The AdviceTech 2018 Report found that almost half of advisers (48.2 per cent) are already using online meeting tools to better engage with clients in a way that best suits the clients’ needs.
Additionally, 25.9 per cent of the surveyed advisers believe virtual meeting services will have the greatest impact on financial advice practices in the next five years, the report said.
“It stands to reason – time-poor but tech savvy clients creates a need for advisers to meet clients on their terms,” the report said.
“Connecting with regional clients or potential customers who may be unable to travel or leave their homes creates an opportunity for advisers to grow their business beyond their locale.”
The report added that the implementation of innovative communications technologies in other industries has also raised the expected standards for financial advice.
“Your clients no longer compare you to other financial planning firms, banks or institutions; they compare you to the leading technology brands they interact with every day and demand the same level of personalised service, experience and engagement,” the report said.
“The challenge for advice practices is to decide which client communication and engagement tools will deliver the best outcomes and to trial, test and implement them immediately.”
The data uncovered by the report showed the percentage of advisers for whom technology was “pervasive in all customer engagement” grew from 11.17 per cent in 2017 to 14.10 per cent in 2018.
“Advisers do recognise the importance of customer experience technologies, with 62.62 per cent saying adopting AdviceTech has the greatest impact on client communication and engagement (the second highest response after improving business efficiency),” the report said.
“This is supported by 44.92 per cent of advisers believing client communications and engagement processes will be the area most impacted by AdviceTech in the next five years.”
You should take a look at SuiteBox! Meeting via video is fine, but being able to sign documents within the meeting (not after the meeting) and having an automated audit trail of the entire meeting created for archiving purposes is taking remote meetings to a whole new level!
The problem however with Suitebox is that it won’t work at all, unless the client has sound/speakers. I used it on three clients who were at work and they each had desktops without speakers so it didn’t even work even though I just wanted to use the screen share app. Apart from that flaw, the inbuilt signature function looks really good and I would be using it.
Advisers need to be careful of where/ (if ) data is stored if using electronic signature program and the like. You might be in instance breach of the new data protection laws if you haven’t disclosed this to clients beforehand. Some the programs people have commented here, I do know is stored in Middle European located servers.
My preference for screen sharing is join.me software. Email the client a simple link or they type into their URL my address and there viewing my screen (SoA). No data is saved. I then use Adobe sign to get the document signed. It has no adds. Join.me allows a tailored website entry point or an email link and it requires no software for the client to download.
hey guys. ZOOM 100% hands down, we still use the free version. Also consider looking at free or paid versions of calendly, canva, bonjoro, hello sign.
David, you can screen share with Zoom to show clients any documents you have open on your screen. Also has a whiteboard function.
Awesome, thank you
Did my first video meeting last week. Convenient for clients that live a distance away or clients with children and unable to meet during business hours. I do prefer face to face but the next best thing. I will start to offer this as an alternative. I used Skype, any suggestions for something an SoA or other documents could be presented on?