Case study
Advice business: Vove Financial
Location: Glenelg, South Australia
Client base: 300+ (clients of accumulators and retirees)
Age of practice: 12 years
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According to Vove Financial, transitioning a client base to a client portal requires keeping it simple, mastering a few capabilities initially and leading from the front.
Prior to rolling out the myprosperity client portal to its client base, Vove Financial conducted a pilot and tested it with a handful of clients who the business had strong relationships with.
Following this, the firm rolled it out more broadly at annual review time, which provided a methodical period to implement the change and a way to ‘wet the appetite’ of clients.
“You need to lead from the front and get clients involved and excited,” said Malcolm Simpson, Director and Financial Planner, Vove Financial.
Making the transition happen
The business had previously used Compass and was able to link client’s data to myprosperity, so when they logged in for the first time, some of their details were already pre-populated.
Advisers printed out slides with QR codes, so clients could use their phones in the annual review meeting and sign on.
“We positioned the client portal as visible, with real-time figures, secure information and no more emails,” said Simpson
The client portal conversation added five to ten minutes to each annual review meeting where advisers would quickly demonstrate some of the capabilities of the client portal and then help clients download the app on their phone.
A process was set up after this initial introduction to follow up with clients and engage further. For example, if after five days a client had not logged in, Vove Financial would send a reminder.
To support clients who were less familiar with technology, the business took a proactive approach by guiding them through the client portal, ensuring a smooth transition. Additionally, a champion was appointed to oversee the client portal’s adoption and maintain focus on enhancing the client experience.
Impact on the business
According to Simpson, the introduction of the client portal was announced as an optional change.
“It wasn’t terribly hard,” said Simpson. “The first three months, you do need to focus on it and to have a champion in the office.”
After 12-months, the business will have transitioned 90% of its client base to the myprosperity client portal. It transitioned eight to ten clients per week and received two to three calls a week from clients seeking assistance, which were mostly log in queries.
Vove Financial said in the first 12-months, it committed to focusing on the document signing and statement of financial position capabilities of the client portal with clients. This is the approach myprosperity advises as best practice to streamline the process and not overwhelm clients.
“We’re using it to store document or documents clients can access, for them to sign, statement of position and to show them the reports,” said Hill.
He added: “There is obviously a lot of terrific functionality with myprosperity including rooms and other features. Whether we use them or not in the future we are not quite sure, but we decided to just spend the first 12 months making sure that clients are set up and that we have the ability to send and receive documents securely and that we can have them signed as well.”
To find out more about the client and business benefits that Vove Financial achieved through the adoption of the myprosperity client portal, click here.