intelliflo - Using data to drive client engagement

Making optimal use of the client data that exists within your business can pay enormous dividends for the success of your firm. As well as informing your high-level management decisions about the direction of the business and resource allocation, it can also add value to your financial advice process and provide a more engaging experience for clients and that leads to stronger, more profitable relationships.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has triggered a major shift in consumer attitudes towards digital. According to the Office for National Statistics, last year almost £3 in every £10 was spent online, while HSBC tells us 73% of UK consumers are now using digital banking channels weekly, with monthly mobile banking use rising from 52% of people in the second half of 2019 to 57% in the first half of 2020. The direction of travel was already clear pre-Covid-19, but the trend to digital has certainly accelerated over the last year.

Client demand

The desire for clients to research, transact and communicate online is happening in financial advice too, and firms are making changes to accommodate this.

Our report last year with the lang cat, Better. Stronger. Faster. How Do We Rebuild Centralised Investment Propositions From Here?, found that four in ten advice firms (38%) surveyed said adopting a clients portal was a priority, while a further third (33%) had ambitions to do this at some point. The research was conducted in May last year and here too Covid has accelerated an existing trend. This is borne out by the huge growth we saw in the use of the intelliflo personal finance portal, which increased three-fold between March and September 2020, compared to the same period last year.

Portals offer obvious benefits in the current situation, enabling you to communicate effectively with your clients and continue implementing their financial plans throughout the changing restrictions required by the pandemic. They also offer longer-term advantages once we return to some sort of normal, in allowing investors to securely access their financial data at any time and from any location or device. Providing a single view of the client's advised financial products alongside their short-term cash flow information and non-advised products gives them, and you, a much clearer picture of their financial position.

Using tools to bring your client's data to life can also increase their engagement with the financial advice process. By showing your clients, via interactive charts and graphs, where their finances are, where they need to be and where they want them to be, you can foster greater buy-in to your financial plan, helping to make sure they stick to it and strengthening their trust in your advice.

Getting ahead

You can also put your clients in closer control of the personal data you hold on them by asking them to pre-fill fact finds in advance of meetings - either virtual or face-to-face. This speeds up the data gathering process and, at the same time, encourages clients to offer a more complete picture of their finances, commitments and objectives, providing more information on which to base your recommendations.

Technology also streamlines client management by providing access to documents digitally, saving everyone the time and hassle of sending paperwork back and forth via the post. Obtaining authorisations and signatures electronically, rather than hard copy reduces friction in the advice process, allowing for faster approvals for rebalancing and changes to the portfolio and easier costs and charges disclosure. These regulatory requirements can create an enormous admin headache without the aid of technology to do the heavy lifting and create a smoother process for clients and advisers alike.

Client data has always been central to the advice process, but now modern technology allows you to share that data across both internal and external systems, streamlining procedures that used to be laborious and labour intensive to execute.

By allowing clients greater interaction with their data, you can improve their advice journey and generate stronger relationships with both the adviser and the financial plan.

Sophisticated yet easy to use, intelliflo’s powerful technology is crafted to help you save time and cut costs, so you can focus on driving your business forward. Our range of cutting-edge solutions supports over 30,000 financial professionals worldwide. Discover how we can help you here.