The new whitepaper from Adviser Websites enumerates clearly what the client in today’s generation wants from a financial advisor and how should they create an overall wonderful experience for them.
Be accessible
Clients now expect the advisor to understand who they are and their needs and preferences without having to tell you repeatedly. Client needs the whole team to serve them at any time.
Client expect easy, fluid interactions on whichever channel they prefer to engage with you — whether phone, email, mobile, live chat, or personal meetings. They want you to be a key advisor they can check in with frequently, not just once a quarter. They want solutions that help them meet their goals, not just financial products.
Leverage technology
Despite the overall change in customer expectation, many advisors are stuck trying to access important client data, using disconnected back-office systems, wasting time on manual process and are unable to take advantage of the market opportunity.
Advisors now lack the functionality needed for delivering personalized service across channels. It’s time that advisors must have a customer-centric approach. Priorities must shift to the front office, with an emphasis on supercharging the client experience. Financial advisors must be empowered with a single-click view of their customers.
In addition, IFAs need the tools that not only make them more productive, but also help them listen carefully to each client’s goals, interests, and preferences.
IFAs should prioritize their time wisely and build relationships that deepen their existing book of business. They should deliver personalized and proactive advice in the effortless way is what clients now expect.
The key to all of this is adopting a customer success platform that allows them to connect to clients in new ways.
- A panoramic client view - A single profile should exist for each client, complete with CRM and back-office financial data.
- Analytics - Data is the fuel of the 21st century, and from that data, IFAs need powerful insights and real-time visualization so they can help clients more effectively
- Mobile functionality - Relevant and timely customer data should be easy for IFAs to access from the palm of their hand, wherever and whenever required.
- Collaboration tools - It should be simple for advisors and their team to share data, documents, collaborates across departments and leverage the entire firm’s expertise to meet a client’s goals.
- Engagement tools - These should be automated, so the company can engage proactively with new clients.
How advisors can reimagine the wealth management experience
A transformative exercise for reimagining the customer experience is to look at innovative brands and organizations that have accomplished this on behalf of their clients.
Uber is a mobile app that connects riders in need of transportation with drivers who have space available in their cars. The product is the same, but the company has eliminated every point of friction that existed in the legacy taxi experience. Uber would redesign the wealth management experience by making sure that any interaction with clients as a whole is simple and effortless.
Conclusion
There is a perfect storm of industry, cultural, and technology change. Innovators both within and outside of the financial services industry are raising the customer experience bar. The competitive landscape is changing fast with a lot at stake. For the winners, the market opportunity is immense.
