Given the current climate of global markets, thinking about investing, insurance, and retirement planning are on the minds of many. Low-asset financial-service products such as basic banking and credit cards generally work for customers by keeping things simple. However, as one moves up the curve to high-asset financial-services products like mutual funds and annuities, they’re faced with further complexity that can lead to confusion and increased dissatisfaction. So what can high-asset financial services do to emulate their low-asset cousins?
Simplicity with personality
In recent years, low-asset service interactions have become relatively frictionless to the customer, making their products easy to understand and offering a great degree of consumer guidance. Simplicity, speed, and convenience are hallmark aspects of low-asset services, regardless if a customer interacts online, at a local bank branch, or via a mobile app. Yet, many services are retaining key in-person elements. As companies embrace technological advances, turning more to digital realms to interact with customers, it is important to realize that technology is not the be-all and end-all solution. A 2014 survey from TD Bank found that although 90% of Millennials use online banking, almost half (49%) still go to a brick and mortar bank branch to ask questions about products and services. When complex issues arise, people still like interacting with a human – rather than face the cold digital world on their own.
What others are doing
However, some high-asset financial service companies are leading the charge toward simplifying their interactions and interfaces. For example, Vanguard is developing a new asset management website that removes the traditional lists and percentages and replaces them with simple 3D cubes. This Diversification Visualizer seeks to transform the way its non-expert customers see the complex and often tedious world of mutual fund diversification. As more people use the internet to manage their finances, a number of “robo-advisors” such as Betterment and Wealthfront have arisen to accommodate them. These Web-based financial services claim to do better investing than any human advisor could, using algorithms to generate personalized recommendations, make automatic dividend reinvestments, and perform efficient tax harvesting. However, financial planners should keep in mind the critical role personal interactions play in ever-more digitized world. For those with little to no investing acumen, technology may be able to introduce and efficiently invest their assets. But for answering the complex questions and concerns, technology alone is not (yet) ready to take the mantel of responsibility. According to Platinum Financial Strategies, one of the best ways to attract new, tech-savvy investors is to offer in-person group activities, mentorships, and social events.
Reliability (everywhere) is key
While high- and low-asset financial service organizations do offer varied products and face different challenges, they must offer the same levels of customer service. They must be reliable and trustworthy – especially since their clients’ livelihoods are on the line. A tarnished reputation does not heal easily or quickly. For the complex issues, customers still desire an in-person touch. In order to create an intuitive, personal, world-class experience for their customers, high-asset financial services should look to the accomplishments of their low-asset cousins offering easy-to-contact, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-educate services.
Adapted from Simplicity Plus Service from CEB Iconoculture Consumer Insights