Narrowing margins and shrinking commissions are causing many advisory firms to rethink their client-service processes, looking for ways to increase efficiency.
At the same time, advisors are seeking to accommodate time-strapped clients whose service expectations are changing in today’s on-demand, Amazon-prime society. Expectations of immediacy and convenience that were once considered unrealistic are becoming the norm for many as nearly every facet on our daily lives is affected by advancing technology and its potential to speed up just about anything.
Though advisory firms must adapt to this trend to keep pace, it’s nonetheless critical to assure that new processes and technology are integrated seamlessly into existing client-service structures. At my firm, AspenCross Wealth Management, we’ve dovetailed new uses of Internet connectivity and CRM systems with recent changes in our advisory structure that took us from the traditional advisor-down model to a team approach.
Our new uses of technology for client contacts and interaction—from initial meeting to onboarding to regular reviews—fall into three basic categories:
• Routine virtual meetings. We now hold on-screen sessions for about 30 percent of our meetings with our roughly 4,000 planning and investment management clients, and expect this to increase to 70 percent in the next year or two. When we started suggesting more virtual meetings over the last couple of years, we expected more resistance, but most clients seem to like them. Like our advisors, clients want to reduce their road time.
We hold exclusively face-to-face meetings with less tech-savvy clients who insist on them, but most are quite comfortable with increasingly user-friendly virtual-meeting programs. Many prospects see this as an efficient way to check out our firm without going to much trouble. With most clients, we hold a face-to-face meeting once a year, and the rest—maybe three or four—online. Advisors like it because it significantly increases their productivity.
• Simultaneously gathering client information and feeding it directly into our CRM system. We do this during online meetings or house calls (using tablets) to automatically direct subsequent workflow steps without an intervening data input step. This is accomplished using custom-adapted software that route the data from to the CRM to the workflow system, which alerts appropriate team members at each service step and delivers pertinent documents. Client documents gathered during meetings (either in-person or virtual) are scanned, uploaded and indexed into the CRM system, where they are immediately available to the planning team. During onboarding, we gather all data and feed it into an online portal that contains a fact-finding form that feeds directly into the CRM. This same data is then fed directly, as needed, into the planning software used for the client. These integrated systems enable clients to share data, sign documents and pay planning fees efficiently.
• Customizing client contacts from day one. This includes determining their preferences regarding how often they want to be contacted and for what purposes—and what kinds of information they’d like to receive from the firm to stay informed on financial topics of interest. Some clients are just too busy for high-touch service, and want to streamline contacts and information. Answers to questions posed in onboarding meetings determine the landscape of information and content clients receive, including articles and webinars on specified subjects.
By gathering this preference information carefully and then feeding it into our marketing platform (linked with the CRM), we can be confident that we automatically send clients content that’s welcome instead of what they regard as spam. Some clients who have used other advisors have commented that this is a refreshing alternative to a one-size-fits-all newsletter—a traditional tool that digital preference-sorting will eventually render obsolete.