It will be a challenge to entirely withdraw from your business if your clients are still very much dependent on you.
So how do you change your clients’ habits if they just want to talk to you directly because they only trust your advice?
Clients are either early, middle, or late adopters. The early ones will deal with a Senior Client Manager immediately after you’ve introduced your SCM to them.
The middle adopters will take 3 or 5 introductions before they fully deal with your client managers. While the late adopters will take 10 to 15 introductions.
But If you persist it will happen. We send clients letters explaining the team that’s been set up to look after them and it states that they should contact the SCM as the first point of contact.
We manage them and don’t let them manage us. If you let them manage you, they will drag you into their nightmare. So manage them by being persistent and constantly educating them of your systems.
Every time they ask for you, make sure you attend the meeting with your Senior Client Manager. When they call the receptionist, she should put them to the SCM first by saying
“…(your name) is in a meeting at the moment, may I put you through to your SCM?
If they send you an email then send them to the SCM to respond. It’s up to you to lead this. I transferred all clients over several years. It won’t happen overnight but it requires you not to give up but to persist for years if necessary.