7 SMS Keys to Success for Trusted Financial Advisors

Trust is foundational for a successful relationship between a financial advisor and his or her prospects and clients, and over time, this is nurtured across many different situations, via different channels. While some interactions are in-depth, face-to-face discussions, others can simply be efficient, personable transactions. In situations where the communication should be near real-time, direct, personal, and efficient, texting is an ideal solution. And with the technology available on AppExchange, enabling SMS has never been easier. This blog post explores the power of compliant SMS text messaging and how the AppExchange can help.

When it comes to immediate responses, a consistently personalized experience, and the type of access that clients covet, texting is hard to beat. Using technology that streamlines texting activity through automation, delegation, and integration makes it even more compelling, by making it scalable for the advisor. To realize the scalability along with the client service benefits, follow these seven keys to success.

Increase touchpoints with clients and prospects using automation

SMS automation helps nurture prospects and clients through personal touches like:

• Immediate response to client outreach using auto-generated smart messages
• Faster meeting scheduling via texts with calendar integration
• Pre-scheduling of greetings (such as birthday/anniversary greetings, etc.)
• Bulk-scheduling of common messages such as appointment reminders

These texts are quick and simple for the advisor to set up, convenient and conversational for the client, and can even be delegated to office staff to manage.

Use productivity boosters

The most important productivity booster among users of the Hearsay Relate compliant texting and voice solution is the use of “delegates” to support an advisor who shares his or her Relate workspace with office staff. Not only can the delegate handle service-related text messages immediately, but he can also initiate outreach — scheduling an annual review, sharing an event invitation, or forwarding a relevant article. And it can all be sent from the advisor’s familiar phone number. When a Relate workspace has multiple users (i.e., one or several delegates), 6.8 times as many messages are sent out, as compared to workspaces with single users.

Other productivity enhancers include broadcasting a message to multiple clients at one time (such as for a targeted event invitation or when sharing an article link) or pre-scheduling messages, particularly when done by a delegate.

Stay out of trouble and maintain boundaries between business and personal texting

Staying compliant with FINRA and SEC requirements is essential for all financial advisors. With widespread knowledge that clients prefer texting, a “no texting” policy is not an option for financial services firms. Firms are required to supervise and retain advisor-client communication, regardless of the channel, and even when it occurs via a personal mobile device.

In September 2020, a broker-dealer was penalized by the SEC for not proactively capturing text messages and instead relying on a failed ‘texting prohibition policy.’ Since then, firms have fired advisors and traders for violating communications policies by using encrypted messaging platforms (e.g., WhatsApp) or other non-sanctioned channels. Just last month, the SEC settled insider trade charges against a banker using information communicated via a non-business text message.

As personal and business affairs became increasingly intertwined during the pandemic, financial firms deployed solutions to keep them and their employees compliant. Solutions such as Hearsay Relate maintain separation between personal and business communications on an individual device, identifying conversations based on phone number and only logging those from the approved business number. We recommend that advisors add compliant business texting to an existing landline number when using Hearsay’s software, rather than creating a new number.

Automatically record to Salesforce and compliance archive

We’ve talked about automation and delegation; now let’s discuss integration. The two most important integrations we recommend for financial services firms that permit texting are an archive tool used for “books and records” and Salesforce.

Salesforce integration offers three important advantages:

• It can automatically pull the latest client contact details onto the advisor’s device to enable immediate texting.
• All calls and texts sent from the business number can be automatically logged in CRM, saving hours of manual data entry.
• The most important advantage is the implementation of financial services-specific workflows to guide advisors on the next best actions to take, and then gathering resultant insights for analysis within Einstein (such as in the case of Salesforce).

Eliminate barriers for clients

While an easy “opt-out” option for clients and prospects is critical, an advisor doesn’t need to explicitly request an “opt-in” prior to texting them. On April 1, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the requirement to obtain prior consent from a recipient of a call or text rests on whether the system making the call or text is an auto-dialer. To be deemed an auto-dialer, the Supreme Court found that a system “must use [or have the capacity to use] a random or sequential number generator.”

Because a tool such as Hearsay Relate does not use — or have the capacity to use — a number generator, we encourage most of our clients to assume implied consent from text recipients, but to always provide easy “opt-out” instructions and follow all rules and regulations.

Always add value

A personalized, relevant message delivered directly to your client’s mobile phone makes him or her feel valued, whereas an impersonal, irrelevant message is just annoying! So keep your texts concise and targeted. By segmenting your clients and prospects based on affinity, interests, life stages, etc., you can make your messages, such as links to events or content, three times more likely to be relevant.

Another technique is to alternate bulk (but relevant!) texts with personalized ones. So if you text one relevant article to your clients in March, have your April message be a personal check-in. Finally, ask yourself two questions before each message you send: Is this of value to the recipient? Can it be said more succinctly?

If you have a system like Hearsay, you can take adding value a step further with just-in-time engagement based on specific client context and insights. For example, if the CRM record shows a term expiration approaching, Hearsay can notify the advisor or delegate to reach out via text or even send out the message automatically on her behalf.

Get the timing right

According to Mobile Squared, 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes, and over 99% are read by the recipient. Indeed, within Hearsay Relate, we see an average response time of 4 minutes and 27 seconds to texts sent from advisors. This kind of attention and response attests to how powerful texting can be in accelerating transactions, quickly handling administrative tasks, and conveniently making clients and prospects feel valued and cared for.

Timing does matter: While the day with the highest texting volume is Tuesday, we see the highest responses on weekdays between 8–9am and then again between 3–4pm for Relate users.

The immediacy, conversational nature, and convenience of texting makes it extraordinarily valuable for financial advisors seeking to deliver an ideal customer experience. Hearsay Relate — embedded within Salesforce as a managed package — allows for compliant and scalable texting, finally making texting a viable tool for all financial advisors to add to their toolkit.

Enable SMS with apps on AppExchange.