The recent London edition of The Wealth Mosaic’s CX Toolkit roadshow featured an insightful keynote presentation by Caroline Burkart from Alpha FMC. The session explored how management consultancies can play a pivotal role in transforming client experience within the UK wealth management sector. Through data-driven analysis, Burkart provided key findings that shed light on the state of client satisfaction, digital experiences, and the broader client journey across various wealth management firms.
In today's competitive wealth management landscape, delivering an exceptional client experience (CX) is no longer optional but a critical element for business success. Caroline Burkart, a partner at Alpha FMC, has spent over 15 years delving into client experience in the wealth management industry. Her work, particularly with the Client Experience Benchmark launched at Aon and now transitioned to Alpha FMC, provides essential insights into what drives the client experience in wealth management. This article explores the key elements of the client experience, common challenges firms face, and the role of digital technology in enhancing client outcomes.
A roadmap for client experience in wealth management
The Client Experience Benchmark, which began five years ago, aims to offer a roadmap for delivering a high-quality client experience in wealth management. This initiative helps firms track their performance against their peers, enabling them to measure and improve their client experience outcomes. According to Burkart, a key benefit of the benchmark is that it provides context for firms, allowing them to generate actionable insights and substantiate necessary improvements in the client journey.
The client journey is multi-faceted, starting from a client's first interaction with a firm –whether through a recommendation or an advertisement – and continuing through ongoing engagement with the firm as clients invest and seek advice. Each of these touchpoints presents an opportunity to deliver an exceptional experience but also the risk of falling short of expectations.
The importance of understanding the client journey
A critical aspect of improving CX is for firms to have a deep understanding of their clients' journey. This involves mapping out both the overall experience and micro-interactions clients have during each transaction or engagement. Once firms understand these elements, they can focus on delivering the right outcomes and meeting the high expectations clients have today.
Firms must recognise that beyond investment performance and timely advice, clients expect seamless and positive experiences throughout their journey. Surprisingly, many wealth managers struggle to deliver on basic "hygiene factors," which refers to fundamental client needs that should be consistently met. These gaps often stem from outdated processes and a failure to leverage digital and technological solutions effectively.
The role of digital and technology in enhancing CX
In the modern wealth management environment, digital tools are playing an increasingly vital role in shaping client experiences. However, while firms are investing heavily in digital transformation, Burkart notes that the correlation between this investment and client satisfaction is often weak. This gap suggests that simply investing in technology is not enough – firms must also focus on how these tools are adopted and integrated into the client experience.
The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital tools, pushing firms to enhance their digital capabilities almost overnight. Tools like digital signatures, webinars, and remote interactions became crucial to maintaining client relationships. However, even as these technologies became commonplace, client satisfaction with digital experiences has remained low. Clients now view seamless digital interaction as a baseline expectation, and firms must step up to meet these heightened expectations.
Benchmark insights: where firms stand on CX and digital experience
Alpha FMC’s research shows that most wealth firms fall within a middle range of maturity when it comes to client experience management. Many firms gather data from multiple channels, but fewer have fully embedded client insight into their business processes. The ultimate goal, as Burkart describes, is to create a system where client feedback and CX data inform business strategies, investment decisions, and even staff compensation.
The Client Experience Benchmark also reveals interesting demographic trends. For instance, female investors tend to be more willing to recommend their wealth managers than their male counterparts, while younger clients are generally more demanding and less satisfied with their experiences. Additionally, a surprisingly high number of clients report having had no contact with their relationship manager in the past year—an alarming indicator that suggests missed opportunities for engagement.
Challenges and opportunities for wealth firms
Despite the rapid digitisation of the client journey, challenges remain. Many wealth firms have not fully realised the benefits of their investments in technology. Burkart emphasises that the most successful firms are those that align their culture and organisational structure with their technological advancements. Adopting a data-led approach, automating routine tasks, and empowering relationship managers with actionable insights are key strategies employed by industry leaders.
Moreover, balancing short-term benefits with long-term improvements is critical. Some firms may experience quick wins by adopting new technologies, but it’s the sustained, strategic integration of these tools that ultimately drives growth and client satisfaction.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the client experience in wealth management is evolving rapidly, driven by advances in digital technology and changing client expectations. Wealth managers must not only invest in the right technologies but also foster a culture that prioritises client-centric approaches. By leveraging insights from benchmarks like Alpha FMC’s Client Experience Benchmark, firms can identify areas of improvement and create meaningful, lasting impacts on their client relationships. As the wealth management industry continues to transform, those firms that prioritise client experience will be best positioned for growth and success in the future.
About the author:
Caroline is an industry leader with extensive experience in consulting and wealth management. Prior to joining Alpha, Caroline was an Associate Partner and Head of Client Insight for the UK and Europe at Aon. Caroline’s experience has centred around the client journey, the client and digital experience, segmentation, market entry and marketing strategies, brand health and thought leadership. Prior to joining Aon, she was an Executive Director at Scorpio Partnership and spent time in industry with Credit Suisse.
About Alpha FMC:
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is a leading global consultancy to the financial services industry.
Headquartered in the UK, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is a leading global consultancy to the financial services industry. Alpha combines highly specialist, sector-focused management consulting and technology expertise to support the client transformation lifecycle. It has over 1,000 consultants globally, operating from 17 client-facing offices spanning the UK, North America, Europe and APAC.
About The Wealth Mosaic CX Toolkit Roadshow:
Following the publication of our CX Toolkit report, we have so far hosted events in Geneva, Zurich, London, with plans to host further events in Singapore and Dubai later this year. These are free to attend for any form of wealth manager and provide technology vendors an opportunity to sponsor or demo.
Join us at the remaining Client Experience Toolkit Roadshow events in 2024:
About The Wealth Mosaic CX Report:
The Client Experience Toolkit 2024 is the first in a new series of toolkit reports focused on key technology themes and tools impacting global wealth management. Each toolkit report focuses on a key industry theme, segment or geography.
This first issue takes the form of a thematic report and shines a light on the trends and solutions influencing the successful delivery of client experience (CX) in wealth management. It features 11 showcases, each centred around a dedicated CX-relevant topic and related solution.
You can access the report online here.
