Adviser Technology Fueling Client Satisfaction

Advisers are not only using technology to make their firms run more efficiently—they are also implementing software and applications (apps) that can make the client-experience better.

Whether they are enhancing their customer relationship management (CRM) software, using tablets to conduct meetings or updating social media sites from their smartphones, advisers are awash in new technology. Although compliance challenges still exist for many, firms are becoming more comfortable with the use of social media and technology platforms.

CRM Software

An emerging trend in the industry is the use of CRM software as more than just a contact database. Advisers increasingly employ CRM as a way to improve their businesses, whether through analyzing data, managing leads or automating workflows. 

Jonathan Baltes, vice president of retirement plans at Hefty Wealth Partners in Auburn, Indiana, says his company built a CRM that tracks all interactions with clients. The company hopes it can help engage participants by documenting meeting notes and participants’ questions. The CRM can also track information about demographics and log trends within groups.

Identifying participants’ retirement goals and readiness enables the company to tailor presentations and education for each retirement plan client, Baltes says. “Every plan’s a little different in terms of what its goals are [and] what it’s trying to accomplish.”

Baltes notes a fairly new trend that helps plan sponsors identify participants’ goals: including an education policy statement (EPS). While an investment policy statement (IPS) generally walks the sponsor through investment selection and monitoring, an EPS outlines the level of financial education the sponsor would like its participants to reach. It also details the educational presentations plan sponsors want to make available to participants and recommends the frequency of these presentations.

“I see [education] as kind of the next big development in the qualified plan market,” Baltes says.

His company also uses Salesforce, which is by definition a CRM. However, the company keeps Salesforce separate from the custom CRM it built to track participant education. Hefty Wealth employees use Salesforce to view upcoming events, projects and meetings on their calendar. If a project is not being completed in a timely manner, the dashboard is a great way to view the process and its weaknesses, Baltes says. “It provides that feedback loop to us.” 

In addition to tracking projects, Salesforce logs phone messages and ensures that calls are returned. It also helps to give a sense of whether vendors are calling too often, he adds.

In the company’s self-built CRM, Baltes data mines participants’ profiles to determine what education he can provide. By tracking such information in a system, Baltes says, he has it all organized at his fingertips, which helps him determine how best to assist the participants.

The Online 401(k) in San Francisco has also created its own CRM for advisers and their clients, says Andrew Meadows, the company’s consumer and brand ambassador. The CRM, Meadows says, is particularly helpful in taking care of clients during the end-of-year rush because it stores all details of client interactions, making it easy to see who has followed up with which plan sponsors. “It’s absolutely invaluable,” he says.

Although he would like to think detailed CRMs are a growing trend, Meadows says third-party administrator (TPA) technological capabilities can hinder usage. The advisory firm may have a great CRM system, he explains, but it must integrate with the recordkeeper’s system in order to work properly. “Make sure you find someone who’s on the same technology level as you,” he advises.

The independent adviser industry evolved from a startup mentality, which has led to many firms not developing the core systems, workflows and infrastructure necessary to efficiently provide a consistent level of service, according to a 2012 white paper by Fox Financial Planning Network (FFPN), “The Rise of Automated Workflows in Financial Advisory Practices: Why Developing a ‘Starbucks’ Client Experience Is the Key to Sustainability, Profitability and Growth.” This creates capacity constraints for advisers at a time when factors such as the retirement of Baby Boomers are driving growth. 

Tablets and Smartphones

In addition to tracking participant engagement and ­retirement goals, Baltes says, his company also uses the CRM to securely access documents from anywhere. “We’re starting to embrace iPads more,” he says.

Tablets such as the iPad offer many advantages for advisers, including enhancing client meetings, allowing advisers to work remotely and decreasing printing and paper costs.

Baltes uses his iPad to walk his clients through the functionality of his company’s website and to access ­real-time data. In addition, the device can store sales literature. In fact, he finds that it has so many advantages and storage capabilities that it has replaced his briefcase.

Although Baltes enjoys using his tablet during ­meetings to enhance the client experience, he typically leaves his smartphone elsewhere. “I prefer not to have the phone on during the meeting because I want to be fully engaged with the client,” he says.

Meadows says his team uses tablets and smartphones in their meetings—a  help to departments that are based remotely. Tablets and smartphones are useful, too, for working while on trips and participating in virtual meetings, he says.

As far as creating mobile-friendly websites to view on a tablet or smartphone, Meadows says, the industry may be a bit behind the times. “The world hasn’t gotten comfortable enough to buy a 401(k) on their iPad,” he says. 

Apps

When using a tablet or smartphone, the possibilities for apps are endless, but always be sure to confirm with compliance which apps are acceptable. Here are some the interviewed advisers use:

• GoTo Meeting. This app allows users to launch meetings and collaborate virtually on their tablets or smartphones. GoToMeeting can be utilized for virtual meetings and has a good interface, Meadows says. The app allows users to view slide presentations, design mock-ups, spreadsheets, reports and more.

• Prezi. Prezi is a presentation tool that helps users organize and share their ideas. Meadows says he prefers this app to PowerPoint because it offers more ­possibilities and allows for a more “theatrical” presentation. For example, Prezi can embed YouTube videos and also appear in 3-D. After all, an interesting presentation is important in order to engage plan sponsors and participants, he says. “[Educating clients] in an interesting way is our challenge.”

• Mint. Meadows says some of his clients use Mint to aggregate their 401(k) information with their checking and savings accounts. Mint allows users to make financial decisions in real time and view up-to-date information about their accounts, budgets and financial goals.

• PenUltimate by Evernote. This handwriting app gives the feeling of writing or sketching on paper and permits saving work to the device. Baltes says he uses it if he sketches a diagram in a client meeting and wants to email it to himself. 

• HootSuite. This app helps advisers stay connected to social media while on the go. It also allows users to send and schedule updates, track click statistics and monitor hashtags and keywords. 

Social Media

Among social media platforms, Facebook is the most widely used by advisers, followed closely by LinkedIn and YouTube, George Walper Jr., president of Spectrem Group, said last year during a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) seminar on social media. “[YouTube is] a really powerful tool for the investor community, and it’s far more intuitive than a lot of other social media platforms,” he said.

Clients also enjoy using YouTube to refer advisers and share comments about their experience with that adviser, he said.

Betsy Billard, a chartered retirement planning counselor and private wealth adviser at Ameriprise Financial, said during the SIFMA event that she uses Facebook to be notified of clients’ and prospective clients’ job changes. For Billard, Facebook is a good prospecting tool that is unique because of its “like” feature.

Meadows says his company is big on blogging and videos. Online 401(k) created an “Ask Me Anything About 401(k)s” piece on Reddit, a website with user-generated news links. “Ask Me Anything” generated 200-plus comments, he says.

In addition, Meadows and others at his company—including the CEO—write educational blogs. “You’ve got to talk to people like they’re people,” Meadows says of engaging with clients and prospects.

According to Baltes, his firm distributes a weekly newsletter to all the clients in its Salesforce database. In addition, the team incorporates technology into its “cold calls” through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Engaging in virtual communities undoubtedly helps with lead generation, along with ongoing engagement in the adviser’s actual community. Reposting blog entries and other information on social media sites means your website and brand can be viewed in more places, which can generate client leads, Meadows says.

Despite advisers’ willingness to embrace social media, compliance challenges remain. One hurdle is the lack of immediacy for communications such as tweets because compliance must review them beforehand. “The whole point of social media is to be immediate,” Billard says. 

Even with compliance challenges, Walper says, it is more harmful to fail to adopt social media altogether because that can cause businesses to lose or turn away prospective clients. “The adoption [of social media] is not going away,” he says. “This is something that’s going to be around forever.” 

Challenges of Technology

Although technology has revolutionized the adviser space, compliance remains tricky when it comes to advisers’ use of apps, Baltes says. For example, if an adviser uses a navigation app on the way to a client meeting, does that app need to go through a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) audit? Or if an adviser is doodling about client revenue in his PenUltimate app, how does that differ from doodling on scratch paper and throwing it away? Would PenUltimate doodles need to be reviewed by compliance?

Meadows also has concerns about the increase in technology—namely for participants. “Our society has become so ‘instant gratification,’” he says. “I worry that 401(k)s may become ‘too accessible.’” With all the technology at their fingertips on smartphones and tablets, participants could begin making hasty changes to their portfolios. “Your 401(k) shouldn’t react so quickly,” he cautions. 

Overall, technology is shaping the advisory space as we know it and will continue to change the way advisers do business—especially how they communicate with their clients.