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We’ve all heard the phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” But until we feel the NEED to do so, most of us continue to work just as smartly and hard as we always have.
Like almost anything in life, the COVID-19 pandemic was horrible, but also brought about positive change. In the world of financial advice, pandemic restrictions on in-person meetings revealed (to both clients and advisors) the benefits of working at a distance.
Since then, online meetings have become a permanent part of the advising landscape…but continue to be both underrated and underutilized. This is a problem! Client expectations plus increasing workload plus more emphasis on quality of life all call for smarter approaches to engagement. For advisors, working smarter today means leveraging technology strategically to enhance both client experience and advisor productivity. This article shares strategies successful hybrid advisors have used to optimize their workflow.
The phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” challenges you to think about more efficient ways to achieve the same or better results. But how does this phrase apply to client experience now that COVID-19 is still a thing, but lockdown isn’t? What adaptations can we take from the pandemic and adopt strategically to create the optimal client experience going forward?
The answer to these questions lies in what some advisors have been doing for years: Using hybrid client experience strategy to maintain or increase effectiveness while improving efficiency. First, though, there are three factors to consider as you develop your strategy.
The “Iron Triangle” that constrains every client relationship
Imagine you want to go out to eat a hamburger tonight – but where? Fast food or supper club? Or should you just go to the store and buy groceries?
Answer of course depends on your priorities. Want it fast? Head for the fast-food chain. Want it cheap? Buy and cook your own meat. Want it gourmet? Head for the supper club.
In each case, though, you are trading something to get what you want. Going to the fast-food joint usually means you're accepting lower-quality results. At home, you’re giving up time or quality, depending on your ingredients/skill. And at the supper club, you’re going to pay more and wait longer to get the quality you expect.
Time, cost, quality: These three variables are known as the Iron Triangle, (figure 1) because of their relationship – you have to give up one or more to get another. These three variables affect any decision, from the choice of restaurants to how you communicate with clients. Breakthroughs happen when innovation creates new solutions that increase one or more variables without a corresponding decrease in others. For example: Spotify represents a breakthrough in speed and cost vs. your vinyl collection, with most of the sound quality (audiophiles may disagree).
Using the Iron Triangle to create hybrid client experience
For advisors, meeting in person or using analog process is the equivalent of the supper club, and meeting online or using digital process is more like fast food. So how you engage with clients comes down to a simple question about the Iron Triangle:
“Is it worth the time and money to use in-person or analog processes?”
The most productive advisors I work with segment their business and pursue different strategies for different segments. In certain cases, using new ways of working can actually create productivity breakthroughs, because you’re moving faster and more efficiently, without sacrificing results or quality.
Segment your client experience strategy
Client experience breaks out into three segments: Client-driven, negotiated, and advisor-driven. Certain clients will (and should) get the experience they want, no questions asked. Other clients will require a negotiation to arrive at the right mix, and some clients will need to be directed.
Essentially, you’re asking, “Is this client worth my most expensive time?” Although you may look at these segments and see them as asset driven, I suggest you look at it more as a math equation: Assets plus potential equals priority level (figure 2).
The point is, being intentional about who gets what experience helps you make sure your most expensive in-person time is spent in the smartest way.
Segment your communication
If you looked back at your pre-pandemic in-person meetings, you would probably find those meetings covered a wide range of topics, and almost never ended early. Why? Because when you spend all that time and effort getting together, you tend to use the time whether it’s productive or not. In that situation, a lot of in-person time is spent on lower-value communication.
Instead, segment your communication using the “Is it worth my most expensive time?” test to separate what you need to do in person from what you could do remotely. Then, set and manage expectations for communication with a Service Level Agreement that spells out what you’ll be talking about, when, and how. Finally, execute by setting and following tight, focused meeting agendas and deferring some communication to online meetings.
Again, some clients will get whatever they want, but with others, segmenting communication means you’re working smarter with your most valuable resource.
Segment your work week
There is nothing worse for advisor productivity than trying to do the wrong work at the wrong time. If you’ve ever been stuck in rush hour traffic on the way to a client meeting or experienced the phenomenon of Friday cancellations in the summer, you know exactly what I mean.
The solution is to segment your workweek to maximize efficiency. For example, why would you schedule in-person meetings during rush hour when you could meet online instead? And why not schedule your Friday meetings online to minimize the impact of cancellations? (See fig 3. For an example of the segmented workweek)
The point is, if you’re segmenting your work week with the Iron Triangle in mind, you’re answering the question, “How can I reduce cost and time while maintaining quality?” to use your time in the smartest way.
Conclusion: Working smarter means working hybrid
Online meetings to in-person meetings are a lot like Spotify is to your vinyl collection. The gains you make in cost and time can outweigh the quality you sacrifice. Both are breakthroughs in that they solve for the Iron Triangle and help advisors work smarter, not harder..