New Deloitte Digital research, sponsored by Salesforce, found 30 per cent of wealth management customers intend to switch providers within the next two years. The threat of churn at this level should be enough for financial advisors to sit up and question why so many customers are keen to vote with their feet and leave.
The same Deloitte Digital report identified two seemingly disparate but interconnected reasons for this churn. Trust is at all time lows and customers are dissatisfied with the experience they have when interacting with their advisor.
It would have been impossible to predict until recently, but the Hayne Royal Commission and the outstanding experiences delivered by consumer facing apps like Airbnb are dramatically changing the expectations of customers.
To win this new, discerning customer, financial advisors need to pivot to the customer and focus their business and technology approach to focus solely on rebuilding trust and improving customer experience.
Pivot to the customer: The foundation for building trust is transparency
The Deloitte Digital research found just one in three customers believe that the financial services industry can be trusted. This had had a flow on effect, with 29 per cent of customers less willing to share personal information and data than six months ago.
Without the trust and willingness for customers to share data and engage with their business, advisors face a difficult battle to attract and retain customers.
In order to build trust, financial advisors must focus on its key drivers; to protect data and privacy, ethics and social responsibility and the belief that the firm is putting customers’ interest’s first. Customer relationship management (CRM) technology has never been more important to the industry with the need to rebuild relationships and deliver the level of transparency and customer experience expected today.
Supercharge advisor productivity to focus on client needs with CRM.
The right CRM can provide a single view of the customer, where a full customer history is recorded and easily accessible by other employees within the organisation. Within the same platform staff can also access, capture and deliver against customer needs, with process visibility across channels and services.
Having a single source of truth also allows for better quality management and oversight into staff behaviour. Real time data analytics allows for coaching of staff to deliver compliant, consistent and customer service.
When viewed this way, building trust moves to something imbedded in the very way the advisory works and is core to the services it delivers to customers.
Closing the customer experience gap
Consumers have been trained by companies like Airbnb to expect all of their digital experiences to be always on, to have changes reflected in real time and the full context of interactions understood every time they speak to a business.
Financial services isn’t quite there yet. The Deloitte Digital research found customers believe their financial services providers are failing in providing personalised products and services, proactive advice and alerts. Twenty per cent of those surveyed believe the financial services industry fails to meet most or only meets some expectations.
The good news is customers are interested in giving advisors the data to power better experiences. The report also found 58 per cent of customers would share personal and financial data with their own financial providers to access higher quality products and services.
A trailblazer in this space is Moneytree, a financial data and portability platform. It has used customer data, an artificial intelligence engine and an amazing app experience to put its customers at the heart of their business. What Moneytree delivers is a seamless and connected experience.
Built on the Salesforce platform, Moneytree’s app links directly to users’ bank and credit card accounts, superannuation funds and loyalty programs to display real-time financial information in one easy-to-use app. It offers users a simple way to track their spending and get a detailed picture of their financial health in real time.
By pivoting their business to deliver the most open and transparent advice and an easy and convenient experience, financial advisors will be setting themselves up for long term success.
Download Deloitte Digital’s Restoring Trust in Financial Services in the Digital Era report.
