Most financial advising firms consider technology a valuable part of their business — it organizes their lists of clients, keeps track of client information, and helps them manage investments. Firms spend more on technology than ever before. However, some firms don’t use technology to its full potential, causing them to fall short of their goals for growth and expansion.
Although most firms view technology as an important part of their business, a much smaller number of firms believe that new technology will drive business growth. As the demand for new, tech-informed services spreads throughout the industry, firms slow to adopt industry changes may lag behind firms that adapt to the many ways technology is poised to disrupt the financial services industry.
How Technology Makes or Breaks Your Client Experience
Most firms recognize the importance of client experience in determining their future success — after all, business hinges on relationships. But not all of them understand the crucial role of technology in shaping client experience.
New and even established clients bring expectations when they meet with their advisors, whether or not the advisor is aware of it. For example, most clients expect their financial advisors to have a mobile-optimized, easy-to-use website. Does your firm meet their demand?
Your clients may have additional preferences for the role of technology in their financial lives. They may want an easily accessible portal where they check their balances. They may enjoy access to cryptocurrency or automated advising. If you are unable to provide the type of on-demand services clients expect, you may lose potential clients.
Technology is the Key to Client Relationships
The role of your tech stack in client relationships may seem less obvious, but firms that invest time and money in client-focused technology are the clear winners. It’s one thing to buy new software, but if you don’t use it well, you’re missing the same opportunities as you would if you’d never purchased the program in the first place.
When onboarding new clients, their first impression forms the foundation for their ongoing relationship with the firm. Not only does your willingness — or lack of it — to embrace digital investing trends demonstrate your adaptability, but it also shows the value you place on your clients’ time.
For example, if you have access to a CRM package but don’t use it as intended, it wastes your clients’ time when you ask for the same information multiple times or have to copy and paste information between applications. If you don’t use document management software or it doesn’t integrate well with your CRM, how patient will your new clients be when they have to spend an hour signing documents they could have submitted electronically? How much of your client interaction time is spent filling out paperwork rather than building relationships?
Match Your Clients’ Individual Needs
Whether you serve a wide variety of clients or specialize in a specific demographic, your clients are still individuals with differing needs and wants. Paradoxically, although automation seems less personal on the surface, it can lead to deeper connections with your clients. Once you understand your clients and their goals and interests, it becomes much easier to target them with content that will resonate with them on a deeper level.
You’ll run out of time if you try to provide individual content to all your clients yourself. If you send each of your clients identical information every month, they may dismiss your content as irrelevant, leading to missed opportunities. The right technology can help you tailor your content to target clients with the right message at the right time.
Technology Can Save You Time and Money
If your firm follows the same processes you’ve always used without considering efficiency, you may be wasting time and money. When you fill out spreadsheets because you don’t have integrated document management software, you’re paying people to use their time less efficiently than they could. The same is true of copying and pasting documents, searching for information, moving back and forth between applications, or other time-wasting tasks. When your productivity is low, profitability and scalability suffer.
That’s why maximizing your efficiency is so important. With the right tools, you can improve client experience, build better client relationships, reach individual clients, and save your firm time and money. If you want to grow, you need the right technology to support your firm. Contact Docupace to learn how our financial services software can help your firm reach its long-term goals.
