Expert: Edward Turner, Private Banker at Dreyfus Banquiers Facilitator: Simon Minder, Family Office Advisor at M76 – Family Office Consulting
Overview:
This session looked at changes in wealth management and factors impacting the client experience.
The human dimension is widely recognised as critical in wealth management, as human personalities and needs are changing. Trust is the reason 'why' clients engage with their advisers. Enhancing trust is critical to maximise client satisfaction.
Discussion:
The combination of effective technology and the human touch can serve to increase overall client satisfaction levels. This is crucial at a time when loyalty levels are falling, and clients are worrying more than ever about their investments in volatile markets.
Indeed, in volatile times, the quality and timeliness of advice needs to exceed client expectations. Being proactive with predictive analytics, profiling clients, and personalisation all help with this - fuelled by data analytics.
In addition, design friendly, consistent communications tailored to personal interactions are crucial, as is the provision of strategic, realistic advice considering a client's holistic wealth.
Wealth managers can do much to reassure their clients by running educational sessions, having the data to run ‘what if’ scenarios and maintain a focus on understanding clients and build trust, credibility and honesty.
However, there can be internal cultural pushback with some relationship managers avoiding using CRM tools and sharing data, thus collaboration is key in improving the overall service proposition. Moreover, technology for communications, although very useful, needs to be carefully managed to avoid fragmented record keeping of client interactions.
Firms need to evolve systems, collaborate openly with other experts and help clients simplify complexity while building trust. Overall, the human relationship remains central, but data and technology can enhance the client relationship too. Defining and tracking metrics for client satisfaction and loyalty over the long-term is therefore a good idea.
Key findings:
- The human touch and trust remain fundamentally important in wealth management
- The combination of effective technology and the human touch can serve to increase client satisfaction levels
- In volatile times, the quality and timeliness of advice needs to exceed client expectations
- Wealth managers can do much to reassure clients by focusing on understanding them, their overall situation and thus build trust, credibility and honesty
- Defining and tracking metrics for client satisfaction and loyalty is a good idea
