The wake-up call
Covid-19 has triggered huge changes in consumer behaviour. While consumer needs have not changed (I need to buy food), expectations of how those needs will be fulfilled (I expect even local independent shops to offer online ordering and home delivery services), have changed seismically.
Much discussion exists about when we will go back to our old ways but there is no going back.
Transformation in consumer habits
Our client research over the last 30 years shows that, within a specific market, client and employee expectations change relatively slowly.
Covid-19, however, has led to the rapid formation of new customer expectations and behaviours, often enabled by digital technologies. The smartest, most agile businesses have understood the need to respond quickly, conducting an immediate radical reassessment of their operations to create a new normal. As reports (such as Accenture’s) show, the new consumer habits formed by the pandemic are already permanent.
What has changed for wealth management?
Even for wealth management businesses with a clear view of client segmentation and personas, changing client expectations have mandated a new approach. In some cases, it means starting almost from scratch.
Our conversations with wealth management business leaders have revealed the following themes:
- Zoom has changed relationship dynamics. The nature of discussions is less personal, although more informal. Human relationships take new forms. Trust is built differently.
- Relationship managers have had to learn fast how to sell virtually.
- Expectations are now related to exemplars: “If so-and-so can track this analytic, why can’t you?”
- Back-office processes are unfit for clients’ new expectations. Some fast, forced and focused agile improvement techniques are required.
- Client feedback methods are not working well enough for the new environment:
- “We have so much data on clients, but very little insight about what matters to them now.”
- “We get loads of low-level tactical information. But what we need is prioritised, actionable insight that drives decision making.”
- “We have low response rates to feedback requests.”
- “Satisfaction as a measure isn’t working; we’re not improving retention.”
- “Our methods are too internally focused; we need a client-driven data set.”
- “Net Promoter Score (NPS) is not driving any improvement in business results.”
If you recognise these themes in your organisation, here are some thoughts to consider.
Pandemics
Historically, pandemics have triggered social, political, technological and economic change. In 1920, Spanish Flu, combined with the end of World War I, drove changes that led to the Great Depression, the General Strike and other convulsions. Telephones, radios, cars and aeroplanes were introduced, with immense consequences.
What’s changing? And what isn’t?
Jeff Bezos famously said: “I very frequently get asked: ‘what’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ I almost never get the question: ‘what’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that the second question is the more important of the two – because you can build a business strategy around things that are stable in time.”
Bezos’ dictum is worth keeping in mind right now as organisations attempt to remake themselves for a postCovid world.
If clients’ needs are the ‘what’, expectations are the ‘how’. While needs remain stable, the way we deliver to clients – the ‘how’ – is undergoing fundamental change. According to Accenture: “Right now, an experience renaissance is afoot, driven by client and CEO shifts. This renaissance is galvanizing companies to push beyond the Customer Experience (CX) philosophy and reimagine their entire business through the lens of experience to enable clients to achieve these outcomes.”
How we can help – The Business of Experience
We help businesses understand expectations and develop strategies to improve interactions with clients, employees and suppliers. For some, this entails complete organisational reinvention.
Figure 1: An Expectations Map, such as this one, is a simple mind-map of what a given group of customers ideally expect in a given situation.
Since the 1990s, we have helped companies provide the best possible experience to all stakeholders – customers, partners and employees. This responsibility cannot be delegated to a single team. Rather, the experience is delivered by everybody, and is owned by the CEO.
We call this approach the Business of Experience (BoX), and it unites Customer Experience (CX) Sales Experience (SX) and Employee Experience (EX) in a holistic way using a common approach across all areas. This may sound like common sense, but sadly it is not common practice.
Among the tools we use to help our clients deliver a great BoX is the expectations map (see figure 1 on the previous page). ‘Outside-in’ perspectives define expectations maps that become the blueprint for your Client and Sales experience, whilst ‘inside-up’ perspectives EX reveal a map of the ideal employee experience. They provide the catalyst, and guide, for strategic and operational change
When the map is converted into a business performance survey, it scores, discovers and prioritises the ‘vital few’ for the CEO, showing precisely where investment will give the greatest returns. Several clients have seen a return on investment from our work of over 100:1.
However, discovery alone is insufficient. It is crucial to implement ‘vital few’ improvements that will drive AUMs, revenue or reduce costs and simplify processes.
In lockdown, organisations are re-evaluating their priorities, needs, expectations, behaviours and expenditures. Wealth management businesses need to identify the new profile of client and employee expectations so they can reset strategies accordingly.
Our research shows that leaders should focus on:
- Delivering a consistent, intentional, personal and valuable client experience; in which ever-improving service performance is the differentiator.
- Creating agile organisations that can adapt fast to any changing circumstances. Execution speed matters. McKinsey suggests deploying virtual networks of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams to accelerate agility.
- Finding new ways to lead and develop a distinctive EX that attracts and keeps talent.
- Adopting new holistic and inclusive business operating models as new societal expectations dictate changes in the way business interacts with the HNWI community. B Companies, the Good Business Charter and the Triple Bottom Line are gaining investor and HNWI attention.
- Basing decision-making on quality data from non-traditional client and employee data-gathering methods that give leaders rigorous insights.
- Targeted investments in automation.
- If your company needs help to identify your vital few, map your customers’ expectations or deliver a better BoX, talk to us today.
This article was part of TWM's recent APAC Wealth Technology Landscape Report (2021). Click here to access the full report.
