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Client communication (view source)

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{{a|work|[[File:biblical outreach.png|450px|frameless|center]]}}{{d|Client communication|/ˈklaɪənt kəˌmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/|n|}}
{{a|work|{{image|biblical outreach|png|}}}}{{d|Client communication|/ˈklaɪənt kəˌmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/|n|}}


A mass-communication of something ''important'' — “importance” being in the eye of the beholder — to your whole client base. How a firm does this is a measure of its commercial sophistication, first, its technological sophistication, second, and its [[client communications|communication skill]], third.
A mass-communication of something ''important'' — “importance” being in the eye of the beholder — to your whole client base. How a firm does this is a measure of its commercial sophistication, first, its technological sophistication, second, and its [[client communications|communication skill]], third.


The usual means is to get a dedicated “client outreach” team to handle it by mass-market mailshot.  
The usual means is to get a dedicated “client outreach team” to handle it by mass-market mailshot.  


===Is it ''really'' that important?===
===Is it ''really'' that important?===
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===Rule 1: be brief.===
===Rule 1: be brief.===
It ought to go without saying, but the modern professional seems unable to grasp the idea: ''keep it short''. Do not use two words when one will do. Do not use one word when ''none'' will do. Writing to customers is like flying on the cheapest budget airline in the world, your words are your luggage.  
It ought to go without saying, but the modern professional seems unable to grasp the idea: ''keep it short''. Do not use two words when one will do. Do not use one word when ''none'' will do. Writing to customers is like flying on the cheapest budget airline in the world. Your words are your luggage.  


====Sub-rule: get to the point====  
====Sub-rule: get to the point====  
Your message should be a ''mullet'': business up front; party at the back. Presume that if a customer starts reading at all, she will stop reading your prose far more quickly than you would. If your client must do something, state it ''clearly'' and ''early'' in the communication.
Your message should be a ''mullet'': business up front; party at the back.  
 
Presume that if a customer starts reading at all, she will stop far more quickly than you would like her to. If you need your client todo something, state it ''clearly'' and ''early'' in the communication.


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The original fund status certificate needs to be in place at the Bank before the taxable income event is due to be paid. To avoid delay of certificate recording, customers are reminded to '''send the fund status certificates to the Bank'''.
The original fund status certificate needs to be in place at the Bank before the taxable income event is due to be paid. To avoid delay of certificate recording, customers are reminded to '''send the fund status certificates to the Bank'''.
| style="width: 50%" | From 1 July, you must provide us with newly issued WHT certificates before the dividend record date.  
| style="width: 50%" | From 1 July, you must give us your new WHT certificates '''before''' the dividend record date.  
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====Sub-rule: don’t show your working====
====Sub-rule: don’t show your working====
Having been mired in it for months, your [[subject matter expert]]s will have dominion over every last detail and nuance of the topic. They will barely be able to resist regurgitating them all over your letter. ''Don’t let them''. Say only what a non-specialist needs to hear to grasp the gist. Say that as clearly as you can, and say no more.
Having been mired in it for months, your [[subject matter expert]]s will have dominion over every last detail and nuance of the topic. They will barely be able to resist regurgitating their acumen all over your letter. ''Don’t let them''. Say only what a non-specialist needs to hear to grasp the gist. Say that as clearly as you can, and ''say no more''.
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| style="width: 50%" |The Upper House of the German Parliament on 28 May 2021 approved the bill pertaining to the modernisation of withholding tax relief procedures (“'''AbzStEntModG'''”; ''Abzugsteuerentlastungsmodernisierungsgesetz''), parts of which are due to enter into force on 1 July  2021, especially amendments to the German Investment Tax Act. The bill foresees a change in terms of the relief at source procedure applicable to income payments subject to German withholding tax (for example dividend and taxable interest payments) paid to a foreign investment fund (“''beschränkt körperschaftsteuerpflichtiger Investmentfonds''”). In this context, newly issued fund status certificates will contain information on the corporation tax status (“''Körperschaftsteuerstatus''”) of the certified investment fund. Current valid certificates that are already submitted, however, will stay valid according to a letter issued by the Ministry of Finance on 1 June  2021 (BMF – reference GZ: IV C 1 - S 1980-1/19/10027 :006 DOK: 2021/0577184).
| style="width: 50%" |The Upper House of the German Parliament on 28 May 2021 approved the bill pertaining to the modernisation of withholding tax relief procedures (“'''AbzStEntModG'''”; ''Abzugsteuerentlastungsmodernisierungsgesetz''), parts of which are due to enter into force on 1 July  2021, especially amendments to the German Investment Tax Act. The bill foresees a change in terms of the relief at source procedure applicable to income payments subject to German withholding tax (for example dividend and taxable interest payments) paid to a foreign investment fund (“''beschränkt körperschaftsteuerpflichtiger Investmentfonds''”). In this context, newly issued fund status certificates will contain information on the corporation tax status (“''Körperschaftsteuerstatus''”) of the certified investment fund. Current valid certificates that are already submitted, however, will stay valid according to a letter issued by the Ministry of Finance on 1 June  2021 (BMF – reference GZ: IV C 1 - S 1980-1/19/10027 :006 DOK: 2021/0577184).
| style="width: 50%" | On 1 July, Germany changed its rules for claiming withholding tax relief on dividend income. These changes affect your non-resident investment funds.
| style="width: 50%" | On 1 July, Germany changed its withholding tax relief rules for dividend income. These changes affect your non-resident investment funds.
|}
|}


====Sub-rule: don’t track regulatory language====
====Sub-rule: don’t [[Track the language|track regulatory language]]====
It is fashionable among [[Legal eagle|legal eagles]] to “track the language of the legislation” in client communications. This ensures utmost fidelity with the rules: one cannot be blamed for getting anything wrong if one copies out the text verbatim. ''YOU SHOULD NOT WRITE WITH THE MAIN GOAL OF AVOIDING BLAME FOR GETTING THINGS WRONG''. Write with the objective of ''getting things right''. ''Own'' your expertise. Own your language. ''Be brave''. Tracking legislation is ''lazy''. It is ''timid''. It ''rejects responsibility'' and puts it on the customer. It converts ''your'' regulatory problem  into your customer’s.  
It is fashionable among [[Legal eagle|legal eagles]] to “[[track the language]] of the legislation” in client communications. This ensures utmost fidelity with the rules: one cannot be blamed for getting anything wrong if one copies out the text verbatim.
 
''DO NOT WRITE TO AVOID BLAME FOR GETTING THINGS WRONG''.
 
Write to ''get things right''.  
 
''Own'' your expertise. ''Own'' your language. ''Be brave''. Tracking legislation is ''lazy''. It is ''timid''. It ''rejects responsibility'' and puts it on the customer. It converts ''your'' regulatory problem  into your customer’s.
 
Your job is to to make your customer’s life easier, not harder. You are meant to internalise the ugliness of your regulatory environment, not to lay it on your client. It is not your client’s problem. The legislation is, most likely meant to be for your client’s benefit. It doesn’t need anyone to regurgitate things that work for it anyway.
 
So: speak only in terms of consequences, and action. Where this points back to regulation, ''summarise''. Extract. Contextualise. Put this in a format the customer can understand and relate to.  


Your job is to to make your customer’s life easier, not harder. You are meant to internalise the ugliness of your regulatory environment, not to lay it on your client. It is not your client’s problem. It most likely meant to be for your client’s benefit. So: speak only in terms of consequences, and action. Where this points back to regulation, summarise. Extract. Contextualise. Put this in a format the customer can understand and relate to. ''Think'' like a professional writer, because you ''are'' a goddamn professional writer.
''Think'' like a professional writer, because you ''are'' a goddamn professional writer.


===Rule 2: be clear.===
===Rule 2: be clear.===
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===Rule 3: be [[Persuasion|persuasive]].===
===Rule 3: be [[Persuasion|persuasive]].===
To the extent following rules 1 and 2 don’t get you there, remember you are writing with the idea of not just discharging some regulatory obligation to your customer — that’s a second order objective — but to make your customer think well of you. Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it.
Where following rules 1 and 2 don’t get you there, remember you are writing not just to discharge some regulatory obligation to your customer — that’s a second order objective — but ''to make your customer think well of you''. Frame your letter to appeal to your correspondents, so they are more likely to read it.


Remember {{author|Robert Cialdini}}’s six rules of [[persuasion]]. Deploy them where you can.
Remember {{author|Robert Cialdini}}’s six rules of [[persuasion]]. Deploy them where you can.
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Personalise it. don’t say “[[Dear Client]]” — don’t ''ever'' do that — but address an individual by name, and send from an individual, by name.  
Personalise it. don’t say “[[Dear Client]]” — don’t ''ever'' do that — but address an individual by name, and send from an individual, by name.  


Yes, it is a mass mailshot to every customer in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore to ''use a freaking mail merge''.<ref>You thought I was going to say “use [[neural network]]<nowiki/>s to guess customer names” didn’t you?</ref> What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salespeople aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your customer to be justified in calling them “dear” — or don’t, accept your customers to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it.
Yes, it is a mass mailshot to every customer in the book. But we are in 2021, friends. It is not beyond the wit of technology, anymore, to ''use a freaking mail merge''.<ref>You thought I was going to say “use [[neural network]]<nowiki/>s to guess customer names” didn’t you?</ref> What’s stopping you? Oh, crappy client static data? ''Fix your damn client static data''. If your salespeople aren’t keeping it up to date, ''they’re not doing their jobs''. Either have good client static data, and use it to demonstrate you care enough about your customer to be justified in calling them “dear ~” — or don’t, accept your customers to you are a passive herd of cattle there only to be milked, and don’t try to be ingratiating while you do it.


''Don’t say “[[please be advised]]”''. ''Ever''. Just don’t do it. These are your valuable customers, not truculent secondary school children plotting to burn down the staff room.  
''Don’t say “[[please be advised]]”''. ''Ever''. Just don’t do it. These are your valuable customers, not truculent secondary school children plotting to burn down the staff room.  
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Say what you mean with strong, active, assertive nouns and verbs. Don’t use [[Wieselspiele|weasel words]].  Avoid “seems to”, “appears to be”, “slightly”, “almost”, “practically”, “virtually”. Write with energy. Take personal responsibility for what you say. Avoid passives. Identify yourself. Where you can, write as “me”; failing that “we” and never “the company”. Do not refer to yourself, or your company, in the third person. ''Own'' what you say.  
Say what you mean with strong, active, assertive nouns and verbs. Don’t use [[Wieselspiele|weasel words]].  Avoid “seems to”, “appears to be”, “slightly”, “almost”, “practically”, “virtually”. Write with energy. Take personal responsibility for what you say. Avoid passives. Identify yourself. Where you can, write as “me”; failing that “we” and never “the company”. Do not refer to yourself, or your company, in the third person. ''Own'' what you say.  
====Sub-rule: avoid disclaimers====
====Sub-rule: avoid disclaimers====
Think first “what will my customer think of ''me'' if I say that”, rather than “what if I get it wrong and my customer sues me?” You are a professional. You are good at what you do. Trust yourself not to get it wrong. Disclaimers are like [[airbags]]. [[You only need airbags if you don’t steer straight]]. Concentrate on defensive driving, not crash mats. If you ''have'' to have a disclaimer — and I know, you ''will'' have to have one — keep it brief, to the point and put it at the end. If the first thing your customer reads is “[[Please be advised]] we take no responsibility for this, we are only doing this because someone said we have to, so on your own head be it”, your customer is going to think, “gee, what a douche”. Generally, that’s not how you want your customer to be thinking now, is it?
Think first “what will my customer think of ''me'' if I say that”, rather than “what if I get it wrong and my customer sues me?” You are a professional. You are good at what you do. Trust yourself not to get it wrong. Disclaimers are like [[airbags]]. [[You only need airbags if you don’t steer straight]]. Concentrate on defensive driving, not crash mats. If you ''have'' to have a disclaimer — and, I know, you ''will'' have to have one — keep it brief, to the point and put it at the end. If the first thing your customer reads is “[[Please be advised]] we take no responsibility for this, we are only doing this because someone said we have to, so on your own head be it”, your customer is going to think, “gee, what a douche”. Generally, that’s not how you want your customer to be thinking now, is it?
{{sa}}
{{sa}}
*[[Law firm seminar]]
*[[Law firm seminar]]
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