This year, Agili’s annual retreat kicked off with a special activity.  The whole team went to Greater Richmond SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now) to screen the movie “Resilience:  The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope.”  After that extremely moving hour, we worked together to build sensory kits, which include items that soothe the senses, for both the children and parents served by SCAN.  It was a great sobering and teambuilding experience that was named as a favorite part of the retreat by several attendees.

The second day of the retreat focused on “elevating the client experience,” which revolved around a workshop led by Andrew Town, a business consultant from TD Ameritrade, the primary custodian with whom we work.  Andrew showed us several examples of organizations that have business models built on going above and beyond for their customers, including a gas station chain, a fast-food restaurant and a luxury hotel brand.  It was enlightening to learn lessons in client delight from such a variety of businesses.

On our last day together, we broke off by teams to discuss how we could elevate the client experience within our specific role and together as a team.  Each team had great meetings and came out of the retreat with an actionable plan for increasing their positive impact on client relationships.  Here is what some of our team members had to say about the retreat:

Financial Planning Team

“The retreat is more than a simple reset.  It’s the lubricant for the well-oiled machine that is our team.”          – Davis Barry

“What I found most helpful about the retreat was the opportunity for the Financial Strategists and Financial Planning Analysts to meet and talk about what was working well and what could use some improvement as we collaborate to prepare for client meetings.  This increased communication across roles and offices was useful and worked better in person than it does by video.”    – Elissa Wurf

Client Services Team

“It is always such a great experience to be able to come to the Richmond office and see everyone.  Getting together once a year renews my spirit of community and fosters anew my commitment to do the best that I can for my team members, our clients and Agili.  The annual retreat is always such a positive expression of how well the whole Agili team works together.  It’s a pleasure and a joy for me to work at Agili.”                 – Debbie Paul

“I was very impressed with how seamlessly we were able to communicate our roles and how they related to one another, especially in regards to the overarching goal to ensure the client’s delight. We put in perspective how the client services team has a very hands on approach to influencing the client’s perception of Agili, simply based off the fact that we are often on the frontline in terms of communication with the clients and their many needs.”    – Nigel Williams

Investments Team

“From communication skills to strategies for perfecting client service, there was no shortage of practical, usable insights imparted at this year’s company retreat.  Personally, though, I think what I appreciate most is simply Agili’s willingness to devote the time, effort and resources necessary to plan such an event.  It’s meaningful to me to be part of a company that is constantly seeking to improve itself and its employees.”    – Conor Clark

Operations Team

“I always enjoy the retreat because it not only gives us an opportunity to bring the whole team together (and we love spending time with our Bethlehem colleagues), but it also provides a forum for us to brainstorm about how we can better serve our clients. This year, we dug deep into some of our processes – and it was exciting to hear different team members’ thoughts about tweaks to our existing workflows that would enable us to please our clients even more. And, I’m happy to report that we’ve already worked to integrate those suggestions into our systems!”    – Adrienne Martin