Investor experience matters and with social media… you want to keep them happy.
I’m Maddie and I work as a Marketing Manager at Creative Return. I’m a young millennial navigating this world of finance and investor marketing. I hope my blogs can help others who are just getting started in their journey through the world of investor relations and digital investor marketing.
I’m going to be honest… Before I joined the Creative Return team I had no idea about all the work and effort that goes into taking private companies public, what shares even meant, and I certainly didn’t know what a transfer agent was.
That’s where Dean Naugler, VP of Corporate & Shareholder Services at Olympia Trust Company comes in. He has views into both public and private companies - especially their shareholder matters.
His episode of the Insider’s Guide to Finance emphasized the importance of investor experience. If you’re like me with little to no knowledge on this topic, I highly suggest listening to Dean’s interview.
Olympia Trust Company provides solution-based services for all transfer agent and corporate trustee needs. The company has also been recognized as one of Canada’s top employers.
“Olympia is a very interesting company to be a part of,” Dean said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be part of it almost since the beginning and see the growth and transition. It continues to evolve.”
Olympia has built up a company culture and reputation that it has thanks to their personal approach.
“Our tagline is, With Us It’s Personal. We take what we do very personally,” Dean said. We make sure that when we’re working with our clients we are personally invested in making sure it’s a positive experience for everyone.”
Dean went on to share why it is important to provide a good investor experience. Transfer agents need to provide a level of duty and care to ensure that the shareholders will be taken care of on behalf of their clients, the public companies.
“The name of our division is corporate and shareholder services. We take that second part very seriously. The public companies are our clients. We have to be able to assist them with anything they’re looking to do,” he said.
Transfer agents need to be responsive. It’s important for investors in any company to feel that they are getting the response and service they need. If they don’t get that level of service, it often leads to doubts.
If you don’t have open dialogue or communicate your story with shareholders it could lead to an experience with dissatisfaction that gets out of hand.
When companies go public, it changes who they are dealing with when it comes to their investors. Private companies have more control and can communicate with the shareholder base more easily. That can sometimes get lost when a company enters the public market. In this day and age – shareholders are very vocal with social media.
“Shareholders can voice their grievances everyday now if they want. I’ve seen it everywhere. People are having bad experiences and putting the word out,” Dean said. “You definitely have to keep in mind what the investor experience is like.”
Everything is driven by the investor experience. It’s important to get the story out and communicate that with your investors.
“I’ve had a couple experiences where we’ve shown up at a shareholder meeting for a public company that had no idea they were in trouble. They ended up having their boards overthrown at the meeting,” Dean shared.
By not having open dialogues and sharing the story with your investors, it can lead to dissatisfaction that can get out of hand. Dean recommends monitoring your voting anytime the company does an AGM.
Dean went on to share a piece of advice for entrepreneurs in the private and public sectors and his experience resurrecting a company from the ground up.
For Dean and his team, it comes down to the level of service and building relationships. Providing the highest level of service to both his clients and their investors is the priority because it pays to give them a great investor experience.