Advisers lack CRM knowledge
Advice practices struggle with their client relationship management (CRM) system because they lack the knowledge to fully utilise it, according to William Buck.
William Buck’s wealth advisory director, Adrian Frinsdorf, said while CRM systems like XPLAN had received negative feedback from the advice community, his firm was very comfortable with the system as they had invested in learning how to use it properly.
"We have a person and probably 75 per cent of his job is managing XPLAN. XPLAN doesn't manage itself tremendously well, so we've put a resource down and we're lucky enough to be of a size where we can do that, smaller firms certinly wouldn't be able to do that but it has increased our knowledge and use of XPLAN," Frinsdorf said.
“It is the advisers’ lack of knowledge and we were in that category. XPLAN is very specific and not easily understood by advisers… There’s a lot of things that XPLAN does do but not efficiently.”
ClearView’s head of strategic advice, Allison Dummett, said while aligned advisers had generally accepted that to maximise practice efficiency, they needed to embrace the CRM and advice software offered, and supported by their licensee.
“But it’s not that simple because the dominant software providers have many shortcomings,” she said.
“On the other hand, the range of apps available provide a beautiful, intuitive front-end but they’re not up to scratch when it comes to the technical, compliance and CRM functions needed to help advisers make their advice standout.
“Subsequently, many advisers are forced to use separate modelling and reporting software like Prospera.”
Dummett noted that while many advisers would prefer a complete, fully-integrated end-to-end system, the reality was that they needed to find the best component parts and make the pieces fit.
“There’s no doubt that practices need to become more automated to drive efficiencies, increase productivity and minimise human error but the advice relationship is a very personal relationship so it’ll be interesting to see what impact technology has,” Dummett said.
“In terms of robo-advice, there’s always the potential for automated services to change the landscape but in many ways they’ll also make the financial adviser more valuable.”
These points have been discussed in further detail in a feature article in the upcoming Money Management magazine out on 6 July.
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