Wayne is the founder and managing director of One Financial Solutions, which provides mortgage, pension and investment advice to people in and around the south of England and Scotland. Inspired by a colleague who was using VouchedFor, Wayne joined the site in April 2018 and has since developed a 5/5 rating from 63 reviews. He was also included in VouchedFor’s Top Rated Financial Advisers Guide earlier this year.
Wayne has seen how VouchedFor works as a marketing tool both independently and alongside his firm’s other marketing activity. “It’s an essential component of the client’s due diligence process,” he says. “Given current uncertainty, people are doing more due diligence than ever.”
“My brother’s been telling me about you for years’ but he still went onto VouchedFor to check me out!”
“The two biggest cases I’ve had have come from VouchedFor. One couple had found me through a magazine ad and then went onto VouchedFor to check me out. Then three weeks later another client who’d been referred also wanted
to see what other people thought and so looked me up.”
The power of client reviews on an independent site can even trump family recommendations he says. “When I received an enquiry through VouchedFor from someone with the same surname as an existing client, I was confused until I realised it was his brother. The enquirer said ‘My brother’s been telling me about you for years’ but he still went onto VouchedFor to check me out!”
After every first meeting, Wayne invites the client to provide a VouchedFor review. He recently started using the ‘Review Invite Tool’ that VouchedFor provides, which has proved to be more effective than his own emails: “1 in 3 used to review us,” he says, “But now it’s more like 2.5/3.”
“It’s crucial for financial advisers at the moment to be able to reach people online who are looking for help.”
What’s also significant is that VouchedFor enables clients who’ve already submitted a review to leave an ‘annual, follow-up’ review every 12 months: “This obviously shows that you’re consistent,” Wayne says.
Wayne says that lockdown is a great time to build client reviews. “There are lots of people with time on their hands at home at the
moment,” he says. “People who are having a sort out and reviewing things, emptying cupboards, looking at finances and reviewing them, or trying to get better value. It’s crucial for financial advisers at the moment to be able to reach people online who are looking for help.”
Wayne says that despite the growing number of online investment solutions in the market, it’s not a case of clients becoming more financially savvy – he says that clients are still as overwhelmed as ever.
Instead he says that advisers are needed for the reassurance – not big promises – and that they can see through false claims and bravado. “Clients want an honest, good straight-talking adviser. They know when not to trust someone, they see the jargon and move on,” he says. “The reviews can help them to develop an opinion of you, they can get a sense of who you are and if you’re the type of person they can deal with.”
VouchedFor’s tie-in with The Times, who distributed the 2020 Top Rated Adviser Guide, has also helped, says Wayne. “Whenever we meet anyone for the first time, we give them a copy of the guide. As a result, 75% of those people then go
“75% of those people then go onto become clients, when it used to be 25%”
onto become clients, when it used to be 25%. Either I’ve become 3 times better at my job, it’s a fluke or those clients looked at it and thought ‘If I don’t deal with Wayne, I’m in the minority.”
VouchedFor’s tie-in with The Times, who distributed the 2020 Top Rated Adviser Guide, has also helped, says Wayne. “Whenever we meet anyone for the first time, we give them a copy of the guide. As a result, 75% of those people then go onto become clients, when it used to be 25%. Either I’ve become 3 times better at my job, it’s a fluke or those clients looked at it and thought ‘If I don’t deal with Wayne, I’m in the minority.’”
“If I never got another lead from VouchedFor I wouldn’t care – the 2020 guide has already done its bit!”
He adds that it’s the integrity of VouchedFor he also appreciates: “VouchedFor does more than any other review platform to check the authenticity of reviews. That means more people trust it.”
