Fund managers who get fired for poor performance should look to improve their client relationships as well as their performance.

"Fix it in four months or you're fired" is the ultimatum facing managers who fail to recognise and respond to the day-to-day requirements of their pension fund clients.

Get the client relationship right, and that single quarter is extended to almost two years - enough time to turn performance around and keep the client happy.

The spectrum for the stay of execution - between four and 23 months, with 11 months for "average" client management - was revealed by new research from Investit, the consultant to asset managers, which surveyed a consortium of 23 firms, representing about 25 per cent of global assets under management, and 31 major UK pension funds, worth over £90 billion (€132.5 billion) in aggregate.

"Some managers have developed a solid reputation for excellence in client management but others don't seem to appreciate what it takes to keep a client loyal during a tough period," said Philip Robinson, principal at Investit.

Client management covers four areas: marketing and sales, relationship management, client reporting and client servicing. While pension funds and managers broadly agreed on the shortlist of the six key criteria for good service (of the 23 criteria researched), they had quite different priorities.

Number one for the pension funds was the processing of ad hoc queries on demand, yet the asset managers put this at number six. A dedicated client relationship manager was number six on the pension funds' list but asset managers put this as number one. Pension funds want valuation reports on request - a service that did not appear on the asset managers' shortlist.

According to the research, managers are failing in very specific areas. Lack of continuity of staff is the top grouse from pension funds, followed by the mismatch between the final sales presentation and actual delivery. Managers that close to new business to maintain support levels have more kudos than those who grow their client base beyond their competency.

Importantly, pension funds want direct access to their fund manager. "They don't want a go-between, however articulate and well briefed," said Mr Robinson. "This immediately puts a limit on the number of clients any individual manager should look after."

The research shows that 28 clients is the maximum any individual manager can handle effectively. A manager with 40 or more clients is likely to be inefficient and the firm may lose clients as a result.

"The smart firms don't just pay managers for performance - they often allocate 40 per cent of the remuneration to the success or otherwise of client retention," Mr Robinson said.

Investit was unable to reveal which managers pension funds regard highly or otherwise for their client management service but this information can be found in the annual survey of occupational pension schemes from the Pension Fund Partnership.

Its 2005 report - the latest available at the time of writing - states that of those managers with 10 or more appraisals submitted by pension funds to the survey, UBS achieved the highest mean score for overall service satisfaction, only just ahead of Legal & General and Baillie Gifford, followed by Standard Life, BGI, Schroders, Capital International, and Fidelity.

Low scorers included Axa, Deutsche Bank and Scottish Equitable.

The report's author, Kevin Sims, managing director of the Pension Fund Partnership, said: "While excellence in customer service can never be a substitute for poor investment performance, clearly it is a major contributing factor in the decision to fire or retain an incumbent fund manager."