Why financial advisors need a digital HQ now

We are at a critical juncture: the decisions that financial advisors and firms make today will have a lasting effect into the future. With uncertainty looming in financial markets, and inflation at the highest it’s been in more than 40 years, consumers are turning to professionals to help them navigate their uncertain future.

In addition, flexible and digital-forward experiences for consumers and employees are becoming a preferred way of doing business. Case in point: 65% of consumers say that the pandemic has elevated their expectations of an organisation’s digital capabilities. There has never been a better time to build trust with clients – but many wealth-management firms are moving at a slow pace when it comes to adopting transformative technologies.

This climate presents an opportunity for advisors to lean into innovative tools that provide faster and more secure customer satisfaction. That happens when firms adopt flexible products and services – a digital HQ that ties essential tools, people, customers and partners together on a single collaborative platform.

To stay ahead of the competition, firms must help financial advisors to lead with technology that will meet current and future generations of clients where they want to be. Adopting a digital HQ streamlines everyday processes and systems for financial advisors by breaking down communication silos and bringing teams together around common goals, projects and processes. This frees up time so that advisors can focus more attention on their clients.

Adopting a digital HQ supports firms to grow their top-line revenue, expand their margins and retain talent for longer. Banks and wealth-management firms that want to succeed in a modern, digital-forward way of working are using Slack to accelerate their business processes and become more client- and employee-focused. Here are three ways that Slack helps firms to drive efficient collaboration while maintaining compliance with regulatory standards.

Ensure enterprise-grade security and compliance at scale

Bearing their clients’ best interests in mind, financial advisors keep security and compliance as their top priorities. Conveniently, Slack is an enterprise-grade tool that allows employees to work securely across devices, whether they’re on a computer, tablet or phone. This flexibility makes it easy for teams to collaborate while meeting standards such as FINRA.

With Slack Enterprise Grid, compliance requirements can be scaled and permissions can be customised for those who need access to specific information in channels. Security is enabled through integrating discoverability tools (including data loss prevention, security information and event management, and e-discovery) and Slack Enterprise Key Management. With these protections, firms in the financial services, government and healthcare sectors are using Slack to transform how work gets done.

Streamline operations to benefit customers and employees

As wealth-management firms identify competitive advantages over their competitors, improving the management of disjointed operations that financial advisors experience is a top priority. Slack enables financial advisors to provide better service to their clients by taking care of their requests faster and with fewer obstacles by streamlining workflows. And providing a digital HQ that makes work simpler, more pleasant and more productive for employees and their teams plays a fundamental role in attracting and retaining talent. Eighty-six percent of businesses say that good collaboration apps help them to retain their best talent and communities.

Slack becomes a searchable, centralised digital HQ that instantly pushes information to financial advisors, allowing them to make decisions that better serve their clients. Through Slack, employees can immediately tap into the full power of the firm’s historical data and experts in other departments. Providing tailored services to their clients empowers advisors to become trusted strategic partners for their customers’ financial well-being.

For example, if a client wants to change their exposure to ESG products or purchase a new home, financial advisors can use Slack to contact internal teams in dedicated channels to get the most relevant information on potential products for their customers. Slack’s proprietary features accommodate the way that the most-effective teams operate, transforming long, drawn-out emails and siloed conversations into fast solutions for advisors. Our research found that using Slack helped teams to turn work around 35% faster with 36% fewer meetings.

Provide more value through automations, transparency and flexibility

Slack’s time-saving advantage for financial advisors and their firms is that it enables all employees, regardless of technical capabilities, to simplify lengthy business processes through low- or no-code workflows. Workflows aid collaboration in channels by helping teams to quickly capture, route and store information in business systems. These automations take care of repetitive tasks so that busy employees can focus on their clients.

Traditionally, many customer requests and service conversations have been lost in multiple emails, text messages and systems of record. Inboxes get flooded with information, and departments are siloed. Slack’s secure channels decrease the time that it takes to archive conversations and information in a central place, and reduce human error by keeping information visible and searchable.

And when it comes to improving customer service, teams can quickly mobilise and collectively work on clients’ requests in a channel to find the best solution. Clients don’t have to wait for updates, and teams can move on to attracting new clients and cultivating existing relationships.

Start working in a secure digital HQ

By making Slack your digital HQ, you can bring all your financial advisors, teams and tools together in one secure place and ensure that your firm remains compliant. When you give your firm a communication platform that’s easy and enjoyable to use, financial advisors are able to use the full breadth of your firm to provide world-class service to your clients. With Slack, you are empowering teams to transform their way of working so that they can better serve their clients. See your business come to life in Slack. Get a free demo.