Hearsay Systems showcased the latest trends and hottest innovations in financial technology at its annual conference Thursday in San Francisco, but CEO Clara Shih also gave a stark assessment on how limited fintech's reach into advisors' daily work life is today.
"Where are we now? Advisors are spending 70% of their time on menial processes like follow-up calls. They do not feel the [positive] change that technology offer them," Shih said.
"With their workday dominated by tedious, manual servicing work and processes, they are losing … time they wish they could spend interacting with and adding value to clients," the co-founder of Hearsay Systems added.
Shih went on to describe what the firm is doing to change this situation and what best practices she believes can best improve the advisors' productivity via technology.
On Thursday, Hearsay launched a new communications app to help advisors work with clients via text and voice via a separate business number on their personal phones or other mobile devices. The app, Hearsay Relate, benefits from the firm's acquisition of Mast Mobile in October to build out more apps that are compliant, according to Shih.
The firm says its new Relate app gives advisors tools to pass on tasks like scheduling meetings to colleagues; pre-scheduling text messages about client reviews, bills, etc.; and simplifying workflows, such as "quick reply" texts via artificial intelligence.
Fintech's Role, Opportunity