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Many wealth managers are losing money because they do not understand client onboarding. Unfortunately, onboarding done wrong will drive clients away; because the onboarding process begins the moment, a prospect becomes a client.
This failure drives clients away because onboarding is the formal process of bringing a customer into a platform. Unfortunately, many wealth managers make the mistake of turning the client onboarding process over to clerical staff, or worse a legacy platform.
Many platforms lose clients because onboarding processes can be slow, cumbersome, complex, confusing, and frustrating. Some platforms will ask for the same data or paperwork repeatedly, for example.
Under these circumstances, wealth managers lose the client the moment he or she comes onboard. Wealth managers lose business because just one mistake in onboarding can drive a client away.
“A great example of Wealth Intelligence is an onboarding process that quickly collects information directly from clients digitally. Instead of having employees ask a client questions and enter the data manually. The client can answer the questions in an app or online.”
Why Onboarding is Even More Important in Asia
A good onboarding process is even more important for Asian wealth managers. To explain, many emerging market clients are new rich; and often unfamiliar with wealth management, and investment options.
Consequently, even sophisticated clients will need extra help. Yet, it is often hard for wealth managers to know if a client needs help.
To make matters worse, younger clients/millennials have lived all their lives in a digital economy that often provides near instantaneous customer service. Today’s client is used to placing orders instantly on Amazon or Alibaba. Consequently, an onboarding process that takes several weeks will frustrate that client.
Something to remember is that Chinese clients have been full participants in the digital economy for over a decade. Therefore, Chinese wealth management clients will require an onboarding process closer to WeChat Pay rather than a series of interviews or questionnaires.
For example, an app that asks all the pertinent questions once. Such an app only needs to ask questions because it can verify the client’s identity through biometrics. Obviously, the easiest and most seamless method of verification will be fingerprint or facial recognition using the customer’s phone.
Some Attributes of a Good Onboarding Process
Here are some attributes of an effective wealth management client onboarding process:
What Your Onboarding Technology Needs to Do
Utilize the latest technology; biometric identification, blockchain, etc.
Source of Graph: Group Futurista
All wealth managers need to monitor client onboarding carefully and understand each aspect of the process. Effective onboarding can lead to happy clients who invest more money.
For modern wealth managers, effective onboarding is essential. If you do not serve clients needs fully from the beginning, the clients will leave and take their money.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
David Smith Information Analyst at ManpowerGroup
20 November
Konstantin Rabin Head of Marketing at Kontomatik
19 November
Ruoyu Xie Marketing Manager at Grand Compliance
Seth Perlman Global Head of Product at i2c Inc.
18 November
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