For financial services firms, a CRM system that introduces automation into the inner workings of the business is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global CRM industry is expected to reach more than US$145 billion by 2029. As personalized financial services continue to grow in popularity, technologies like AI and big data analytics are increasingly seen as table stakes for the industry.
Given that the global AI and automation market in banking is projected to reach US$23.3 billion by the end of 2022, it’s clear that FinS firms must embrace automation and harness the power of CRM in order to stay competitive.
Here are three benefits that financial services companies stand to gain by leveraging CRM automation:
1) Achieving a single, data-driven view of the customer
Thanks to consolidated customer data from CRM implementation, advisors at financial services organizations can have access to a single view of all customer interactions and communications, across all channels and touchpoints.
It is imperative that FinS businesses fully support the adoption of CRM automation, even if the upfront time and costs seem daunting at first.
Optimizing around a clear, lean, and data-driven process has several benefits for companies that are working towards CRM automation maturity.
For starters, the ability to automatically update customer information from different platforms through data integration saves time and eliminates redundancies. When an advisor receives an email from a customer that notifies them of an updated piece of personal information, that new data point is instantaneously shared across all channels rather than having to be manually inputted into each program.
In addition, CRM automation allows advisors to leverage account-based scheduling to send out messaging to customers at peak conversion levels, based on existing data and overall industry trends.
Financial services advisors can also reap the rewards of event-based automation, where processes are triggered based on actions, responses, and milestones. When a customer reaches out to inform an advisor that they’re ready to start investing for retirement, for example, that will trigger a different campaign through the CRM than, say, a customer who’s interested in dabbling in crypto.
Ultimately, CRM automation empowers financial advisors to make data-driven decisions for their clients—boosting both customer retention and acquisition in the process—thanks to seamless data access.
2) Meeting all regulatory and compliance requirements
Historically, the customer onboarding process has often been bogged down by the need to meet regulatory and compliance requirements, creating a tedious, administrative-heavy experience for advisor and customer alike.
With CRM automation, however, the process becomes much more streamlined and manageable.
An automated wizard guides the user through an end-to-end process, ensuring that every step meets regulatory compliance requirements, be they KYC (Know Your Customer), KYTP (Know Your Third Party), or KYT (Know Your Transaction).
CRM automation also drives efficiency by splitting these time- and labour-intensive processes into smaller chunks, which reduces handling time for the advisor and the customer.
The result is an efficient, watertight experience for all parties involved, with regulatory and compliance snafus a thing of the past.
3) Driving scalability across your organization
Financial services companies that continue to rely on legacy systems for customer data and communication are spending more time fulfilling manual steps and less time providing actual financial services and value to their clients.
CRM automation allows firms to invest more time and effort into core business practices and strategies, driving scalability from the top down.
Since artificial intelligence and machine learning get smarter as they’re fed more information, teaching a CRM how companies behave and how best to measure success will have a myriad of positive business outcomes for financial services organizations.
When the effort is made to nurture and prioritize these data-powered systems, the minds of the people navigating the automated processes for driving insights are freed, creating industry leaders who can be more fully dedicated to understanding what’s best for their customers.
With the rise of hybrid workforces, these decision-makers can also optimize internal work processes, determining which tasks are repetitive and time-consuming and taking them off the plates of humans by transferring them to the digital realm.
As leads turn into customers, and as customers’ assets grow, an improved understanding in real time of what’s working and what’s not will benefit everyone by enabling more confident decision-making from both advisors and investors.