The Efficient Practice: Transform and Optimize Your Financial Advisory Practice for Greater Profits

CHAPTER 4

Client Relationship Management

Technology has revolutionized the financial services profession. It has given us the ability to analyze investment trends, make trades, produce reports, and track client portfolios, to name a few. However, in the rush to take advantage of technology, many practitioners have ignored the potential benefits of efficient use of technological systems.

To offer a definition, technical systems efficiency is where your technical systems, such as computers, printers, telecommunications, software, and so on, all work in smooth harmony with each other, sharing information seamlessly and transparently with the client. Yet, many financial practitioners work with a hodgepodge of equipment and software, purchased at different times, without consideration as to how well that technology will integrate with existing equipment and software. Often, this leads to substantial challenges in trying to make systems talk to each other. Perhaps the first step in dealing with this issue would be to make an inventory of equipment and software. Then, determine to what extent these various inventory items can be made to work together.

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY

One fundamental question with technical systems is to understand fully how you wish to use it versus how it is actually capable of being used. You cannot ask technological machines to perform tasks for which they were not designed (in most cases). But, in many cases, financial advisors are underutilizing their technology, ...