[Video] How to Deliver a Better Client Experience Through Technology

At Pershing’s INSITE 2014 conference, our very own John Harris was interviewed for a video about delivering a better client experience through technology. Along with an expert from Pershing and CEB TowerGroup, John shares some great insights into clients’ changing needs and how to meet demands for more service through technology. Here is the interview with InvestmentNews.

Michelle Gutierrez, Director of Customer Engagement for Client Technology Solutions at Pershing, LLC

What advisors need to do to improve, to really make a different first impression and something that’s lasting, is to really think about how they’re engaging clients and that each client has a unique approach that’s going to work best. So what we’ve found is that clients are using technology more than ever before.

That plays a major part in how they want to interact with their advisor. So how are advisors using mobile today? If they’re not, they should be. How are advisors extending information on an investment portal? If they’re not, they should be. These two things can make a major difference in how they interact with their customer.

Darrin Courtney, Research Director at CEB TowerGroup

I think the onboarding experience is becoming really, really important for advisors because they’re not competing against the bank or the wealth management firm across the street now. They’re competing against Google and Amazon, and they really need to up their game and have that digital experience and that 21st century experience that clients are looking for today.

John Harris, Director of Product Management at SIGNiX

Advisors have a need to want to go faster. Their clients expect them to move at the speed of light just like they can do with any other kind of thing electronically.

What it comes down to is embracing technology that can support that—e-signatures is one, good client onboarding tools is another. But it’s also about reengineering process. Not just taking paper and bringing it electronic and saying “Oh look, I’m done.” It’s about reengineering that process to really make it efficient.

Courtney: I think it comes down to mobile—it’s probably the biggest thing. We know that, about 90% of clients own a smartphone. They own a tablet. Most of them own both. They want to interact with their firms that way, and most firms in, in a lot of cases, aren't quite prepared to do that yet. So, I mean, I think, that's where advisers need to get to, is having that digital interaction, via mobile device.

Gutierrez: What stops advisers sometimes is fear. It's fear of the unknown. It's fear of not maybe being familiar with technology, and that the fact that, their client might know more than them. So I think the first step is to get comfortable with technology get some training, work within their organizations, they probably have training that they can take advantage of. Start using their mobile devices, start using the portals, so that the client looks to them as somewhat of an expert. The client's going to enjoy that, especially the up and coming investors, if they're going to need to be servicing. They're growing up with this technology in hand.

Courtney: We see a lot of clients are very open to screen sharing. They're very open to video conferencing. And I think when we start seeing advisers use the tablet. Use it for e-signature, and to share demos of, of portfolios, or financial planning. I think that just the whole advice process is going to become a lot more interactive, and a lot more collaborative. 

Gutierrez: You're always going to have clients that want to still come in, shake your hand, go to lunch, play golf, and get the application done in that manner. You're going to have clients that want some kind of in between experience with technology and hand holding. And then you're going to have the younger generation, that's going to want to video chat with you and get that application done real time. So, I think it's just going to be, be flexible, leverage technology, and be relevant.