Posted in In the Press on: 24/06/2010
FinQS: Why technology changes adviser-client relationship
By Maryrose Fison | 17:22:54 | 03 December 2009
New technology is enabling progressive financial planners to move from managing clients to collaborating with them, according to IFA technology provider FinQS.
Speaking at the Institute of Financial Planning’s (IFP) Technology will make a Difference conference in London last week, Tessa Lee (pictured), chief executive officer of FinQS, said modern day needs, regulatory requirements and technology was changing the way financial planners engaged with their clients.
‘Typically communication has been very much about broadcasting a message out to our clients,’ said Lee. ‘The client is managed by us, using our technology, using our systems and our processes, and whilst that works - it brings efficiencies, saves you time, makes you more productive- what it doesn’t really do is involve or connect with the client as part of the ongoing service.’
She said a transition was already taking place in the way planners interacted with clients. ‘What we are seeing already in client relationship management, is a shift in the approach that people are taking and that really is a shift from the approach of managing a client to approach of collaborating with the client.
‘By letting the client drive how you interact with them, it means that clients are obviously more engaged, more in control of the relationship and therefore more satisfied. It also fits with the increasing demands of your clients...and also with the regulator’s desire for more financially informed consumers.’
With many people buying and selling products on the internet, using online banking and price comparison sites Lee said many clients had an expectation that service should be delivered online. Technology could help with this through the creation of a website, writing blogs, undertaking client feedback research, servicing clients online and by using social media such as Twitter.
However, Michael Hague, a financial planner from Doncaster-based firm The Consultancy Group, said he was wary of investing time in too many forms of technology without being clear how it would fit into his firm’s overall business plan.
‘We are not in the position where we want hundreds of new clients. Five in a year might be quite a cull for us. But that doesn’t mean we do no marketing. What it does mean is we have to be very careful that we don’t end up either spending time doing these things just because they can be done. Or having to spend lots of time dealing with enquiries from people who we probably would not have wanted to act for.’
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