Michelle Page Chad Whaddoups Technology Adoption

Financial Advisor Shares Tips For Technology Adoption

June 07, 2018

Michelle Page, LPL senior vice president, Business Consulting, and Chad Waddoups, investment program manager at Salt Lake City, Utah-based Mountain America Credit Union, discuss how technology adoption creates improved member services, as well as efficiencies within the business.

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As technology evolves, many advisors often find themselves learning new capabilities designed to enhance relationships with clients and improve productivity. Technology adoption isn’t always easy but it’s necessary, says Chad, whose team has been diligent about adopting new capabilities. He shares some best practices.

Driving accountability: In addition to training advisors on the new tools and resources, it’s important to have an accountability piece in place. “If we're going to tell our clients that we’ll provide a certain type of experience, we need to be able to monitor on the backend of that experience.” Chad’s worked with his team to build a survey to review experiences and track opportunities for improvement.
Beyond notetaking: Mountain America has adopted Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool provided through LPL and that helps advisors make more personal connections with investors. “It’s not like a client is going to come into our office and say, ‘You probably will take good notes about this interaction, so I'm going to work with you.’ They'll come back to us because of what we provide. They get a birthday card, for example. They get a letter from us after they open an account. They get a thank you card, or they get a nice invitation to an event of some sort. All of that is made possible through the usage of technology, like a CRM.”
Embrace the intangibles: “If you think about what technology does for the end client, they don't come into our office and ask for technology. They come in and ask for help with a particular problem.” Chad says. “The intangible is that the client doesn't really care about that particular system. They know that opening an account and getting a digital signature is simple. They know that they don't have to go out of their way during the day to come and visit us. They don't have to take a long lunch break. It's simple, it's convenient, and that's really what keeps them coming back to us.”