Wednesday, September 6, 2017 Stamford, CT USA — Asset managers can boost asset retention and cross-selling rates by using Client Journey Mapping to improve the quality of service they deliver to clients.

A new report from Greenwich Associates, Client Journey Mapping: Improving the Investor Experience, shows that although investment performance is by far the number-one determinant of clients’ perceptions of their asset managers, quality of client service has a direct and measurable impact on key business performance metrics. Asset managers with top-tier ratings for service have higher rates of asset retention, meaning they lose fewer assets during periods of underperformance. Managers with first-quartile service ratings also have win rates for product cross-sales more than double those of firms with low quality of service. 

Asset management firms—and other types of businesses—can achieve dramatic improvements in client service quality by using Client Journey Mapping, a process that identifies, assesses performance, and develops a formal continuous improvement process for every touch point between clients and the firm. These touch points extend from the first moment prospects become aware of the manager through marketing or thought leadership initiatives to prospect meetings, sales presentations, due diligence, fee negotiations, onboarding, reporting, advisory conversations, problem resolution, and termination/exit. 

The key to Client Journey Mapping is that it looks at the relationship from the outside in—from the perspective of the client interacting with the firm, as opposed to the firm servicing its clients. “For that reason, everything matters. Every interaction is connected, since every interaction has an impact on how the client views the organization,” says Mark Buckley, Greenwich Associates consultant and author of the report.

Moments of Truth
One of the main benefits of Client Journey Mapping is its ability to identify Moments of Truth, or the individual client touch points that have the biggest impact on client perceptions, and as such warrant the expenditure of extra attention and resources. “The Client Journey Mapping process reveals that managers consistently underestimate the importance of certain touch points,” says Mark Buckley. “One key example is that of informal conversations, which in reality, go a long way in shaping client perceptions of the firm.”