Formuesforvaltning
Having a rich life is about more than being wealthy. It’s about feeling secure, investing in a better future, and having the freedom to create. This is what Norwegian wealth management company, Formuesforvaltning (Formue) calls the Nordic way of wealth.
“Nothing matters more to us than our customers. We take a holistic approach to wealth management to find out what their goals are and how we can help them get there, that´s what we call Financial Life Management,” said Carl Sjöström, Chief Marketing Officer at Formue.
And, with Salesforce, Formue is pioneering a hybrid customer experience, combining the convenience and transparency of digital with the personal touch and guidance of a dedicated team of expert advisors.
Value can be more than just the sum of the assets
Formue is the largest independent wealth management firm in the Nordic region. It has more than NOK115Bn under management, a team of +300 employees, and 20 offices across Norway, Sweden, and London. In addition to tailoring services around the needs of the customer, it has a strong ethos of doing good for stakeholders, not shareholders.
“The financial services industry is lacking a likable brand that is truly independent and always sits on the customers side of the table. We want to flip that on its head and provide a premium service that is easy to understand and takes into account the customer's situation in life, while planning for the future. ,” said Sjöström.
For too long, the financial services industry has presented its products as the solution to customer challenges, wrapped in long-winded, complex technical language, with exceptions in fine print details. All based on the assumption that customers want to increase their returns to maximize their possessions when they pass away.
In most cases, customers have sufficient means to cope with the future. Formue’s task as a financial life manager is to make life better here and now for its customers. They don’t need to spend valuable time learning about different investment products in detail and sacrifice something today to achieve better returns tomorrow. They can instead define what is truly important, and allocate time, capital and abilities accordingly. Wealth becomes an enabler, rather than a goal in itself. This is Formue’s goal as a financial life manager rather than asset manager.
Its craftsmanship consists of going the extra mile so that customers will understand and follow expert advice. That doesn’t mean asking them to listen to long spiels or do their own research. But rather that Formue makes an effort to simplify, give an overview and weed out complicated language.
In 2017, the company had a vision to take customer-centricity to the next level, but it needed a central platform to align data and technology to bring it to life. After evaluating the solutions on the market, it implemented Salesforce solutions Financial Services Cloud, Pardot, Heroku, and Shield.
Working alongside implementation partner, Stretch, the team integrated Salesforce with the business intelligence solution, data warehouse, and workplace apps such as Microsoft Office.
“We had support from a Salesforce architect and attended a number of workshops to upskill the team,” said Anders Zachrisson, Chief Strategist at Formue. “We pulled processes together into one journey with Salesforce and haven’t looked back since.”
“We had support from a Salesforce architect and attended a number of workshops to upskill the team. We pulled processes together into one journey with Salesforce and haven’t looked back since.”
Creating a seamless experience without compromising safety.
To create a seamless customer experience, Formue needed to empower employees with a central CRM platform. Today, a diverse range of users from advisors to senior managers, and subject matter experts to the marketing team all use Financial Services Cloud as their single source of the truth.
Staff across the organisation take trails on MyTrailhead to learn how to use the platform to work smarter, including tips on how to have a perfect first meeting with a client, and to help new starters find their feet quickly. As the company releases new functionality every month, it also updates its trailmixes so users can easily get up to speed on any changes.
Different user groups need access to different levels of data to strike a balance between having full visibility of the customer and protecting sensitive data. The team defined personas and created custom dashboards to give the right people access to the information they need while protecting sensitive financial or customer data.
For example, higher management can see an overview of prospects and opportunities, heads of branches have visibility of how their team is performing, and only legal advisors can access sensitive data needed to offer comprehensive advice to customers.
Supporting the six steps of the customer journey.
The customer journey is broken down into six steps. The discovery phase and lead nurturing are managed by Pardot, while the sales pipeline, onboarding, engaging, and re-engaging are handled by Financial Services Cloud and a custom app built on Heroku.
When prospective customers register on the website, Salesforce captures data on their browsing habits and interests. They’re then sent on the most relevant email journey, targeting them with information that matches their history.
Leads are scored based on how likely they are to convert, so when they’re passed to the sales team they can focus on their time in the most valuable way. Once a lead converts, an advisor picks it up and arranges an initial meeting with the customer.
Following onboarding, customers then connect with financial planners and experts to put together their portfolio and personal wealth management plan. “Salesforce makes it easier for the whole team to collaborate directly with customers,” said Zachrisson. “They can go directly to their advisor or an expert to get the support they need quickly and easily. Salesforce is so much more than a CRM.”
Customers are also invited to webinars, networking events, and reviews every month or quarter to help them proactively manage their account.
The re-engage stage is all about trying to get the customer to refer a friend and to continue to use Formue’s services. Churn is low, with the average customer engagement lasting around 10 years, and the company is hoping its hybrid customer experience will build lifelong relationships with customers.
Empowering customers with a hybrid approach to wealth management.
While employees have a single view of the customer journey in Salesforce, customers have a unique level of insight and the power to self-serve and view their accounts via the custom app.
“We built the app on Heroku, using Heroku Connect to seamlessly integrate our customer solutions directly with the advisor cockpit in Salesforce. This creates a shared workbench for both employees and customers, which enables a live and dynamic digital interaction. It also helps us to have a single source of truth and radically improves development speed. ,” said Marius Jahren, Chief Technology Officer.
Using any device, customers can log into the app and have full visibility of their account in real time. If they need to complete an action such as filling in a risk assessment, they can do it at their own pace, without having to phone the support team.
“The app visualises the customer experience in an attractive and user-friendly way,” commented Jahren. “It connects them directly with our team of experts so they can go straight to the right person for advice. It’s the perfect blend of personable and digital.”
And, customers who are less tech savvy get the same seamless experience. If they don’t want to use the app themselves, the Formue team is still empowered with a 360-degree view of their account and can route their query to the right person.
Making smart investments from the inside out.
As more data is captured on Salesforce, Formue is becoming more data-driven in its approach, including tracking the results of marketing campaigns to determine ROI, and sharing data with advisors on how they can have better conversations with customers.
To further elevate the user experience, the team is looking at rolling out AI with Tableau CRM. Functionality such as next best action, for example, will prompt the team on how to be as efficient as possible.
“With strong foundations in place we can keep innovating on the Salesforce platform to achieve our business goals,” said Sjöström. “By fostering a culture of trust and empowerment with our customers we can help them make better decisions that enrich their lives and secure their legacy for the next generation.”
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