While the financial services industry worries about its public image, the recipients of financial advice are overwhelmingly happy with their advisors.
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s “ACSI Financial Advisors Report,” financial advisor clients ranked among the most satisfied customers in the U.S. during 2017.
In the ACSI methodology, customer satisfaction results are reported on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating higher levels of satisfaction.
At the end of 2017, financial advisors received a score of 81 in the index. The highest scores were given to the customer service support for television and video players manufacturers, which earned a score of 85. The lowest satisfaction scores in the index were given to subscription television and internet service providers, which earned a 64.
The other industry groups ranking ahead of financial advisors were breweries, soft drinks, internet retail, credit unions and automobiles and light vehicles.
Financial industry groups ranking below financial advisors included property and casualty insurance, internet investment services, life insurance and health insurance.
When results were broken down among major providers of financial advice, consumers were most satisfied with small brokerage firms, followed by Charles Schwab and LPL Financial, all of which rated slightly above the industry average. Independent advisors, as a whole, were rated slightly below the financial advice industry average.
According to the ACSI report, there is little differentiation in satisfaction levels across the financial advice industry.
Clients gave their advisors high marks for ease of account opening, call centers, websites, trust and confidence. Lower scores were given for the amount of personal contact clients had with advisors and the implementation of mobile options for account management.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is based on nationwide surveys of approximately 180,000 customers. The index analyzes satisfaction with more than 300 companies across 44 different industries, as well as with federal and local government services. The ACSI data often correlates with economic performance, so much so that there is actually a factor-based ETF based on the index’s methodology, the American Customer Satisfaction Core Alpha ETF (ticker: ACSI).