The Wilmslow-based wealth management firm was commended for its client centric approach and achieved the highest standard of three stars in the national customer services award scheme.

Investor in Customers (IIC) is an independent assessment organisation that conducts rigorous benchmarking exercises to show customer satisfaction levels for businesses.  These exercises determine the quality of client service and relationships, grading the results at one, two, or three stars. 

Equilibrium’s customer satisfaction levels were so high they achieved the fifth highest score recorded since the award was launched in 2007.

Colin Lawson, managing partner at Equilibrium, said: “We have worked hard to develop an approach to financial planning which puts our customers’ needs first and foremost.

“We don’t work on a commission basis so our fees are based on the percentage of assets under our influence. This means our interests are aligned with our clients, helping us deliver great customer service. It’s an honour to know that both our clients and staff rate Equilibrium’s level of customer service so highly.”

Neil Craig, managing director at Investor in Customers, said:  “Equilibrium is clearly one of the North West’s premier wealth management firms.  Their high scores have placed them in the top five in the IIC database.

“More than half of their client base participated, showing the depth and strength of the relationship, and that everybody wanted to take the opportunity to share their positive experience with the company.”

Equilibrium has been providing bespoke financial management services to its clients for more than 16 years.  Over the past 12 months the wealth management firm has grown its client base from 320 to 370 and now oversees £185 million worth of client assets. It provides expertise on wealth and investment planning, pensions and inheritance tax strategies.

The accreditation, which is the highest offered by IIC, recognises companies which offer an exceptional level of client service and is the only award based entirely on client and employee feedback. Northern Trust’s overall score also placed it within the top 10 of all companies assessed.

“We are delighted to receive this recognition for client service provided by our UK transfer agency team,” said Paul Harwood, head of UK transfer agency. “Client service is at the heart of everything we do at Northern Trust, and we are proud to hold this accreditation as a standard upon which to continue to build and develop the service we provide to our clients and their distinct investor groups. We provide services to retail investors, financial advisers, and institutions and this award is evidence that our processes and communications are working well at all levels, and making our clients’ lives easier.”

Investor in Customers Ltd was established in 2006. The company carries out independent assessments for organisations to establish the strength of their customer relationships and offer a unique award for customer service excellence at three levels, with three stars as the highest accreditation. The methodology and process used in award assessments has been developed following extensive academic research in the field of customer relationships and rigorous, practical testing with over 35,000 respondents since 2007.

“Northern Trust scored particularly well in the topic ‘treating customers fairly’ with a score of 9.31 out of 10 as well as in customer loyalty where a score of 9.01 out of 10 was attained,” said Neil Craig, managing director at IIC. “This customer loyalty score is particularly high and has rarely been seen in an assessment.”

“We are delighted with the high level of service we have received from the UK transfer agency team,” said Mark Friend, managing director, operations, at Premier Asset Management. “Northern Trust and Premier share a similar client service ethos and this has been one of the key factors in the extension of our relationship with Northern Trust.”

Northern Trust’s transfer agency service provides clients with a multi-jurisdictional, multiple product, single platform solution. In addition, Northern Trust provides comprehensive web reporting to all its clients and online access to investor information for transfer agency clients has recently been extended to their underlying financial advisers, nominees and third party fund distributors across Europe.

Charlie Williams (IIC Business Development Director) with Paul Neal (Operations at Northern Trust) receiving their Three Star IIC trophy

Investor in Customers (IIC), is an independent assessment of excellence in the field of customer service and customer relationships.  With their established methodology the research is carried out by desk research, customer questionnaires, employee and management questionnaire which focus on four key areas: understanding customer needs, meeting customer needs, delighting customers and creating loyalty.

Jason Rudge, supply chain director commented:  ”Customer satisfaction is critical to Mayflex, customers  have a choice and so achieving a high standard of service is essential to make sure they continue to choose Mayflex.  We wanted an independent view on how we’re doing and we felt that IIC was an established and respected company that has assessed numerous organisations throughout the UK and gave some real value and worth behind the Award.”

Rudge continued,  ”We’re delighted with the result, especially as it’s the first time that we’ve gone through the process.  The feedback from both staff and the customers was excellent and as well as providing statistics there are also a great number of comments that we can take on board and improve where applicable.  Our top three key strengths, as highlighted by customers were, ‘easy to do business with’, ‘product quality’ and ‘communication’ and the large majority were happy to recommend Mayflex.  Our aim is to continue to improve further and next time to hopefully achieve the three star Award.

Neil Craig, Managing Director of Investor in Customers, added:  “Mayflex’s customers are clearly satisfied with the quality and ranged of products offered, and their results reflect this.  Customers confidently scored the company, praising them for being easy to do business with, and as a result of the outstanding service they consistently receive many are willing to recommend the company to others.”

Rudge concluded, “We would like to thank all our customers and staff that took part in the survey and their feedback will be vital in how we improve moving forward.”

Display the logo on your website

Ask your website administrator to include the IIC logo in a position where it will be seen, along the header or featured in the footer of your site.  Take a look at Headwater Holidays website here, as an example of displaying your IIC award proudly and prominently.

Email signature and letter headers

It’s easy to add a new logo to your email signatures and to add your accreditation stamp onto your business paper or even compliment slips.  This is a simple way to show your accreditation without even thinking about it.  Some also include a short blub on IIC to explain the accreditation a little further:

Investor in Customers (IIC) is an independent assessment organisation that conducts rigorous benchmarking exercises to show customer satisfaction levels for businesses.  These exercises determine the quality of client service, grading the results at one, two, or three stars.

Use your promotional one-pager

As standard, we now offer a promotional one-pager at the end of your IIC assessment to compliment the PR efforts.  It pulls out the best of your customer and staff comments as well as your best scoring questions, making it ideal to show your prospect clients in meetings, or even to use as a template when talking about your current customers and what they think of you.  You can see an example of a one-pager on Capital Asset Management’s website where they use it as an example of customer testimonials, here.

If you haven’t got your one-pager, and would like one please get in touch.

Include IIC in your ‘about us’

Prospective clients want to know more about you, so make sure you include some information on IIC under your ‘about us’ page.  Many of our clients have separate pages on their IIC accreditation and what it means in their business.  A few great examples include Bytes Technology, Axa Wealth, Headwater Holidays, Dentons Pensions, and World Challenge.

Satisfied customers praised Focus Solutions for their effective and personal service, pointing out how knowledgeable, friendly and helpful the staff are.  Customers also commented that whenever they had any queries they always knew who to call, and that they would be remembered by the Focus team, making communication with the company simple.

The company enjoyed an overall improvement on last year’s IIC assessment results, taking their award level from ‘superior’ to ‘outstanding’.

IIC is an independent assessment organisation that conducts rigorous benchmarking exercises.  These exercises determine the quality of customer service and relationships across a number of dimensions, including how well a company understands its customers, how it meets their need and how it engenders loyalty.

Neil Craig, Managing Director of Investor in Customers, commented:  “This is a great result for Focus Solutions.  It’s clear that in the past year they have implemented changes to their service proposition and these changes have worked – their customers have rated them as offering outstanding service levels.”

Richard Stevenson, Chief Executive of Focus Solutions, added:  “We are delighted our rating has improved from ‘superior’ to ‘outstanding’ reflecting the concerted efforts we have made to further enhance the service experience for our clients.  At Focus we are committed to delivering exceptional service and delivery and we will continue to listen to our clients’ requirements to ensure we maintain these high standards.”

The boutique wealth management and financial planning consultancy gained exceptionally high scores for their customer loyalty, showing how trusted they are by clients.

Customers rated the company particularly well for the statements ‘I know who to contact if I need to get in touch’ and ‘staff are friendly and willing to help’.

In the assessment ran by IIC, Capital Asset Management’s customers, staff and senior management were asked to complete the survey to give a picture of the company’s customer relationship performance.

Neil Craig, Managing Director of Investor in Customers, commented:  “Capital Asset Management’s scores are a real testament to the time and the personal touch they put into looking after their customers.  Their customers think very highly of the service they receive, and because of this they are extremely satisfied and remain loyal.”

Alan Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Asset Managment, added:  “Gaining the highest level of the IIC award is important to us as it focuses on the most important aspect of our business – the customers.  To see that they think so highly of our service is humbling and we will continue to put their needs first.”

Headwater achieved the coveted Three Stars IIC Award, the highest possible outcome, with their impressive score of 8.55 out of a possible ten.  The result makes Headwater the number one IIC assessed travel company and places them in the top ten of all companies within IIC’s database.

Undertaking the assessment for the first time, over 2000 customers along with Headwater’s staff were asked to complete the survey to give a picture of the company’s customer relationship performance.

Satisfied customers praised Headwater with particularly high scores for the statements ‘I’m glad I went on holiday with Headwater’ and ‘now I have travelled with the company, I will definitely consider them for my next holiday’.

The results show that customer continue to choose Headwater as their first choice for a holiday provider and that they actively recommend the company to friends and family.  Customers were keen to mention the standard of holidays on offer with comments like “Headwater’s holidays are unique because of the quality of guides that they employ”.  Another customer said “over the past 20 years of using Headwater, we have always enjoyed the quality of holidays we have had”.

Catherine Crone, Managing Director of Headwater, commented:  “Personalised service has been very much at the heart of our operations throughout the 26 years that we have been offering interest-packed holidays.  In a world increasingly driven by gadgets, gizmos and Google, we’ve tried hard to never overlook the importance of real people and good old-fashioned customer service while continuing to modernise our brochures, website and booking systems.

“It is therefore a great honour to have received the accolade of being the number one travel company for customer service and to know that there are some things that, as far as holidaymakers are concerned, will never go out of fashion.”

Neil Craig, Managing Director of Investor of Customers, added:  “Headwater’s results show they have a very loyal customer base.  Some individuals have been on more than a dozen holidays with them and will continue to recommend them over and over again based upon their exceptional experience of the holidays.  To jump straight in to the top ten of all companies we have assessed is a tremendous achievement and one that Headwater should be justly proud of.”

Below you can see some great feedback from a few of IIC’s satisfied customers:

“I would strongly recommend IIC as a guide to customer loyalty and can confirm that it has informed our thinking as a Group over the last three years.” – Phil Barton, CEO, Jelf Group

“The outputs from the process have helped us to build and increasingly tight client-focused business which not only aligns us closer to our clients but also helps bring recognition through industry awards.” – Lee Roberston, CEO, Investment Quorum

“Having completed our own customer surveys for a number of years we found that the information we obtained was becoming a lot less informative and detailed.  We decided to enlist the services of IIC and found the process to be not only extremely well executed and timely but astonishingly informative.  I am extremely pleased with the results.” – Nigel Bullas, Managing Partner, Clough & Company

“IIC have gone over and above my expectations.  Not only did they provide us with comprehensive details of the results but also armed us with a level of detail that we can now utilise to drive our marketing plan forward.” – Clair Awty, Marking and Business Development Manager, Clough & Company

“For quite a few years we had carried out our own clients surveys but these were brief and randomly selected.  The IIC survey was much more comprehensive and of course independent.  This award confirms our commitment to our clients and our core beliefs in clear and regular contact with them.” – John Doney, Principal, Capital Tower

“Far more than a star at the end of the day but an insight into what customers are thinking and therefore an excellent way of understanding what needs to be done to improve customer service.” – Martin Tilley, Business Development Manager, Dentons Pensions

“At the start of the process we didn’t realise just how much information we as a business would get out of the IIC process.  We now have a good understanding of how our customers view us.  As a result, we are implementing some changes in order to enhance the experience customers recieve from working with Symmetry.” – Simon Kearsley, CEO, Symmetry

There is also the ‘special issue’ covering some great snippets taken from our upcoming video testimonials where our clients exaplin how they found the IIC process.

Intrinsic issue 3

Intrinsic special issue

For the special award IIC took the loyalty scores of customers and employees combined from their database of over 250 surveys and Investment Quorum came out on top with an average score of 9.05 out of a possible ten.

Investment Quorum have completed three IIC assessments, each time achieving the highest possible score of three stars showing they offer exceptional levels of customer service.

Neil Craig, Managing Director of IIC, commented:  “Investment Quorum go above and beyond when it comes to customer service, and the IIC Loyalty Award highlights their remarkable scores.  They are a business who will go the extra mile for their clients.  We know from the results of their IIC assessments that their customers are satisfied and that their formula works.  It’s this attention to customer care that keep their customers coming back time after time.”

Lee Robertson, CEO of Investment Quorum, commented:  “As a company which always puts its clients first we feel proud but also humbled that our clients have scored us so highly.  This is a credit to the attitudes of everyone here and their commitment to service and operational excellence.”

Lee Robertson, CEO of Investment Quorum, receiving his IIC Loyalty Award from IIC Chairman, John Moret.