The Summit for Asset Management (TSAM) wrapped up its London roadshow last month, and based on the conversations and sessions in which I participated discussing client reporting and communications, marketing and sales, data management, risk and performance, and more—it’s clear that the asset management industry is evolving rapidly. A recurring set of trends began to emerge from my interactions and observations at TSAM London which seem to be sweeping all disciplines within asset management, inspiring change across the investment and asset management world. Customer preferences are changing—and content is the key to captivating customers.
General distrust of investment firms leads the newest wave of investors, Millennials, to interact with firms differently than previous generations. Their mounting distrust has manifested itself into the on-demand nature we see so much in other areas of their consumer lifestyle. As the push-pull nature of content evolves beyond just one-page overviews of your firm, it’s critical to ensure that the interactions your clients and prospects are having with your firm are on-brand and highly relevant. And with the need for more on-demand information playing a key role in millennials’ evaluation of firms, personalization is the number one way to win their trust and their business.
Firms that embrace digital transformation and personalize their customer experience will win
With content and personalization more important than ever before, the question soon becomes how exactly do we deliver a personalized customer experience? Firms that embrace digital transformation will achieve a consistent and unified experience across all client and prospect touchpoints by unifying previously disparate legacy systems. Content optimization is automated and streamlined with a best-in-class sales enablement platform that eliminates room for error but also ensures content is tailored to the investor.
Firms collect millions of data points every day but often times this data is in a vacuum, rendering it useless for improving the investor experience. In 2018, firms must move away from collecting data for the sake of it, and put the figures to use in personalization, leveraging it beyond just first and last name, but taking advantage of these capabilities in account holdings, yearly comparisons and suggested investment opportunities. As firms seek out digitization strategies across compliance, relationship management, and marketing, I hope to see an evolution in the ways data is used.
Winning asset management firms will have to use 2018 as an opportunity to restructure ongoing executions to see where their biggest impacts will be. Maintaining relevancy with the next generation of investors means prioritizing system integrations and their impact on the investor experience.
