Shih made it clear that Hearsay Messages, a relatively new service of theirs, can be used for those that have to provide compliance coverage.
Caroline Feeney, president of Prudential Advisors, spoke about how they are now enabling their advisors using this tool to become more high touch.
She explained that to recruit advisors to join who will then need to work their networks, without giving them the communication tools to do so, was not a good business model.
“This is going to be an incredibly effective sales productivity tool,” stated Feeney, who is now working to roll out these capabilities beyond their pilot program.
She went on to say, “Think about it. Do you really have close relationships with people that you’re not texting?”
How It Works
By using the messaging app, it sits separately from the normal text messaging capabilities on a smart phone—that way personal text messages will not be recorded.
Chambers explained, “It needs to be a unique number that is associated with texting, or they have used the office line.”
When starting out, Prudential Advisors’ clients get a “can I send you text messages?” type of email. So far, 71 percent of their clients have opted in. If clients do not provide consent or write back “stop,” the advisors are restricted from texting them.
Chambers was excited about how text messages can allow their advisors to communicate in a quick and efficient manner. She gave a simple example of an advisor using this simple message with a client: “I’ll call you back. In a meeting.”