Having an effective contact management system (CMS) is a growing priority with insurance advisors, but many are dissatisfied with their firms’ in-house solutions. Advisors complained that their system is slow, inefficient and missing key information. There is also widespread frustration among advisors because many systems have not kept pace with technology and are inaccessible when using mobile devices or cloud-based technology.
Terms such as “archaic” and “antiquated” popped up repeatedly in the comments of insurance advisors surveyed for this year’s Insurance Advisors’ Report Card.
Overall, there was a slight increase in the overall average importance rating in the “adequacy of your firm’s/MGA’s contact management systems” category, to 8.6 from 8.5 year-over-year. When combined with the drop in overall average performance rating, to 7.4 from 7.7 year-over-year, the result is a larger “satisfaction gap” – the difference between the two ratings – than in 2013, which means that firms are falling behind in meeting their advisors’ expectations.
“There is limited information concerning policies [on the CMS],” says an advisor on the Prairies with Winnipeg-based Great-West Life Assurance Co. “It’s completely different than [for] mutual funds. I can’t even do address changes.”
Advisors’ own systems
Many advisors are turning to their own systems out of frustration. Says an advisor in Alberta with Woodbridge, Ont.-based Hub Financial Inc.: “The back office never updates its database. I notice a lot of spelling errors. So, my team has created its own cloud-based database instead.”
“[The firm] dumped millions into [its CMS] and it hasn’t been sharp,” adds an advisor in Ontario with London, Ont.-based Freedom 55 Financial. “I’ve had to find one elsewhere in the marketplace. I want a CMS to be able to track our clients and their needs, and it should work across many platforms. The [firm’s] system doesn’t.”
Freedom 55 rolled out a new proprietary CMS in 2013 entitled Connect Now and is working diligently with its field force to make improvements to it, says Mike Cunneen, senior vice president of Freedom 55’s wealth and estate planning group: “I am aware that there some issues in terms of its functionality with advisors, and some have had great successes with it as well. We continue to work closely with our technology specialists and our technology department at head office to ensure that we have a very robust system that helps advisors manage the relationships with clients. As you know, with technology, it can be a challenge to keep up with the continuing evolution, and also in terms of training and making the user feel more comfortable.”
The firms lauded by their advisors for their CMS keep their systems up to date and provide both systems that are user-friendly and the necessary training to help advisors make the most of them.
“[The firm] is phenomenal,” says an advisor in Ontario with Kitchener, Ont.-based Financial Horizons Inc. “They are so prompt in alerting me to what I need to attend to. They go beyond the call of duty.”
Adds an advisor in the same province with Mississauga, Ont.-based RBC Life Insurance Co.: “It’s getting better every day. They’re adding new tools; just constantly improving.”
the cloud is key
RBC Life uses San Francisco-based Salesforce.com Inc.’s popular cloud-based system, one that many advisors desire. Mike Hamilton, RBC Life’s senior vice president of sales and distribution, says that system has many pieces – and RBC Life continues to add more.
Once advisors adopt this system and see what it does, they start to realize the value it provides, Hamilton says, adding that it can be difficult for advisors to adapt to the new system during the first few months until they receive the necessary training and learn how to use the system effectively.
Waterloo, Ont.-based Sun Life Financial (Canada) Inc. is implementing Salesforce.com’s system, says Vicken Kazazian, senior vice president of Sun Life’s career sales force. By the middle of next year, he adds, all Sun Life advisors will be on that system.
“What our advisors will see is all of their clients’ information; all of their holdings – insurance and investments – in one place,” Kazazian says. “[Advisors also] can see all kinds of reminders, such as birthdays and anniversaries. Advisors can do all kinds of things that will help them maintain good relations with their clients and service them on an ongoing basis. So, basically, everything advisors need to know about their clients will be on the system, accessible in a mobile environment.”
Sun Life advisors are thrilled with the change. “We are going to the cloud. It’s going to be all real time,” says a Sun Life advisor in British Columbia.
Adds a colleague in Ontario: “I don’t have information flow to my smartphone right now, but the new system will have that – and more.”
Calgary-based PPI Solutions Inc., which received the highest performance rating in this category, at 8.1, uses a customized version of the WealthServ program, says Jim Virtue, PPI Solutions’ president and CEO: “We’ve been working with advisors on customizing it to our needs.”
In particular, PPI Solutions is launching an add-on to WealthServ called SalesDrive that helps advisors find opportunities to convert and rewrite policies in their existing books.
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