SESSION 1
Headlines
- The majority of firms had some form of client survey in place whether it was Net Promoter Score or some other form.
- Some of the most useful and interesting feedback is where clients are allowed to ‘free format’
- Firms conducted annual surveys as well as surveys after the client had joined.
- Firms had taken the new MiFID II and PRODs rules to build a much richer annual review service which focuses on what the client’s needs are and a gap analysis of where they are. Shows a much greater level of client understanding than before.
Key challenges
- Avoiding client survey fatigue. Many companies used ‘cohorts’ to break groupings down to give more focus and relevance to the surveys but firms must be constantly aware of keeping this fresh to keep clients engaged.
- The use of IT is critical in being able to survey effectively but the challenge is to still make it feel ‘humanised’ and not just a process.
- Clients often prefer to remain anonymous when providing feedback so if it is negative it is difficult to be able to respond to a client.
- Getting the right questions in a survey – the use of client goals needs to feature more
- Most firms are fairly poor on either obtaining referrals or having any form of structured referral process in place.
CONCLUSIONS/SOLUTIONS
- Very impressive adoption of the new regulations to create a richer and more meaningful client experience. Will be interesting to see if smaller firms are doing the same as there is a significant cost to implementing this.
- Vitally important to keep asking your clients about what they value from you, how well they think you are doing and what else could you do. A few firms shared this data with their clients which was felt to be a positive idea.
- Be aware of the medium you use in surveying clients. Whilst many use online/email surveys some others phoned or sent out hard copies. Try different mediums and measure the responses.
- Referrals should be part and parcel of your culture and it should not just be left to advisers to do this on their own. Training and central support are important aspects in making this work.
SESSION 2
HEADLINES
- The majority of firms had some form of client survey in place whether it was Net Promoter Score or some other form (as per session 1).
- Some of the most useful and interesting feedback is where clients are allowed to ‘free format’ and some viewed clients that were detractors that could be converted round to be very good promoters
- Firms conducted surveys at a variety of different times some as much as quarterly with specific group of clients.
- Firms had taken the new MiFIDII and PRODs rules to build a much richer annual review service which focuses on what the client’s needs are and a gap analysis of whether they are. Shows a much greater level of client understanding than before (as per session 1).
- Annual review the worse time to ask for referrals. Highlights the need for training in this area.
KEY CHALLENGES
- Using IT to deliver a survey has its plusses and minuses as it could be felt to be a bit ‘cold’ but helped deliver a time consuming process which would be costly to do manually.
- Firms felt it was good to share the information from a client survey across the company, but some were concerned that if the scores were bad what would the impact be.
- More information now goes to clients for the annual review and where it comes direct from a provider or platform it can be misleading and cause client confusion.
- Clients often prefer to remain anonymous when providing feedback so if it is negative it is difficult to be able to respond to a client (as per session 1).
- Producing greater detail for an annual client review is challenging. Firms that had centralised this operation were achieving far greater uniformity across their clients and had got good adviser buy in.
- Most firms are fairly poor on either obtaining referrals or having any form of structured referral process in place (as per session 1).
CONCLUSIONS/SOLUTIONS
- Very impressive adoption of the new regulations to create a richer and more meaningful client experience. Will be interesting to see if smaller firms are doing the same as there is a significant cost to implementing this (as per session 1).
- The industry is not joined up with regard to annual statements with the provider statements coming out the worse. Larger firms are taking the challenge into their own hands and producing a service and documents centrally which are client centric and far easier to understand and are more meaningful.
- Referrals should be part and parcel of your culture and it should not just be left to advisers to do this on their own. Training and central support are important aspects in making this work (as per session 1).
Expert: Steven Greenfield and Martyn Chappel, Dimensional Fund Advisors
Facilitator: Martyn Laverick, Soprano Consulting
