I’m reminded of that photo which shows a whole host of things – typewriter, camera, landline, rolodex, diary, filofax, the list goes on – which are, if not defunct, then certainly on their way out. With our phones we can pretty much do it all – I sometimes wonder if I won’t wake up one day to find my phone has replaced me. Perhaps we’re going into Dark Mirror-esque territory there.
But, the importance of mobile phones to people in general, and to adviser’s clients cannot be underestimated. Think about how you initially created your website – I’m assuming that you have a website – and whether you put any thought into how that very same website might scan when someone on a mobile phone looked at it.
I’ve seen countless examples of websites which looked so disjointed on a mobile phone and I suspect that many firms will still not have a mobile-friendly website. Nowadays, that’s a relatively easy fix and I would certainly suggest that you seek to deliver in that area before you move onto other, perhaps more, complicated areas.
Being ‘mobile friendly’ however should be a priority for all advisory businesses. Think about the way you use your phone in terms of the services you access, how you look up and review firms that you’re going to use, how off-putting a poor experience will be in terms of getting you to return to that business in the future.
If you would not be satisfied by the mobile experience with your business, think how others might feel. The idea is to be simple but effective here – to put in place a site and experience which conveys everything you need it to do, regardless of the size of screen your client (or potential client) is looking at.
There is something of an art to this and website developers can be very good at harnassing their experience and utilising your online offering to make sure it delivers quality to your mobile customers. We’re not suggesting that every single client will want to go through every single process with you on their phone, but you might be best approaching it as if they do. In that way, you’ll not leave out any important part of the service proposition and you’ll allow those clients who do want to engage with you exclusively via their phone to do so.
Part of our focus as a network this year is to provide our firms with a mobile-friendly portal for both clients and introducers that can do this effectively and competently. When it comes to the latter group – introducers – we often forget how they might wish to engage with your business, and like others, when you’re busy and you have some time on your phone, you want to be able to access the right information quickly and without the site looking completely disjointed because it’s only been set up for desktop optimisation.
Again, think about your experience, perhaps not just with websites but apps which allow you to do this effectively and seek to ensure that the experience you can offer is as close to the best that you’ve used. Making it easy to navigate, simple to understand, and able to provide all the necessary information is absolutely crucial and (as mentioned) it will not just ensure that this existing client wants to come back and use you again, but I suspect they’ll also recommend you to others, providing a very healthy number of referrals to take forward.
Overall, think of the client’s mobile as a window into their world, and think about the information that you would wish to see if you were a client of your own firm. Case-tracking is one thing but it should also be possible to outline the entire process including landmark events and what is expected of all those in the process, as well as an ability to update the system quickly when such tasks are completed.
When it comes down to it, providing that information straight to the client and giving them a full picture of the process, and where everyone is within it, is (ironically) likely to mean a lot less phone calls and queries to handle, and should mean that your clients know exactly where they stand and what needs to happen to move the case forward. Effectively you put the knowledge and power back in their hands – quite literally – and you give them all the information they need, right up to (and beyond) completion.
