How to keep traders happy – without bonuses. Part 1

By Yael Warman at Leverate

The old age adage of keeping traders happy tends to sound a lot like this: “offer them a bonus! 10% on your next deposit over $2000 until the 31st of the current month!” Sounds familiar? Well, over a two-part series, we present you with some valuable tips for keeping your traders happy, without having to limit your ideas to pulling out bonuses.

Most sales and retention agents will have begun to come across this phenomenon. An offer of a bonus is quickly laughed away with the statement “I can get double that at ‘Some-company-you-have-never-heard-of-trade!”, or words to that effect. It’s like an arms race that is increasingly difficult to win, with higher and higher enticements, and more and more players looking to convert leads and entice away your clients. You can quickly find yourself outmatched, and staring down a bazooka with your sad air pistol.

The old standby of the bonus, the lure of free money has been exposed and deflated. Eventually as a retention agent, you will have to find other methods of value-adding.

Thankfully, there are many avenues up your sleeve to achieve this.

Depending on the company and its focus, workloads and pressures, there are various options available to you. Universally, the main and most effective method generates something that is not able to be competed with – personalized service and customer care. By making yourself and your efforts invaluable, you can compete and retain clients, and of course generate deposits and trading volume. As a brokerage, you should recognize this and encourage your employees in order to give you the chance to do this properly.

Follow up before there are any problems

Retention agents generally treat follow ups like a lover that they’re just stringing along, i.e. ignoring them until you need a date for an event and can’t find anyone else. This is a mistake in Forex. Making a follow up call shows that you care about them, and reinforces their importance to you and the company. Now, when it comes to “I can get a better bonus somewhere else”, you can rightly ask “but will you get the same kind of personalised service from someone who is as committed to you?”

Keep an eye on the trader’s positions

There are various software methods or tools to enable you to keep track of your trader’s positions, be it access to a dealer platform or internal tracking / reporting software. When a trader is heading towards a margin call, even if their margin level is 100%, a quick phone call or email will not only likely see quick easy deposits, but show your client that you really care about protecting their money.

The gain for you is instant credibility; that you are not just interested in their deposits, but that you actually care about them making money.

Since these are two main concerns amongst traders, you have gone a long way to secure their trust with one simple activity. For companies that freeze positions, open hedges or require funds to be added, a preemptive contact to warn them will highlight this money protection measure. Likewise discussing their positions will provide the same outcome.