We’ve been pleased to be able to work this year with Iress through their innovative Advisely initiative, which has one of its main objectives to help financial advice practices be more efficient, particularly in the production and implementation of advice as well as the management of ongoing client relationships.
As the Advisely Index demonstrates, software plays a very important role here. But it’s just one part of the efficiency puzzle; tech, by itself, won’t propel you to the highest levels of efficiency.
Here are a few of our favourite efficiency tips that don’t involve tech:
1: Understand the multiplier effect
Sometimes, small numbers count. Say, for example, you can save 10 minutes on a task in the advice process for existing clients. That’s 10 minutes for every client who has a review.
Now, let’s say the business has 250 reviews per year – that means 2,500 minutes is saved. That’s 42 hours, or one working week. Imagine a staff member having an extra week to undertake a project or review more clients!
Tip: Undergo a regular process review for both new client onboarding and existing client servicing. Even a small improvement in an often repeated task can save a lot of time over a year.
2: Roles and responsibilities
To maximise both efficiency and profitability, you need to ensure the right people are doing the right things.
Advisers should really only be doing a small number of things: seeing the clients and prospects, educating themselves and working on the business (planning, prospecting and so on). Anything other than this is probably better done by someone else; someone, ideally, with the capacity to do an even better job.
Tip: Review the roles and responsibilities of everybody in the practice (especially the advisers). Make sure the advisers are focused on the high value activities and the support staff handle everything else.
3: Filter prospects before the adviser gets involved
Depending on the type of client you want to attract to the business, there are multiple things the practice can do to ensure time isn’t wasted on prospects you can’t help (or who can’t afford your services).
Part of this involves educating clients and centres of influences as to the types of clients you’re looking for, and ensuring this message is clearly articulated on your website and marketing collateral.
Publishing your fee schedule on your website may also help filter out those who don’t see the value in an ongoing relationship.
Tip: Develop a profile of an ideal client and include this in your marketing collateral and communications with your referral network.
4: No review without the “homework”
If a client isn’t truly engaged, the practice might spend a lot of time preparing for a review they won’t even attend – even if the review involves making important decisions.
Consider circulating an agenda for the review meeting prior to the appointment and ask your clients if they have specific issues they would like to discuss. If they don’t provide the information (or indicate their partner can’t attend, if applicable), consider postponing the review.
This needs to be considered carefully, of course, as there are compliance considerations such as the possibility of turning off fees if the review isn’t completed.
Tip: Review your client review process to ensure the client is engaged before any preparation is undertaken by staff.
5: Outsource what you don’t have internally
If your team doesn’t have the right skills, find somebody who does. This could be an external consultant (pay as needed), a part time employee (a couple of days a week), or even a shared resource with another adviser.
Functions could include developing and managing a sales/marketing plan, social media strategy, hiring new staff and developing an incentive program for your existing people for example.
Tip: Determine what’s important for you to achieve the things you want in the business. Analyse whether your team has the skills and/or time to do these and, if not, consider outsourcing the function.
6: Create your “ideal week”.
Make time for the things you need to do. Create space in your diary for the important.
Consider allocating set times each week/month where you see new prospects, conduct your client reviews, spend time with your centres of influence/referral partners, focus on business planning and catch up on your reading/education. Crucially, dedicate specific personal time for you to do the non-business things that are important to you.
Tip: Work towards a “ideal” week, month or quarter by ensuring your diary has time allocated setting aside time to do the things you need to do. Then be accountable to its implementation.
7: Decide what is important and what is urgent
Urgency and importance are two key factors here. An unrefined customer service strategy might conclude that all clients deserve an immediate response – because clients are the focus, after all.
However, this might not actually be the best approach. To be able to determine what is important and urgent at the same time creates the priorities and makes sure things don’t get missed.
As an example, when servicing clients, balancing the urgent with the important can be a challenge. Are “A” clients more important than “C” clients? Do they have different expectations? Do you have different service standards that are understood by staff and clients?
Implementing formal service standards can help create an environment that effectively priorities while still meeting client expectations.
Tip: Create reactive and proactive service standards for clients and make sure both they, and your staff understand and deliver on them. (Further reading: The Victory of the Urgent)
Obviously, many of the tips we’ve listed here could involve technology to some degree – but I hope I’ve illustrated that there’s a lot more to building an efficient advice business than just using the “right” software.
If you’d like to learn more about the efficiency of your advice process, and how it ranks relative to your peers – consider taking the Advisely Index test. It’s free to join up, takes only five minutes to complete and you’ll get a report with customised feedback and insights about your advice performance compared to the industry average.
For your consideration.