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Creating a diversified, one-stop shop, according to AustAsia Group’s Simon Chesson, is the way to achieve growth and successful client retention
WHILE BROKERS differ in how they see diversification, AustAsia Group’s executive finance director, Simon Chesson, is quite clear about where he stands.
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A finalist in the Finance Broker of the Year category at this year’s Australian Broking Awards, Mr Chesson says his approach is very much ‘client-centric’, with AustAsia offering specialists across every area to assist clients with any transaction.
“You name it, we can do it,” he says.
From tax specialists to legal teams, from brokers to financial planners, AustAsia is truly a ‘one-stop shop’.
While Mr Chesson is well aware that it’s impossible to be all things to all people, he also believes brokers may be missing out simply because they’re afraid of the challenge.
“The issue with diversifying is that most brokers just don’t want to know,” he says. “But they need to take a long, hard look at themselves and ask, ‘Can I actually offer that service?’. It’s important that brokers are proactive in trying to help their clients out.”
MAN OF MANY PARTS
Trained both as a tax accountant and as a financial planner, Mr Chesson got into mortgage broking 10 years ago. He had decided to add broking to his suite of professional services after becoming disillusioned with his referral partners.
“The partners receiving our clients were not treating them in the same way that we were,” he says. “So we’d end up losing clients because when they mucked up the referral it reflected badly on us.”
Mr Chesson began to embrace the old idea that ‘if you want a job done right, best do it yourself’ and trained as a broker so he had no need to outsource to inadequate partners.
“We basically said that we didn’t want to be put in that position anymore – where we put our clients and our revenue at risk,” he says.
AustAsia has clearly reaped the rewards of that bold move. The group now has 600 active clients, with a retention rate of around 95 per cent.
This year has also been AustAsia’s best year in volumes to date – as of June 2012, the group had settled nearly $58 million through its combined lines of business.
ONE-STOP SHOP
AustAsia Group offers a full range of financial, investment, accounting, property, corporate, business and management-related services.
Referrals to outside sources are virtually redundant and clients feel secure that any small details they may have overlooked in a purchase or investment have been thought through for them.
With his multiple qualifications, Mr Chesson is quickly able to work out himself what a client’s needs are likely to be.
“When I first meet a client, we work out what they’re after and then I put on my various tax, broking and financial hats and come up with a strategy,” he explains.
“I’ve seen it before – when a client doesn’t use the broker as their centrepiece of communication – and that’s really our difference. We basically hold the hand of the client the whole way, so if they’re going through the divorce courts, for example, I’ll go and talk to the lawyer about the client’s financial situation.”
According to Mr Chesson, clients attach immense value to being able to ring AustAsia direct if a problem arises, rather than having to play phone tag with a whole host of specialists.
And with the strength of AustAsia’s client referrals, time needed to be spent on marketing is also now minimal.
To take one example, with an increasing number of clients having to deal with marriage breakups, having a one-stop shop to ease the financial burden is a benefit being well-received by those clients.
“We take that holistic client approach and while we aren’t marriage counsellors, we can at least help deal with the financial issues and the impact of those from a tax or finance point of view,” Mr Chesson says.
Established in 1979 by Mr Chesson’s parents, AustAsia Group boasts a staff of 35 people who are on hand to service a wide range of client needs.
The business has now reached the stage where the client base has been split into two offerings: a personal services offering and a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) offering.
SMEs are serviced well by this multiple specialist offering, according to Mr Chesson, since questions about tax structure, asset protection and buy-sell insurance always arise when making a purchase.
NOT AN OPTION
Mr Chesson now feels that for any business that desires to grow, diversifying will soon become a necessity rather than an optional extra.
“Eventually, you’ll find that those who want to expand must diversify, because it’s about becoming client-centric not just transactional,” he says. “If you don’t look after that person then someone else is going to come knocking on that door and approach them.”
AustAsia Group prides itself on being able to walk a client through a step-by-step process and being able to explain issues such as the most tax-effective loan structure and the implications for a client’s financial position.
A position that embraces this kind of process, Mr Chesson says, is where all financial specialists need to start coming from.
“The issue with diversifying is that most brokers just don’t want to know, but they need to take a long, hard look at themselves and ask, ‘Can I actually offer that service?’.”
