{"id":21603,"date":"2022-12-06T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davies-group.com\/consulting\/blog\/asset-managers-how-good-is-your-customer-experience\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:28:30","slug":"asset-managers-how-good-is-your-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/davies-group.com\/consulting\/blog\/asset-managers-how-good-is-your-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Asset Managers – how good is your customer experience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having a robust CX strategy is critical. Here’s why. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Customer experience or CX, is more than just customer service excellence.\u00a0 It is everything and everyone a customer touches, hears, sees, and talks to from your organisation and the perception that it creates. As an asset manager, CX goes beyond your distribution and service team to the portfolio managers who engage with customers as well as the non-customer facing teams. And it requires a consistent approach across all your customer types – institutional, wholesale and retail, spanning the distribution value chain, and across all the intermediaries – platforms, IFAs, wealth managers, investment consultants – that engage with your customers. In fact, in many industry sectors, not least banking and retail, CX is recognised as #1 driver of business and digital transformation and increasingly as the top strategic measurement for organisational performance.<\/p>\n

Davies\u2019s research shows that when Asset Managers were asked – what are the development drivers for improving customer reporting in the short to medium term?<\/em> The top three drivers selected were: understanding and improving the customer experience, at 80%; improving efficiency and reducing operational costs, at 63% and responding to regulatory demands, at 51%.<\/p>\n

Little wonder that in the highly competitive and increasingly regulated asset management industry, good product and performance at a competitive price are a given.\u00a0 Customer experience is becoming the key differentiator both in gaining assets, onboarding, and crucially customer retention. Asset managers who have transformed their business and made customer experience part of their firm\u2019s DNA are, like other sectors, seeing an improvement in customer loyalty, employee engagement and commercial performance.<\/p>\n

You may think \u201cSure but this is nothing new. We’ve served customers for years without having a strategy.<\/em>\u201d But times have changed, and expectations have rapidly evolved. Most asset management firms will have a financial, marketing, and technology strategy. All need a consistent, tangible strategy for managing their CX, the very thing that defines how they interact with their customer \u2013 institutional or individual investors – whose business enables the organisation to exist and grow.<\/p>\n

A clear case for CX<\/strong><\/h2>\n

CX is not a nice to have or optional add-on; it\u2019s a core business discipline and set of competencies that impact every aspect of your customer lifecycle, from attraction and onboarding through ongoing servicing and retention. Its sound business modelling which needs to be developed and managed via measurable business frameworks to become a value-based mechanism for change with clear ROI attachment.<\/p>\n

A deliberate and designed customer experience impacts profitable outcomes in two ways: increased revenue retention protects gross profits, and minimising end-to-end complexity manages costs and defends net profits. Purposefully designed CX will get you noticed and retain your customers\u2019 confidence.<\/p>\n

In general, asset management lags behind other sectors in CX, although some firms have already aligned their strategy and operating model to optimise the customer experience, and others are beginning their journey with the appointment of a Head of CX. Nevertheless overall, it is fair to say that the vast majority are behind. There are several reasons for this, including:<\/p>\n