8 Essential Pieces of the Modern Client Experience
The modern client experience is a combination of multiple factors:
digital and in-person interaction
24/7 and office hours only
one-on-one and mass communications
How these factors are combined varies from firm to firm, but there are eight essential elements of the modern client experience that every advisor should focus on optimizing if they want to grow.
1. Client Portal
A client portal isn’t the end-all, be-all of a great client experience, but it is a core element of any modern advisory firm’s efforts to reach and communicate with its clients. A portal provides 24/7 access to all of the information a client could want. As a result, it not only increases convenience for clients, it also frees advisors up from the back and forth of emails for simple questions.
2. Virtual Meetings
Before the pandemic, Zoom reported that it hosted 60 billion annual meeting minutes. This year, they’re on track to host 3.3 trillion meeting minutes.
Before COVID, advisors used virtual meetings for long-distance clients. Now the majority of advisors offer them as an option for clients regardless of whether they live across the street from their office or across the country.
3. Personalized Experiences
Modern technology allows advisors to scale their services in new ways they never thought possible before, while increasing clients and revenue in the process. As a result, clients often find themselves feeling like just another number.
Clients consistently report that they love personalization. In fact, 40% of banking clients would be more inclined to stay with their bank if it offered more personalized services.
What does that look like? Sending a birthday email, reaching out with relevant information after the death of a spouse, or even knowing unique details about your clients’ lives.
Most of all, it’s the feeling that they’re in a continued conversation with you that stretches across meetings and emails. One of the best ways to maintain a continued conversation is by utilizing memorable visuals and connected data so you can both align on the details you need to recall and act on from one conversation to the next.
4. Flexibility
Modern clients expect to be able to do pretty much everything virtually, even if they don’t take advantage of it all the time. Maybe they prefer in-person meetings, but sometimes things come up and they can’t make the trip tomorrow, so they request a Zoom meeting.
Still, when a client receives documents in an email from you, they feel that familiar twinge of panic that they are going to have to print something out, sign it, scan it, and then send it back. Few experiences compare to the relief of realizing they can simply review and sign your documents from their cell phone.
Flexibility means that clients can do pretty much everything they need to whether they’re in the same room with you or not.
5. Engaging and Interactive Client Reports
The days of the spreadsheet client report are long gone. Sure, you provide the finer details too so they can see everything, but a high-level visual overview can increase processing speed, memorability, and comprehension.
Consider that 80% of people remember what they see, versus 20% who remember what they read. On top of that, our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text.
6. An Advice-Driven Experience
Modern clients are hyper aware of sales and commission-based experiences. If they feel like they’re being sold to, they’ll head straight for the door.
That means advisors need to provide financial advice that is planning and goals-based, not product-driven. Clients need the assurance that you are a trusted guide who is giving them solutions for how to reach their goals without selling them financial vehicles they don’t need.
7. Knowledgeable Discussions About All Investment Opportunities
Because it’s new and it’s considered high risk, advisors (and compliance departments) get pretty nervous when the conversation turns to Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ether, NFTs, and the like.
But even an answer of “it’s not the right fit for your portfolio” is better than not having the understanding to talk about it in the first place.
The modern investor has access to pretty much all of the information in the world, so if you won’t talk to them about it, they’ll just do the research themselves. Even if you prefer to stay away from the latest investment trends in client portfolios, you need to be ready to address items like cryptocurrency, ESG, and alternative investments when clients bring them up.
You’re the trusted financial guide in their life; guiding them away from investments that don’t suit their goals is just as important as guiding them towards ones that do.
8. Security
Cybersecurity failures can damage your bottom line, with the SEC fining firms as much as $1 million for not having the right policies in place. More than that, a data breach can have a lasting and dramatic impact on client confidence.
Clients expect their advisor to keep their information confidential and safe in a world where cyber threats are always increasing. More than anything, they should be able to trust their advisor to protect their money and their future.
How to be a Modern Advisor
How do you rank on all eight of the above factors? If you can check off the entire list, congratulations—you’re a modern advisor!
If you’re missing anything, don’t worry. Do your best to choose one area you can improve today to help your firm take a step in the right direction.
Asset-Map was built to make it easier for advisors to provide a modern client experience. Learn more by scheduling a demo today or reaching out to our Support Team.