Grady - I would have to say personally myself next to the idea and concept of the fit meeting. The, the, the concept that gets the most pushback from advisors next to the fit meeting is this concept, the idea of a client facing resource, physical or otherwise that delineates commitment to an elevated client experience and service. What would you say?

Allan Oehrlein - Yeah.

Aaron Grady - is the number one, one of the number one, or one of the objections that you hear the most. I know when you roll this out to advisors.

Allan Oehrlein - Sure. So as we're going through this exercise and we've created the service matrix or moving on to the stewardship framework, it's kind of an exciting first couple of calls, right? Where you're going through and you're listing out what are the high level concierge touches that I'm going to provide for each level of each tier of clients, right? What are some of the fun events I'm going to be doing to promote advocacy and show client appreciation and so on and so forth. But by the time you're done, many times you've got a page and a half, two pages, need to whittle it down to one page, and then sort of the reality of it sets in. How am I going to execute all this stuff? I don't want to be over promising and under delivering. That's when it shifts from the fun part to reality, and this is gonna be too much. Do I need to take some things off? And that'll start the whole conversation of, do I have my core competencies down first from the service matrix? Am I adequately going to be able to provide strategy and tactical meetings or annual review meetings, acknowledge those moments of truth as they come up, execute my forum calls, and then on top of that I've got this stewardship framework. that's the big one. And I think it kind of hit the nail on the head of asking yourself, am I going to be able to execute on all these things I'm now promising for my top tier of clients?

Aaron Grady - I love it. And I hear the same thing. Can I commit to this? Am I confident I can execute upon it? Which goes back to the conversation of scalability. Well, the reality is if we try to do it for 200 or 300 or however many, you know, all households, the answer is probably not. But if I'm doing it for the top 20%, now this becomes a reality that maybe we can live with. you know, also, know, it also, like you said, and I loved that you brought this up, the ability to start with what you know you can do and know that this is a living, breathing resource that every year you can reevaluate, that you can continue to stack. And that creates an even better benefit so that if you're showing this to clients each year, you can say, hey, here's the new cool stuff that we added. Here's the other new cool stuff. So we're not sitting on our hands just happy with where we're at. We're always looking for ways to continue to raise the bar for our clients.

Allan Oehrlein - Yes. percent. For sure.

Aaron Grady - I say for me, I'd say probably one that I hear too, and I know you've heard this one and we hear this in the live audience all the time is advisors saying that they fear offending someone. You're telling me I'm gonna put all this stuff down on paper and I'm going to, as some of the things we're gonna talk about is, as part of this, you're gonna have the different tiering on there. This is one resource that actually shows different tiers. the idea is people are, a lot of times we'll hear advisors say, I'm afraid of offending someone.

Allan Oehrlein - All right. Yes.

Aaron Grady - Well, the, the, the follow up question is always who are you afraid of offending? And nine times out of 10, the answer always comes back to, I'm afraid that I'm going to offend a, a, a C or D level client. And no disrespect again, is the fear that your C or D clients going to get upset and they're going to take their C or D assets and go down the street and become a C or D client somewhere else. And  look, I say that kind of tongue in cheek. The reality is, look, we're not heartless ghouls. We don't want anybody to hurt someone's feeling. We're not out to offend people. And there's structure that will give you, and, you know, as we talk a little bit farther, we'll mention some ideas of, how you mitigate this and what this, but remember what the real intent is about honoring and celebrating our best clients and giving them a way that they can see that on paper. would say the bigger fear that advisors really should have is the fear that your best clients, that 20 % that drives the 80 % of your revenues, that they ever get the sense that they're getting treated the exact same way your C and D level clients get treated. Now you've got a bigger problem because how many C or D clients do you need to replace one of your triple A level clients? so having a resource like this was going to speak to some of the things that help again, as we talked about building that mode. let's

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Great point.

Aaron Grady - So let's talk more about the why, Alan. So let's talk about some more specifics around the why. So I'll let you kind of kick it off a little bit. Share with us and with our audience here some ideas around the why.

Allan Oehrlein - Sure, so another thing and I know it's sort of been the ongoing theme throughout this conversation from my end, but it's that level of professional contrast, right? Clients don't know what they're not getting elsewhere. So when you're able to display and show and have that tangible piece that goes through some of those value adds that you provide that go above and beyond just the typical financial planning duties that you have as a comprehensive financial planner, it's the whole concept of being able to see that value, being reminded of that value and never second guessing the value or the cost of the expenses that go along with a relationship with a financial professional. So there's that instant comparison when they see that, that stewardship framework laid out that they immediately start comparing to their previous advisor, maybe the current advisor that they're working with. And while this really does go above and beyond what my expectation was, you know, they want you to do a good job with their finances. That's, that's the benchmark. You know, that's what you should be doing. That's what's expected. When you're able to show them, hey, look at this full list of, you know, 20, 30, 40 things that, you know, as the need comes up for it, we have a solution in place to make sure that this part is taken care of. So the professional contrast aspect right here is just, it's off the charts, right? Another great thing that you're providing here is you're kind of setting up what the expectations are right off the bat. Typically when the stewardship framework is presented, it's in the latter stages of the onboarding process. So you've gone through the discovery and the fit meeting and you've maybe money's in motion, implementation sort of in place right now to start transferring assets to the, you know, as the plan prescribes them to. But this is also where things start to shift to the relationship side of things, you know, again, above and beyond the typical financial planning side. So they get to see the expectations. As part of the conversation, you're going to start talking through the tiered level of engagement and what each level of tier means. know, single A, the double A, the triple A, each A stands for something. And you're essentially letting them know, this is what a best client or our best relationships look like. They are timely in getting back to us when we need certain things. You know, they get back to us in a short period of time for a signature or a document. They treat our level, they treat our staff with a certain level of respect. So you're essentially imprinting on them, this is what it takes to be a top client. Yeah, the money is important and the alignment of where you fit in that category, but above and beyond that, there are also certain expectations that we want you to follow to maintain that level of status.

Aaron Grady - I love that you started with the idea of where traditionally this is introduced at the start of a relationship. And I think, you know, I think what also is very important to understand is using a tool like this throughout the relationship to prevent, you know, like you said, unclear expectations that can lead to client drift. Right. But I think what it also does is it helps to reinforce ongoing value. One of the things

Allan Oehrlein - Yes.

Aaron Grady - that I've been having a lot of conversation about right now as we're looking towards next year and advisors are wondering, how can I continue to drive client advocacy? Well, the thing you have to understand is the onus is on the advisor to continue to provide value. Well, how do you provide value? Your clients are looking through a window like this. You could do 150 things for them over the life of relationship, but they focus on five things that are important to them now and really probably just two or three that are important to them today.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - And that lens is going to shift over time, you know, as their life unfolds and their needs evolve, they're going to continue to move the needle as far as what's important to them. So how do they, how do you continue to bring into focus all the other cool, high level, high leverage client experience elevated, you know, touches concierge levels, services and tools and resources, technology, events that you provide for your clients. It's on you as the advisor. so.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - Having a physical resource that you can point to. And it's not about readdressing everything on the resource every single time, but in your next strategy and tactical meeting, having a line item that says, what's new at ABC firm. And you say, hey, by the way, before we get started and we start looking at your blocking and tackling the, know, financial planning stuff that I'm going to do, that's what you pay me for. Let me highlight a couple of cool things we've got coming up later in the year. Maybe it's an event, maybe it's some new technology. So.

Allan Oehrlein - Yep.

Aaron Grady - This gives you the ability to bring this document out and allow them to see all of it all over again. You don't have to address all the items. They continue to feel the value and reinforce why they're with you. And this also gets the ability for you to talk about things like the sounding board services, which we haven't talked about, which is a way to present the idea of an introduction as a service you provide, not a favor you ask. And, know, Alan, that's probably another great...

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Great.

Aaron Grady - RARE video we could do to kind of help people better understand how that works. So let's talk about some key elements of executing. Let's talk about the what of the, as we kind of head towards the finish line here today, when it comes to the stewardship framework, physical, tangible resource, whether you put it on the screen or it's a deliverable to your clients, let's talk about some of the key elements. Obviously we're not gonna get into all the,

Allan Oehrlein - I'll add it to the list. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - Elements today, but let's just highlight a couple today. So I'll let you get started first, Alan, once you share a couple of key elements of the stewardship framework.

Allan Oehrlein - Sure, so just kind of kicking things off in a general fashion, how do we want it to look visually? And it can't be over complicated or too complex, but just in your mind, think through like a tier based visual layout that speaks to the different levels of engagement. And part of this process and really to kick things off before we get into the stewardship framework and the advocate, the service matrix is doing a proper client classification and client segmentation. What do I have? What am I working with? How am I going to tier these out? And really establishing the, you know, the top of the mountain, the triple A's down to the double A's, single A's, the legacy package, or not the legacy package, sorry, the legacy tier, which we'll go into more detail later, but that's essentially the home for the children of your very best clients. And then to kind of round it out, listing out the B and sometimes the C clients on that piece as well.

Aaron Grady - I love it. you know, having the segmentation on there. One thing I will touch on is, we, mentioned earlier, Alan, we're not heartless ghouls. The clarity that we create for some people is even when advisors buy into the idea of doing a stewardship framework, they still get hung up on how do I do that and share this? If there's tearing on there traditionally, as we would say, you're going to have your AAAs, your double A's single A's your legacy, which are children of your best clients outside of that. It would be just your, maybe your B level clients. And the only reason why I would have Bs on there is so that your best clients understand that there is other levels other than just single A, double A, triple A. Otherwise they're thinking, there's only three levels and I'm here. The idea of helping your clients understand that there are other levels reinforces the idea that membership has its privileges. And it gives your clients a path to continue to grow into your practice and your process, not out of it.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Yes.

Aaron Grady - If you want to have something separate for your C &D clients, great. I wouldn't show this resource to your C &D clients. This is something that's designed to help reinforce and emphasize, you know, the value to your best clients you're looking to duplicate. And then, you know, what I will also say is probably another thing that gets a little pushback from advisors that are, you know, I don't feel confident in how I would describe, how would I walk through this? Understand that when you're delivering this, there's an emphasis on the deliverables and the why story behind them. So typically I will tell an advisor, you know, pick three or four key things that you want to highlight. You're not going to go through everything, let your client ask some questions, but you're going to, you're going to lean into the why story on a few of those include value added touches like family meetings, annual reviews, strategy and tactical meetings, introductions to strategic partners. Understand that this is about highlighting not just

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Great.

Aaron Grady -Some concierge services, but it's also concierge experience. So this is a Shodosh to speak to the high level experience that you're creating for your clients. And there's some nuances here in how much different should there be between the double A's and triple A's? How is this about driving advocacy? Well, our triple A tier is actually for our advocate clients. We have scripting and messaging that is detailed in how you would actually execute this.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm.

Aaron Grady - to help tell the story that goes to what you were talking about a moment ago, Alan, where it's about helping your clients understand expectations that, look, this is a chance for us to say thank you and honor you for the relationship we have, and here's our commitment to you. And by the way, here's how, this is what each tier means and how everybody falls into them and how one can move from one to another. And so that's something that we clearly delineate and we help advisors navigate that and really put that to bed.

Allan Oehrlein - Mm-hmm. Great.

Aaron Grady - As we wrap up today, here's what I would say. This is the time of year that I would encourage every advisor, as I said, everybody should have a stewardship framework, I'm sorry, a service matrix at the very base, basic. So I would tell you to reassess your current client experience. And if you already have a current service matrix to reevaluate that as well, to look for opportunities to elevate the experience, target ways to continue to grow the experience for your clients going forward. And then I would encourage each and every one of you to assess creating a client facing stewardship framework. So if you don't currently have one, this is a perfect time to say maybe next year is the time that we actually step out on a limb and we take a chance to really drive advocacy and help our clients truly understand the value of our firm. So if you want to learn more about building or evolving your service matrix or developing a stewardship framework and how to implement both connect with us at USA financial.com. Make sure you click on the connect with us button and we can discuss how you can get started today. So thank you again so much for joining us on another edition of the rare advisor. If you like the type of topics that we talk about and you like the content, make sure you click the like and subscribe button. And as we always say, when the why is clear, the how becomes easy. So never lose sight of your why.

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The RARE Advisor is a business model supercharged by Recurring And Repeatable Events. With decades of experience coaching successful advisors, your host, along with other leaders in the industry, discusses what it takes to grow a successful practice. With the aim of helping financial professionals and financial advisors take their business to the next level, this podcast shares insights and success stories that will make a real impact. Regardless of the stage of your practice, The RARE Advisor will provide thoughtful guidance, suggestions for developing systems and processes that work, and ideas for creating an authentic experience for your clients.

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