Why simplifying client experience means more for your business

Competition is tough these days and many businesses are looking at ways they can level up their service offerings, product features and client experiences. More features, more functions, more products, and more benefits to shout about so you can beat out the competition and stand out from the crowd. But more, more, more for your clients doesn’t always mean more for your business. There is still a lot to be said for the old age adage of less is more.

In the context of financial management and legacy planning, your clients are looking for help with managing, streamlining and optimising their assets - and most likely at a time in their lives when more can mean more stress. They don’t want, or need for that matter, complex or complicated solutions and strategies with multiple platforms, accounts, files, and passwords to remember. In the UK, an estimated £50bn in assets go unclaimed. For those that are claimed, it typically takes about nine months to organise an estate. Leaving an established legacy behind is incredibly important for your clients, and something many will have spent their lives working towards, so what you want to be doing is making it as straightforward as possible for them to do just that. You want to keep it simple.

Is less really more?

As a business you want to deliver for your clients, and this often means going above and beyond, putting in the extra effort and looking for ways to add to their experience. So why do you want to take away from that with a less is more approach? In this instance, it doesn’t equate to less service, but rather less complications. What you want to be doing is streamlining and simplifying your processes. Your client’s experience should be at the core of everything you do, and in the long run it’s more beneficial for you too - customer experience is critical to the sustained growth of any business, promoting loyalty, improving client retention and encouraging brand advocacy.

UX vs. CX

UX (user experience) and CX (customer experience) are key measures of how your customers and clients are using and engaging with your brand, and how satisfied they are with it. UX refers more to the interactions they have with your products and platforms (like your website) and the kind of experience they have with each touchpoint throughout the user journey. CX on the other hand is the overall impression your clients have of you as a brand, which includes their experience as a user.

So have you thought about how your clients are interacting with you across all your channels? Simplicity in UX is incredibly effective, mainly due to the shortened attention span of the average human (now just 8 seconds)! As such you’ll want to think about your client-facing processes - are you speaking to your target audience, do you have easy onboarding processes in place, is your branding recognisable? These are all things that will help to boost your overall CX and encourage the engagement, retention and advocacy that is going to help grow business.

Built-in business benefits

The great thing about simplifying the client experience is that it also simplifies things for you as a partner. An easy onboarding process means less time and resources required from you to manage your clients. In addition, simplified touchpoints simultaneously streamline your workflows and automate otherwise time-consuming tasks. All this means more for you to put back into your business; from more personalised and dedicated client service, to additional retention and acquisition opportunities, to product and service development.

4 ways to simplify your client experience

So how can you put this into practice to really start seeing those business benefits? Start with these four things and see how you can implement them across your business channels.

1. Consolidation

Review the client-facing platforms and processes that you use and identify opportunities for consolidating them down into one streamlined platform. This will allow your clients to have just one account and login for your services, making it much easier for them to engage with you - rather than having to remember and be accountable for different documents and information across multiple tools and platforms.

2. Automation

Automation is a brilliant business asset and can really streamline your workflows and daily tasks, empowering your business to make the most of growth opportunities. Are there any manual tasks that currently take up a lot of time or resources that could be supported through automated business tools? For example, your client emails and updates, marketing such as social media and file organisation/storage.

3. Recognition

Branding is incredibly important as a business, especially when you’re dealing with clients who are expecting, or are accustomed to, a level of service that is much more personal. As such you’ll want to make sure your branding is upfront and immediately recognisable to your clients as a service or business they know. In addition, for financial planning and wealth management, trust and credibility is a crucial part of client retention so creating a sense of familiarity from your branding will help to really build that trust with your clients.

4. Communication

Keep your comms consistent and direct. Simplified messaging helps your clients to find the information that is relevant and important to them and helps them to engage with your content and services much quicker - remember you’ve only got 8 seconds to get their attention! Consistent communication and messaging also helps to build that brand recognition and familiarity that will encourage client loyalty and advocacy.

Keep it simple with DocPortal

DocPortal is all about a simple and secure legacy. Simplicity is one of the product’s core values meaning you get plenty of those built-in business benefits with practical integrations and user-friendly features. DocPortal simplifies processes for partners and their clients, providing better client experiences and empowering partners to maximise their client retention and acquisition.

• Simplified touchpoints in your client workflow
• Easy client onboarding - your clients don’t need to be tech savvy
• Easily appointed digital executors
• Integration-ready with Multiple CRM and email client integrations
• Integrated e-signatures and confirmations
• Live chat function
• Custom branded apps that your clients will instantly recognise

Start simplifying your client experience with DocPortal. Head over to our contact page and get in touch to discover more.