At one point, an advisor could think about client relationships in terms of annual or quarterly meetings, when they could present reports and review portfolio performance, talk about what had changed in a client's life and adjust their financial plan to review again in the next meeting.
But advice delivery has been shifting away from that old-school model for years, and the pandemic fully turned the tide.
The routine of meeting clients when it worked best for your schedule is in the past. Clients now want advice anytime, anywhere, and they don't need to be in your office to get it.
To keep growing, you and your firm have to stay up to date on how you deliver information and advice to clients, and that means becoming an innovative firm.
What Exactly Is Innovation?
First, let's address what innovation is not. It's not simply adding a new piece of technology for your firm. Though most people will talk about technology in this context, that definition is far too narrow.
Also, innovation isn't something that you've never seen before. Unlike Steve Jobs, you don't have to introduce new technology and services in order for your firm to be highly innovative.
Innovation means that you're running your firm to prepare for the future, while also making small changes today. As a leader, one of your jobs is to identify where you think your business and financial advice are heading, and then make decisions that will position you for success down the line.
While innovation can be something the industry has never seen, it also can be something your firm hasn't done before. This includes adding new technology, implementing a more engaging meeting structure or any number of systemic operational improvements that make advice and client service more accessible.
What matters most is that you are adjusting how you work with clients now for their benefit in the future.
Making Innovation Part of Your Firm
Great innovation is the convergence of good client experience design with psychology. You need to have the capacity to know and anticipate what your clients need from interactions with your firm, and you have to be able to design a process to deliver what they want.
We're moving rapidly toward a digital world that's all about accessibility, uniqueness and creativity. As an advisor, you can adapt to this digital shift by looking for ways to give your clients advice more easily and faster than you've done before.
