A strong and growing practice is all about relationships – and yet, the growing part often makes relationship development hard, if not impossible. This week we asked NAPA-Net readers about the customer relationship management (CRM) system(s) they use – and why.
As for what CRM they use today, nearly half 48% use Salesforce, followed (distantly) by the 16% who relied on Microsoft Dynamics. Redtail followed with 14%, while about 5% each used Wealthbox, Junxure or Envestnet/Taramac. Also mentioned were Wealth Advisor, Advisor’s Assistant, Insightly, a proprietary firm solution – or nothing at all. As one reader explained, “I have 22 clients and feel as if I can organize everything well with Outlook.”
As for what CRM(s) they had used in the past:
57% - Salesforce
15% - Organization's proprietary tool(s)
11% - Redtail
8% - Junxure
7% - Envestnet/Tamarac
3% - Wealthbox
Others cited included Microsoft Dynamics, EBIX/Smart Office, HubSpot and Filemaker.
Preferred ‘Stock’
As for which they preferred, Salesforce also dominated this set, with half the respondents citing it. Redtail was a (very) distant second, cited by 17%, Microsoft Dynamics was third (12%), with the rest evenly split between Wealthbox, Junxure and their organization’s proprietary option. As one reader explained, “Personally, I find that each of the CRMs that exist on the market have limitations. Either they are clunky like SalesForce or they don’t integrate well or have issues with the labeling of fields. Using some sort of proprietary system lets you create the fields you want. The issue with this type of system is always the initial data input.”
We also asked readers which feature(s), if any, they would like to see their current CRM/CRM of choice add to be “even better.” Here’s a sampling:
Integrate with more companies for forms, etc. to prefill.
Maybe it’s my user error, but it’s hard to get Redtail to go and grab all my clients from their different places. I’m still having to enter each contact one by one. I’d love to find a fully integrated provider.
Wealthbox has been agreeable to customize fields. We have found the workflow process to be instrumental to our team.
A slot for plan level information that would apply to each of the individual contacts. Better tracking and integration with Constant Contact or other approved email marketing system. Mobile accessibility. Easy access by all advisors on the team and an easy way to apply them to each advisor without having to recreate and change ownership views.
True aggregation of assets from custodians and recordkeepers.
The platform does so much it’s hard to learn so, it should be made a bit more user friendly.
I would like it to read my mind. Sometimes process/workflows, while great are tedious.
More integration with marketing efforts... to track click through/open rates of email campaigns.
Dashboard for each client including data like: - hire date - key plan design features - last fee benchmark - current admin target - what contacts are receiving for content - what they opened - most recent interactions - pending action items.
ESG monitoring Model Tracking.
Our team customized Salesforce to show participant count, assets, recordkeeper service rep, other services team in our company (P&C, Benefits, etc.) and also our checklist functions for plan management (onboarding, plan reviews, fund changes, conversions).
More robust calendar integration for follow-ups and action items.
Attach emails to the appropriate organization better, have a team inbox to sort and reassign tasks instead of sending through emails to each other or requiring project management software.
Nothing comes to mind right now, unfortunately, as many are created to be "different" in the marketplace, after feedback, evolution of the software, updates are made, they seem to all navigate down a similar path.
The platform providers NEED to open up the data to these systems. Currently things are fed into the CRM, so when a participant calls we are looking at both the CRM and the platform for specific investment information. When you have several platforms, it’s a bit of a disjointed experience for the client at the beginning of the call while you bring up the record. How nice would it be to click on the CRM record and bring up the platform? That sounds like something I said in 1995.
Having fields that don’t require duplicate entry but rather flow through into the various data points. Easy mobile device integration. Automated calendar integration.
Nothing; it's hard with the broker dealer being comfortable with a 3rd party having the customer data.
The ability to add participant interactions with DC participants without making them a full contact in the system.
Improve the workflow functionality.
A dashboard specific to 401(k) clients.
Automatically link emails to accounts without having to make the selection on each email.
I have developed all of my procedures on documenting why we chose the current platform, fund line up or target date series, preparing enrollment emails with DOL requirements, participant notices, etc. of these systems could help me with this type of works, I would be interested in using one.
Integrate with iPhone contacts.
Features focused on the intentional 401(k) advisor.
Other Comments
And, having opened that door, we invited readers to offer additional comments on CRMs, the use of CRMs, the advantages of, and disadvantages with CRMs, etc. Here’s a sampling:
It seems like with every CRM, you can’t use it to its full capacity as their company demonstrates. That’s the most frustrating.
CRMs in general fall into the category of they’re only as good as the data that you give them. One of the downfalls for most of them is getting the initial data that you have in to the system in a workable way. For many, this step is what slows down the CRM process or even stalls it all together. If it isn’t user friendly, then people are working with incomplete data or duplications or any other number of equally frustrating issues in their data. From that point, it is a matter of time before someone gets frustrated with the data to give up or not utilize the data efficiently. My second comment is that integration is key. Each of these like to promote that they have their own email tool or their own calendar or tracking, but these are not always approved in our industry and also are not always the same format people use outside. Because of this, I feel that integration or having the ability to integrate with other vendors is imperative to a successful CRM system.
I like SalesForce because we can track our activities easily. It allows us to set up processes that can be followed time after time and as a result we rarely drop the ball.
I haven't found a single CRM that is perfect. There is a lot of thought and updating that needs to go into setting and maintaining a CRM.
Our CRM system is highly integrated with multiple software packages like email marketing, document management, investment reporting, market value. it is very useful, automated, and efficient.
We literally are rolling this out now – so time will tell.
None of them are perfect. I hate that in order for them to work with other systems you have to pay additional fees.
SalesForce way too expensive! Why we switched to Red Tail!
The data is only as good as the people filling out the information...
Don't expect to plug in a CRM and watch magic. You must work on the implementation contently, validate the data and carefully plan your enhancements. It can be easy for the tool to become a beast. But once implemented it can hum along nicely and really streamline your processes. Our goal is to always free up the expensive time by automating or delegating the recurring tasks. That way the decision makers and problem solvers are free to bring value to the client. And let’s not forget tracking our fiduciary responsibilities to the plan and the participants.
Hard with broker dealer or RIA firm wanting to use something across the entire company instead of what works best for the team.
We also use Constant Contact for sending out emails but that does not tie into SalesForce.
I have a small office, but they will not allow me to add more users unless I move up to the next version which costs 5 times what I am paying. Otherwise we love it.
To me it is all about USING it. Our marketing is better than ever b/c of CRM. it can be such a great tool!
Advisor's Assistant is mostly for the sales force. It does not do a good job of tracking the status of our existing plans. Cannot do a mass emailing. Has limited user defined fields. Finding ourselves having to adapt to the software rather than the other way around.
User interfaces are too cumbersome.
Any CRMs focused specifically on 401(k)s out there?
Apparently not (yet). Thanks to everyone who participated in this week’s NAPA-Net Reader Poll!
