Client Engagement for Financial Advisors : April 2017

What differentiates great service? Great businesses in the eyes of their customers? What determines your success with attracting and engaging appreciative clients?

(for more on client engagement buy the book Click to view Client Engagement for Financial Advisors )

Shawn Achor[1] tells us that “happiness” is the greatest differentiator.

Research in the growing field of "positive psychology" indicates that when we engage consumers with positivity and in a manner which allows them to look at the solutions we offer (be it a product or a service), then their brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic[2]: in other words they are more likely to engage with you and adopt the solution you are offering (that is buy from you).

Regardless of your views on “happiness”, engaging consumers with “happiness” and positive psychology, the thing that you do need to pay attention to is that the way consumers choose to do business with you and interact with you is changing.

The field of “wealth management” “financial advice” is one in which this trend is not only powerful but also an enormous opportunity. The “disruption” in advice models and offers, the consolidation of the landscape of advice and the nature of client interactions makes “advice” ripe for opportunities for refreshing your business model. Let me build the case for why you need to do just that.

The old model was predicated on the advisers total control of the information of “financial speak” and processes[3]. Now consumers not only have access to information they have assistance through businesses such as Vanguard, TD Waterhouse and any quasi scaled advice service or information portal. A “google” search for “apps for financial advice” delivers over 9,000,000 results. Scarier still is the recent development of an app where a consumer can consult a financial adviser for $10 a question with the view of bringing advice experts into someones world easily and efficiently and cost effectively.[4] Will that even work, surely that does not suit your clients?

Well if your clients are in the 30-49 year old age group, then you might indeed have a concern. It is this group that indicates that where there is an advice relationship, that only 1 in 2 are happy with it.[5] This cohort cites the following as reasons for their “disconnect” with the relationship:

· A lack of collaboration with the adviser so they feel in partnership

· A lack of individualisation in the solutions offered

· A lack of mobile capabilities that increase the convenience of engagement and interaction

· And a lack of complete end to end solutions

The advice to businesses and individuals in this space can be applied to an array of businesses. In short a range of solutions that provides for enhance collaboration, process efficiency and engagement efficiency is what is required to be able to compete and differentiate.

Specifically, the initial and subsequent engagement needs to be highly personalised and convenient and must address the value to the client of their present situation. Someone with “only” $50,000 to invest, may reveal that this $50,000 was delivered through years of hard work and sacrifice and hence it is the most significant journey they have financially been on.

This is very much about empathy that is a fluid discussion not a formulaic process.

Secondly you must connect with mobility and socially with clients. Choose your weapon carefully. This is about what is the best way to engage with your clients initially and continuously that fits into their lifestyles, not yours.

And lastly becoming a central hub for your clients. This means interconnections with other advisors perhaps that can be brought into meetings easily or other streams in your offer.

How do you package that up? Because the above looks like a lot of hard work.

Well this is where you are definitely behind the 8 ball if you are only considering this now. In 2014 Liz Moyer wrote in the Wall Street Journal[6] that businesses are “rolling out souped-up smartphone and tablet apps that let clients conduct video-chats with advisers” (amongst other services). Citigroup private banking arm back then was testing a new video-chat function with selected clients and planned to make it broadly available to customers. (Which they did). Moyer wrote that the customers can use the:

“iPad app, which the bank introduced in February, tap a tab on the app screen and initiate virtual face-to-face conversations with their personal bankers.

The software also allows both client and adviser to see data about the client's portfolio simultaneously, or to see possible investment outcomes in varying market scenarios. "You can have a shared experience. It's the kind of interaction between client and adviser that we've been pushing toward," says Tim Tate, the private bank's global head of client management.”

And if that’s not suggested to you that perhaps you need to consider easier, efficient collaboration via digital means, perhaps this will:

“Investors could move their business elsewhere if firms don't respond. A survey released in June by consulting firm CapGemini and RBC Wealth Management found that 57% of affluent people over age 40 and 80% of those under age 40 would consider leaving their wealth-management firm if digital services weren't offered. The survey defined digital services as functions that are Internet or mobile-based, including social media, email and video.”[7]

So what is the great differentiator? It’s advancement in engagement. Simply that.

Engagement that suits a customer, that is efficient, engaging, collaborative, compliant.

[1] http://goodthinkinc.com/resources/books/the-happiness-advantage/

[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2013/06/06/how-happiness-directly-impacts-your-success/#4d0658517ae2

[3] Accenture, 2015, New Realities, New Approaches, Changing the Client-Advisor Relationship in Wealth Management.

[4] http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/11/app-offers-financial-advice-under-10

[5] Accenture, 2015, The Greater Wealth Transfer

[6] Moyer, Liz, Wall Street Journal 11 July 2014 “ A New Wave of Apps for Wealthy Investors; Wealth Managers Add Web Tools as Online-Advice Firms Like Wealthfront and Betterment Grow

[7] Moyer, Liz, Wall Street Journal 11 July 2014 “ A New Wave of Apps for Wealthy Investors; Wealth Managers Add Web Tools as Online-Advice Firms Like Wealthfront and Betterment Grow

Client Engagement for Financial Advisors

Saturday 22 April 2017

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Sunday 2 April 2017

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