How to Create lasting Relationships with a Contact Management System

A good contact-management system does far more than act as an electronic mail service.

Contact management is about being able to capture all client information, creating a history of their interaction with your office and staff and making effective use of that information to identify opportunities for advice and sales — or even when the time is right for a social call.

Contact-management software can compile comprehensive information on clients and store it in a central location for easy retrieval, allow you to surf through hundreds of pieces of data or prompt a phone call or e-mail when a client is due for service. It can even dial the phone for you.

“A good contact-management system is proactive. It’s checking hundreds of pieces of information about hundreds or thousands of investors each and every day, automatically, to determine when an investor is due for service,” says Barry Chaffe of Waterloo, Ont.-based Chaffe/Malcolm + Partners Inc.

“Automation is important within a contact management system. There’s so much information on file about investors it’s impossible for members of the team to go through it manually at a frequent enough interval to catch everything. Computers on the other hand can check all that in a split second,” he says.

“Investors have an expectation that they’re going to hear from their wealth manager periodically. When that expectation isn’t met, that creates frustration,” says Chaffe.

A contact management system can help.

He says a consistent level of service is also key to client retention. “It’s a problem when you get a high level of service from the wealth manager, but when dealing with another member of the team, the level of service plummets. They don’t seem to know you, they mispronounce your name, and they don’t have a clue what your needs are.”

There is also the need to keep up to date with the relatively quiet clients, those at the other end of the spectrum from the “squeaky wheels” in your business, who run the risk of falling through the cracks.

Without a contact management system with clients is not simply limited to your annual or quarterly meeting and the occasional seminar. Business strategy specialists say the client experience is reinforced or eroded with every contact.

Stevenson says a good client-contact management system should reflect an advisor’s processes and centralize client information so that team members can provide consistent service by retrieving a client’s history, including a record of phone calls and e-mails.

Such contact management systems have a big role to play in effective client segmentation. “How can we effectively and easily manage it — not just the first time, but in an ongoing environment,” he says.

“It could be I want to send a mailer or invitation to my top 20%, or reassign the bottom third to my new assistant who is licensed. All kinds of action can come of it. You can’t predict actions in the future; what you can do, however, is prepare for it.”

To make effective use of a contact-management system, Stevenson suggests advisors learn how to use its basic functions, then identify their business processes and the information they’d like to collect.

“Identify all the information you want to gather on your clients in your contact management system and make sure there’s a business need behind it. What information are you going to track? Why are you tracking it, and how are you going to use it?” Then, with technical knowledge and identified information requirements in hand, make sure the contact-management system is set up with sufficient fields to match those data requirements.

Throughout the process, get professional help in ºdeveloping the contact management platform.

“People are amazed at how fast they can get up and running when they have a professional assisting them,” Stevenson says.

In choosing a contact management system, he says, advisors should be able to make the small modifications themselves and have a consultant on hand for large process changes. “The consultant should be well aware of your needs prior to any project,” he says. “Anything that is recommended needs to meet that business objective.

The advisor’s objective [namely, enhancing productivity and the client experience], not the consultant’s business objective. That’s very important — that the consultant is familiar with and dedicated to the industry, and have the interests of the advisor first,” he says.

A sampling of contact-management systems

Program: Goldmine 6.5 FrontRange Solutions Inc. www.frontrange.com/goldmine

How to get it: GoldMine is available from the company and through major retail stores, mail-order catalogues and online retailers.

Cost: US$179.95

Description: Centralized customer and contact information, including histories, reminders, alerts and a complete view of your schedule. Automate mass mailings, letters and faxes. Sort sales by product or probability and see weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly quotas. Product integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange to share contacts, e-mail and scheduling, and create a history of correspondence.

Program: Investment Gold Chaffe/Malcolm + Partners Inc. www.chaffemalcolm.com

How to get it: Contact Barry Chaffe, (519) 747-2370.

Cost: $14/month, plus initial consulting fees and team training.

Description: An add-on that customizes GoldMine for Canadian wealth-management practices; it also copies client information exported from leading back-office systems.

Program: Maximizer Enterprise 8 Maximizer Software Inc. www.maximizer.com/solutions/maxent

How to get it: Available from the company or through certified resellers. Call (800) 804-6299.

Cost: $189 - $995

Description: Sales and contact manager designed to help build relationships, and create loyalty and long-term profitability. Allows staff to access customer information and collaborate seamlessly throughout the customer life cycle.

Program: AdvisorPower Solution PowerAssist Technologies Inc. www.power-assist.com How to get it: Contact (905) 690-3769 or (877) 769-3769.

Cost: Starting at $500

Description: Consulting and custom technology development. Using Maximizer Enterprise as the suggested technological backbone, PowerAssist assists advisors, brokers, dealers, fund companies and MGAs to develop processes and technological capabilities to manage and track client relationships, information and processes proactively.

Program: ACT! 2005 Best Software, Inc. www.act.com

How to get it: Retail, online or by phone. If purchasing less than five copies of ACT, call (877) 501-4496 (U.S. or Canada). Corporate licensing (five copies or more), call (888) 855-5222.

Cost: $229.99 - $1,749.99

Description: Schedule activities, access customer information including e-mail, time-stamped notes, history, attachments and proposals. Create records to see the entire business relationship, and track completed activities for each relationship.

CRM4Advisors is a custom data database designed to work with Act! 2000 now (Act! 5.0) and was developed over a period of six years through experiences in the Financial Services Sector. CRM4Advisors database works equally well for individual advisors, advisors with assistants and advisor teams/offices with multiple users who look after common contacts.

CPU Tracker

The standard software has been specifically designed for the insurance industry as a solution to your client contact management. CPU Tracker enables you to manage all of your client data. This means that you have instant access to all client data, prospect data, policies and commissions earned. The Sales, Marketing and Client Management System provides you with a multi-company, multi-product solution offering the most user-friendly operation on today's market.