Engage App; Where client engagement meets rocket fuel
Advisers today make a significant monthly investment into all sorts of technology to enhance their business, from cash-flow planning, CRMs, to quote comparison tools, but little is ever invested in the most important aspect of business; keeping in touch with clients.
The issue is that there has never been technology to provide a simple yet effective solution to for year round client engagement. The A-clients are always serviced well, with yearly meetings, mid-year updates and regular phone calls but the service level and frequency of contact quickly falls away as we go down the alphabet.
The traditional client engagement options often fail to reach sufficient numbers or else they smack of mass marketing when they do. While website blogs and LinkedIn posts can help to build the advisers brand, they can be more of an exercise in article writing than client engagement if web traffic is a low.
Touch-points are gold
No more than the friendly broker consultant needs to get continual airtime with the advisers on their panel, advisers need to get continual airtime with their clients. We have all seen the client surveys showing why clients stop doing business with their adviser; not the fees, not the advice but that they felt that their business was not valued, they rarely had any contact. Without continual touchpoints the client relationship gets diluted and the adviser becomes the person they bought the product from and not an ongoing source of information or financial guidance.
Many events occur in the client’s finances throughout the year and without a strong adviser connection the client will often seek guidance elsewhere, tapping into the vast array of information sources at their fingertips.
Globally, client engagement technology has shifted. Client experience trumps everything else the adviser offers. Clients want year round guidance, more than one meeting a year, they need thought leadership, education and insights, but in their time, on their terms.
Mobile engagement technology, such as Centric’s Engage App, provides advisers with an opportunity to transform their client value proposition, by providing an interface to feed client tailored material directly to their mobile device, ready to be consumed when the time is right for them. Clients simply download the adviser branded Personal Finance App to their smartphone which links directly to the adviser’s portal.
This is where the client engagement meets rocket fuel. From the portal the adviser can upload documents, alerts and messages to clients depending on their product type. While the SSAP and director clients get updates about extracting funds from their limited company, self-employed clients get notices about 31st October deadline. And when there is something really important to tell clients, a simple push notification to pop up on their phone, ensuring they don’t miss a deadline or opportunity.
Mobile engagement transforms the adviser’s value proposition. A pension top up request, where the client can sign their phone screen to send the signed PDF to their adviser in seconds is the type of client experience that really shifts the dial, scaling the adviser’s brand and revenue opportunities.
This is fintech for financial advisers. Creating a paradigm shift in what the adviser offers, amplifying their brand and their business value.
Engage is Ireland’s only adviser branded Personal Finance App and has recently been shortlisted for both the Innovation Award & Communication Awards in the upcoming Irish Pensions Awards 2021.
Karl O Meara
Founder/Manging Director
0872151007
karl@centric.ie