When your financial services business welcomes a new client on board, it is vital to closely manage the first few weeks. Initial impressions can color relationships for years, after all. Since relationships are built on good communication, investing in employee education and technology is critical. Employees need to understand not only how important it is to be on top of the goals, aims and personal preferences of every client, they need to know how proactive they need to be too.
It’s called client onboarding
Client onboarding, the process of helping your business learn about and internalize the needs of each client, can be a complex and ongoing process. The financial advisor placed in charge of a client needs to not only possess expertise in financial planning, but also in drawing out clients. Clients rarely come out to plainly state their goals in a way that advisors can apply themselves to. Advisors need to talk, and find ways to interpret their clients’ statements.
A look at each client’s responsibilities could help the advisor come by a figure for his emergency cash needs. He could then begin speaking to the client about the importance of such a fund. If the client hopes to retire by age 55, it’s the advisor’s job to plan for every way in which this might be made possible, whether or not the client specifically asks for such guidance.
Whether it is determining the kind of risk that the client is willing to accept or looking after existing investments and obligations, it is the onboarding process that helps the advisor gather data, analyze it, and act on it.
Helping the onboarding experience with technology
CRM software for financial advisors is often used to automate and smooth the mundane onboarding chores that financial advisors work with — sending out welcome letters to new clients, setting up meetings, sending out reminders, notes on each meeting, performance reports, prospectuses, account statements and thank you notes, are all easily automated. Such functionality only scratches the surface of what’s possible with such software, though.
Customer intelligence is one of the most important tasks that CRM is applied to. With well-managed software, every financial advisor in the business has access to customer information at every call. Never does the client come away with impressions that people in the company don’t speak to one another.
With access to a consistent data set across the board, every financial visor is also likely to be able to tell if a client’s needs aren’t being met, and make quick course corrections.
Software can help with creating transparency and access for the client
Generation of a mobile platform for clients is one of the most important ways in which CRM software helps financial advisors. Clients who are always keeping an eye on their investments on their mobile devices are likely to be far more satisfied.
Toby Peters runs a financial consulting business. He likes to write about his business insights on the Internet. His posts are available on many business blogs.
This post complies with my Disclosure Policy.
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