Delivering the right client experience is key to long-term client retention and sustainable growth. Client loyalty produces expanding revenues and consistent profitability. Firms focused on each detail of the client journey elevate their businesses and stand out from their competitors.

There is a lot that contributes to client experience. From investment management and advice to  the appropriate use of websites/mobile apps there are a lot of ways advisors can stand out from the pack. Let’s take a comprehensive look at why close attention on these aspects of your business will impact your top and bottom lines.

Investment Management and Guidance

When clients turn to advisors for help with their financial lives, they turn to a specialist who will help them meet their goals. They want sound advice and proper investment management.

But they’re also seeking emotional connection.

“In the current environment of turbulent markets, it may be important to acknowledge that we cannot simply rationalize clients away from their emotional beliefs,” wrote Michael Kitces, in the depths of the 2020 market downturn. His insights are easily applicable today. 

“If a client is engaging in emotionally-driven investing, that investing may be rooted in some past emotional learning. Logic alone is not necessarily going to be enough to convince clients to stay the course,” he added. “Advisors may need to be able to help clients reconsolidate their emotional memories, which may require getting more emotional first.”

Advisors are familiar with situations where client emotions triggered a poorly timed investing decision. But the other side of that observation is often overlooked: empathizing and connecting with a client emotionally can be the key client experience that will result in client retention and referrals.

Utilizing a well-crafted portfolio management tool, like Pulse, will provide clients with transparency into their holdings and aids advisors in connecting with clients. 

Pulse is a prime example of technology that bolsters the client experience. Its ingenious design and precise reporting helps advisors quickly address immediate concerns so that they can dig deeper into the heart of what’s really affecting their clients—providing a true connection.

Timely and Proactive Communication

Not long ago, client engagement exclusively revolved around in-person meetings and phone calls. Today, however, many client-advisor interactions have expanded to include video meetings, emails or in-app messaging. That means the client experience you provide via your technology is directly associated with your value as a financial advisor.

Clients want to be able to communicate easily with their advisors. They aren’t worried about what regulators consider a compliant form of communication. 

But that’s not the case for you. Advisors have faced steep fines from regulators for inappropriately using the everyday modes of communication their clients prefer.

That’s why finding a SEC-compliant communication tool that’s integrated with the rest of your technology is so important. At AssetBook, we introduced a texting-like messaging tool within our Valian interface to address this need. Valian integrates within Pulse to eliminate any questions about two-way dataflows. 

Clients find Valian to be easy and intuitive (and so do advisors). Meanwhile, advisors also have the peace of mind that comes with using secure, SEC-compliant technology.

Building more functionality means fewer “swivels” between tools for advisors and their clients. Fewer swivels means more convenience. And convenience is a hallmark of a good client experience.

Mobile Apps and Client Experience

Finding tools that provide the right balance between affordability, high-tech and high touch can be a time-consuming and frustrating task for advisors. Fortunately, companies like AssetBook have risen to the challenge. 

Advisors know the basics they need to provide in a mobile app: an overview of their clients’ portfolios, account aggregation and the ability to track asset growth. Secure and compliant real-time messaging is no longer nice to have—it’s a necessity. 

To provide the best client experience, mobile technology needs to optimize the client and advisor’s day-to-day activities. When we built Valian, our client engagement app, we launched it on mobile (before desktop) for that exact reason: phones are generally more accessible than desktop computers. 

Accessibility, along with ease of use, is a primary factor in creating a positive client experience.

Client Experience Touches The Top and Bottom Lines

A great client experience produces loyalty and growth. When clients are impressed with the ease of onboarding, communicating with you, and accessing their information on their terms, they share those positive takeaways with others, thus enhancing referrals and increasing the likelihood of new client households.  

Does your client experience measure up? Contact AssetBook today to see how tools like Pulse and Valian ensure that you’re fostering sustainable connections with your clients that contribute to long-term business growth.