How do we define CLM?
Client lifecycle management can mean different things to different people. For instance, there is often a tendency to focus on onboarding as the starting point or that servicing an individual as a client is the goal. The reality, from our perspective, is that CLM is everything from first contact with a potential client, through prospecting, onboarding, servicing and offboarding (although hopefully not the last step if you’ve got it right!). Acquiring a name and phone number to initiate a process that will result in the successful onboarding of new clients leads directly to the mandatory practice of meeting compliance requirements such as KYC reviews and loyalty programs that ensure clients are delighted with their experience and hopefully allow you to gain a greater share of wallet.
An integrated client lifecycle management experience is fast becoming table stakes for financial advisors
To perform the activities required to optimize the client and advisor experience, many different tools and systems are required. For this reason, among others, the desire for an integrated advisor desktop has become table stakes for most financial advisors. The holy grail of a completely integrated experience still alludes most firms and severely impacts an advisor’s ability to deliver the best possible experience to their clients while efficiently managing their book of business. Whether an advisor is just starting out or is a veteran in the industry, an integrated experience to support them at every stage of the client lifecycle can be the difference between delivering an exceptional client experience or engaging very poorly.
How integration can ensure the best client experience and elevated advisor productivity
We often hear the problem of the “swivel chair”. The advisor needs to go from one screen to another to gather all the information they need to engage with their client. As mentioned, our definition of CLM encompasses making access to the myriad systems an advisor needs to navigate through a full client journey from a simple email integration through to CRM, Onboarding, custodial systems, Financial Planning, Portfolio Management and more available from a single pane of glass. Ensuring an exceptional, consistent, client experience regardless of the stage of the lifecycle takes a tightly integrated desktop for the advisor and their team. Understanding context between systems, linking data and actions seamlessly through a consistent user experience ensures the advisor and their team can complete actions confidently and quickly.
Leveraging integrated data to always be on top of your book of business
One of the significant benefits of all the data that is made available to the integrated desktop is that the many CLM activities can be automatically organized, kept track of and in some cases completely automated using advanced engagement solutions. Automatically triggering Financial and KYC Reviews, alerting when a KYC document is expiring or even as client’s hit major milestones or life events.
The importance of an omnichannel embedded client experience
In addition to displaying a client-centric view of front, middle, and back-office information and applications in a single, seamless interface to deliver a personalized experience to clients, advisors should have the ability to leverage a fully embedded omni-channel collaboration capability. Equally, the collaboration capability should extend to clients and deliver the flexibility for them to engage with their advisor in a way that suits them best. To enable this, NexJ has partnered with Unblu, an award-winning provider of conversational banking solutions. Supporting the ability for a client to ask question via SMS, initiate a video call and co-browse to talk through an investment proposal or complete a form together and then digitally sign the resulting document not only simplifies the process for all parties but ensures a faster time to AUM growth.
Client Lifecycle Management can only be delivered through integration
Client lifecycle management is not a product but rather a strategic business practice that requires many software applications to be used at different stages of the customer journey. To optimize the value of the disparate systems they need to be integrated to a single a pane of glass. Andrew Cant will be discussing this further at the upcoming Aite Novarica Wealth & Asset Management Forum in New York on Nov. 9.
