Hearsay Social says it is rolling out a client engagement platform that helps advisors reach clients and prospects more easily and more quickly via social media, their websites, email and text messages. The tool, Hearsay 360, also lets broker-dealers see which advisors are most successful in using social media and other methods of communication, so the firms can share these best practices across their advisor force.
Given the rising popularity of robo-advisors and clients' growing requirement for advisors to respond quickly to their communications, Hearsay expects that the platform should prove popular with clients.
"Google, Amazon and Facebook have set customer expectations for every industry, as evidenced by the rise of robo-advisors and direct-to-consumer online options in financial services," said CEO Clara Shih, in a statement. "Advisors know they must modernize or risk becoming irrelevant, but they feel underserved or overwhelmed by existing digital marketing programs. Hearsay 360 makes it easy for even the most tech-averse advisors to be findable, proactive and responsive wherever their clients are, including on social, web, text and email."
The platform gathers data on how clients are communicating with advisors on social media, advisor websites, email and text messaging, which gives advisors "a holistic view of clients' digital behaviors," according to the firm. The platform's "predictive analytics [then] will suggest which client or activities an advisor should react to via an automated list of recommendations on what … is likely to be most effective."
The tool works in conjunction with firms' core enterprise systems, including compliance archives and corporate CRM systems. It can save advisors time and get rid of "guesswork," for instance, by letting them know when clients have reacted or posted comments about the advisors' social media content and then suggesting the best method of response, such as sending a personalized email.
"It's proactive in the sense that an alert goes out for the advisor to act quickly, when a client comments on the advisor's Facebook page," said Meagan Hency, vice president of marketing for San Francisco-based Hearsay Social, in an interview.
