Connecting the .coms for your clients

Social media and apps are extremely popular and most industries are being told by skinny-jeaned, bespectacled youths with messy hairdos that, if we don’t get in on the action, our businesses will be left behind. But how relevant are these technologies really to the business of financial advice?

According to a Forrester Research Report published in May 2011, the ability to embrace these channels is central to your future success as a financial adviser. The report points out that younger clients show a strong preference for communicating with advisers through digital channels like online chat, company websites, and e-mail. As these younger clients age and accumulate more assets, they won't abandon their channel preferences. In other words, your future clients will expect you to engage with them online.

A couple of members of the BrightRock team attended #DigitalEdge2013 in October. At this conference, the role of digital technologies in marketing and business success was debated by luminaries such as Harper Reed, whose digital campaign helped Barack Obama win the 2012 US elections.

The event demonstrated that digital technologies are starting to play a more important role in business. But all the speakers agreed that digital technologies are only relevant to companies to the extent that they’re supporting your ability to deliver on your purpose. A speaker raised the rhetorical question: "What does your business do to improve people’s lives?” Regardless of one’s investment in digital technologies, the answer to this question is paramount to a business’ sustainability and success.

We all know that financial services products traditionally do not generate much public interest or enthusiasm. The insurance industry is constantly reminded that our product offerings are a grudge purchase. Despite advisers’ and product providers’ best efforts, clients reluctantly pay premiums without comprehending the nature and the scope of the products they sign up for.

 

This presents a great opportunity for both providers and advisers to harness digital technologies and social media to address some of these concerns. It can also provide a place for you to answer that all important questions for your clients: how your advice role can improve their lives.

 

Product providers need to support financial advisers with user-friendly, informative interfaces that allow them to access information, explain products and run quotes. Clients also need access to product information; digital and social media technologies create the opportunity for our industry to present this information in a way that entertains clients, engages them and allows them to give feedback and above all, adding value to their lives.

Many companies have taken proactive steps to show the industry that it can be done. Some examples include online quoting applications, which are designed with both the financial adviser and client in mind. Some of these online based applications can allow the financial adviser to co-create an individualised, needs-matched insurance solution on-screen, with the client viewing and inputting on the quotes generation process.

 

A lot of financial advisers and their clients still prefer more traditional modes of communication. But we are seeing more and more advisers use social media and digital technologies not just as administrative tools.

 

An adviser we recently spoke to, created a website where he educates his clients about financial services products, and successfully generates leads for his business. His clients love the service and his business has grown substantially. But he still believes that the reason for his success is attributable to the excellent face-to-face advice he delivers in his client consultations.

The bottom-line is: embrace social media and the development and use of smart applications as long as it adds value to your customers.