Before:
- This firm’s service model was investment-centric with retirement planning and possibly some other light planning, according to client needs at any given time.
- There were two very experience advisors and two moderately experienced advisors on their team.
- They had very few documented planning processes in place. Although all four advisors were utilizing mind maps as part of their client meetings as a discovery process, each advisor was delivering planning services differently to their respective clients.
- As part of our engagement, the two principal advisors wanted to think through everything they were doing and come to an agreement as to how they could all adopt best practices to deliver an exceptional client experience efficiently and consistently.
- The firm had only loosely defined service tiers so standardization of service delivery for like clients was lacking.
- The advisors wanted to be able to provide advice in other planning areas efficiently and asked us to assist them with designing a systematized way for them to offer light planning in a few other areas, as appropriate.
- One of the two partners of the advisory firm was planning to retire soon. The firm needed to put a plan in place for the transition and prepare the remaining partner for the leadership position he would then need to fill.
- There were only loose roles defined in the firm.
After:
- A clear vision was created of what the firm would look like once the partner retired.
- A plan was put in place for the second senior advisor partner on how to take over the retired partner’s roles, especially in the area of team leadership.
- We worked monthly with this senior partner to guide and assist him with his transition into his new role as leader of the team.
- We provided team assessments to determine if team members were in the appropriate roles.
- The firm now had two distinct service teams (with one senior and one junior advisor) according to their service tiers based on personalities and skill sets to increase the efficiency of delivering advice and their clients’ experience.
- We helped the team specifically define their two service tiers and develop the deliverables for each one.
- The two service tiers have now been well defined according to client complexity.
- The team implemented customized workflows, associated procedures, checklists and visual aid templates they received from us for firm efficiency and delivering a great client experience. The workflows were now fully built into their CRM.
- The firm changed to a new CRM for ease of use and the workflow engine. We assisted them with making the transition.
- We also recommended the firm consider adopting two other technologies to further increase firm efficiencies.
- We worked directly with their team on programming their new, customized workflow templates within their new CRM and recommended best practices based on their new improved service model.
- All their processes are now documented and programmed into their CRM.
- The firm now has documented processes in place for compliance purposes.