Using Technology to Regain Client Trust

Tech Should Be a Bridge, Not a Wall

Adding a new technology to your business without taking the above into account can, in practice, create more problems than it solves, especially if your reliance upon it alienates you from your clients rather than strengthening the client-advisor bond. Fortunately, there are a wide array of tools in every category that, if incorporated wisely, can help bridge the distance between you and your clients.

If, in the past, you've had a difficult time directing clients toward an appropriate level of risk relative to their financial health, there are risk assessment tools available to facilitate those conversations and give your clients greater confidence in the work you do behind the scenes for them.

If, in the past, you've been sporadic and/or slipshod with your marketing or educational efforts, there are marketing tools available to assist you with streamlining and scheduling those efforts. There are also CRMs available to help with segmenting your client base to ensure what you send is appropriately targeted and sent at the right time.

If, in the past, conveying to your clients the financial impact a given decision might have on their retirement plans proved contentious, there are collaborative financial planning tools now available to help you run through multiple scenarios in real time to bolster clients' appreciation of your ability to parse complex scenarios to their benefit.

Of course, these three situations are just a small representation of the myriad of challenges you face every day in relation to establishing and/or rebuilding trust with your clients. But, my intent here is not to catalog a list of reasons on why the advisor-client relationship may be broken, but instead to trigger the desire to sit down, think deeply about your client experiences (particularly situations in the past which may not have ended well) and take a look at your current technology platforms. Do any of them provide a way to handle those situations in a way that might end up strengthening the client relationship instead? If not, are their platforms out there that would?

We Don't Know What We Don't Know

You may simply not know the answer to the two questions posed above. In that case, talk to your existing technology vendors and work with them to see if their solution provides a way of dealing with a specific challenge you've faced. If not, there's a good chance they can steer you toward some vendors that might have the answers you need. Alternatively, you might pose the question in appropriate LinkedIn groups or industry forums. Chances are there is a tool of some sort to help you, whether you are looking to strengthen trust with existing clients or to regain the trust of a client currently on the fence.

Brian McLaughlin is the CEO of Redtail Technology, a leading provider of client relationship management (CRM) solutions for financial services firms.