Crucially being able to do that is not always just about the financial returns, it’s about how the client relationship has been nurtured and deepened. Indeed, client experience has to come top of the list- those able to maintain and even develop client relationships have always flourished in a crisis and during Covid-19 a big part of that has been the use of technology to underpin the human relationship. In fact, the past year has smashed down barriers to technological innovation and driven a ‘can do’ attitude that would have been inconceivable a year ago – accordingly client experience has benefitted.
Key to this has been that firms have needed to break out of the mindset that they need to deliver services or communicate with clients in a particular way. Instead, they have explored new opportunities to improve the client experience.
Video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts are a good example. Covid-19 forced them into play and they are now highly valued as a long-term alternative to in-person meetings that may be difficult to coordinate, whether due to social distancing guidelines or just busy schedules.
Indeed, relationships built around irregular phone calls and annual portfolio reviews don’t give advisors many opportunities to get to know their clients. But using video conferencing means that clients can access their advisors face-to-face at any time.
Advisors can keep the personal touch by seeing client reactions right in the moment, getting a read on their body language and even catching glimpses of their surroundings and home life. That’s the kind of personal touch that advisory firms need to provide during difficult times.
Add value through technology
And it’s not just about the contact, it’s about the quality of the data and the information that the advisor has to share with the client. If firms can tap into their existing data and wealth management systems to provide better financial advice for every single one of their clients, then they are enhancing the relationship in terms of both content and delivery.
While in years past, a CRM may have just been a rolodex of client information, these systems have expanded their capabilities to become an essential business management platform for the entire organization. The information in these platforms can be useful for everyone from client service representatives to the marketing team. Knowledge and understanding of clients is essential to everything the advisor does. Having one place where all of that information is available and up-to-date will streamline vital processes for everyone with any kind of client interaction.
Today’s best business management platforms help advisors with just about every part of the client experience. They can be used to manage alerts, audits, important dates and marketing and compliance issues. They can also perform advanced data analytics processes, helping the organization move more efficiently than ever.
Advisors are in a better position to offer sound financial guidance when all of that information is readily available. They can see where markets are headed and what moves clients should make to respond to shifting economic conditions and protect their long-term investments. Business management platforms also support better client experiences by removing administrative work that could otherwise take up most of an advisor’s day.
Indeed, in many cases, the sheer volume of administrative tasks advisors need to address stops them spending time with their clients. By automating processes like onboarding, firms can free up advisors to spend more time supporting their roster of clients and meeting with them over digital channels. Removing the back-end work from advisors’ plates means they can focus on delivering the best client experience possible.
Automation also boosts organizational efficiency and removes bottlenecks that can slow a firm down and drive-up operational costs. Businesses that extensively use automation are less exposed to human errors that require a lot of time and energy to go back and fix. During uncertain times, every firm wants to reduce unnecessary expenses as much as possible, and automation is a sure-fire way to do this.
Focus on the user experience
Having this capability clearly adds value to the client as well as the advisor. Ensuring the technology providers deliver onboarding and training remotely, so even if a team is spread out across different locations, they can still be properly trained. Change management is an important part of any new investment or technology upgrade and uptake is highly dependent on a solution being user-friendly and easy to manage. Intuitive dashboards, seamless integration and streamlined automation are all features that can improve user experience and encourage employee adoption.
In addition, a solution that is based in the cloud offers flexibility in terms of scalability and also serves advisors that may be in disparate locations. Indeed, a cloud-based system is more likely to have mobile and remote capabilities and encourage collaboration between different teams and departments.
The scalability of cloud-based solutions also makes them accessible and affordable for growing firms. All can benefit from the client management, visibility, and workflow automation tools offered by today’s leading applications. Additionally, adding the latest technology can set a firm up to expand and add new clients, a must for any emerging firm.
State of the art technology also helps a company grow and thrive in terms of operational process efficiency. Open API platforms interact more easily with other critical applications, such as portfolio management, productivity, and financial advice tools. Integrated business management platforms create a centralized solution that make advisors’ lives easier.
A good business management platform can also help that data do more for your organization by surfacing it in meaningful reports that can inform your strategic decisions. Although some data entry is required to keep records up to date and accurate, it’s well within the routine data management work carried out at financial advisory firms on a regular basis. If a firm is already entering data somewhere, it might as well be in a program that can do the most with it.
Embrace new opportunities
To conclude, technology does fundamentally change the way a firm operates, but sometimes external factors (like a pandemic) force change as well. Having robust technology leaves an organization in a better position to effectively manage client relationships and scale a business—no matter what change may come.
Embracing opportunity and change makes new clients, new profits, and a more efficient workplace possible in the future. Technology can also provide new avenues to reach out to new and existing clients. Key though, is that regardless of the number of low-cost or free financial advice resources available today, clients are still looking for a real person who cares about their financial wellbeing to bounce ideas off. Technology frees up that person and arms them with the right insights and information to enhance and deepen their relationship with the client. Weathering the storm is good; coming out the other side stronger than ever is even better. Advisory firms need a new technological foundation to continue to thrive, succeed and grow even in the face of uncertainty
This article is originally from our US Wealth Technology Landscape Report 2021. Access the full report here.
