July 31, 2024

Integrating Digital Onboarding with Existing CRM Systems

The wealth management industry thrives on relationships, making Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics essential components of their tech stacks. However, inefficiencies and revenue losses often stem from disconnected systems and data silos.

Mako addresses these issues by integrating our onboarding solution with CRMs, ensuring seamless data consistency throughout the client’s onboarding process.

This integration further improves data accuracy, streamlines workflows, and enhances client satisfaction, leading to better client retention and increased acquisition.

This article will explore Mako’s CRM integrations, their benefits, and provide a detailed plan for implementation.

Understanding the Benefits of CRM Integrations

Integrating an onboarding platform with a CRM enhances the prospecting process, personalizes communication, and improves lead tracking. By capturing and organizing lead information automatically, advisors can focus on building quality relationships and grow AUM and revenue faster.

This integration will further eliminate manual data entry, streamline compliance, and provide real-time updates. It will also significantly expedite the onboarding process, as advisors can automatically transfer client information from their CRM to onboarding forms at an accelerated pace and without the risk of errors.

Additionally, this will ensure that all internal requirements are met, client information is consistent between all systems, and a higher quality of customer service is delivered.

In addition to a quicker onboarding process, a seamless integration boosts revenue through enhanced client experiences, operational efficiency, and data-driven decision-making. A faster onboarding process improves client satisfaction, retention, and reduces administrative workload.

Step One: Data Organization

The first step in this type of integration is identifying your objectives in linking the platforms. Your objectives will likely include:

Faster client onboarding
Higher client response rate
Establishing a single source of truth

It’s also a good idea to list all the required stakeholders, from IT to client-facing employees, to ensure the solution fits the entire company's needs. Next, it’s time to inventory the data required to make the connection a success:

Household structure
Account information
Forms required and the information path for each field
APIs
Any existing infrastructure that could be reused

Mapping out your goals and the data linkages required to achieve them will allow your team to remain focused and ensure the onboarding-CRM connection has the most impact on your business.

This detailed record of data inventories and their respective links creates a robust framework that can be referenced throughout the integration to ensure your team is staying on track.

Step Two: Planning the Integration Process

Even when a digital onboarding platform like Mako directly integrates with CRMs, the user experience and data paths must still be carefully designed. The first step of the integration process should begin with a business process review(BPR). The statement of work resulting from this evaluation should include:

Timelines
Responsibilities of every involved member of the team
Milestones
Data migration plan
Integration and user acceptance testing

Another crucial aspect to map out is what each platform will handle so you don’t end up with redundancies and to ensure the best tool is used for every situation. Here is an example of this delimitation:

CRM tasks

Client interaction logging
Follow-up scheduling
Centralized data storage
Lead management
Sending notifications to clients via predetermined triggers

Digital onboarding platform tasks

Digital forms
Document submission
Initial data capture
Audit trail
Compliance checks like KYC and AML

This might seem like a no-brainer process, but it is essential to write it down and include it within your training manual, so your employees know exactly which platform to rely on for each task.

Clear and comprehensive documentation is essential for planning, the core of any employee training material, and a helpful guideline when support assesses issues.

With a well-documented and meticulously planned integration process, your organization can move forward with confidence, knowing that the groundwork has been laid for successful training, documentation, and support. This proactive approach sets the stage for a seamless and efficient integration, ultimately driving better outcomes for your business.

After Implementation: Documentation, Training and Support

Integrating a CRM with a digital onboarding platform like Mako can improve efficiency, but employees can experience a learning curve like with any new workflow. Without a detailed training program, staff could create data duplicates without realizing it or not utilize the new connection between the two software to its full extent.

Take advantage of varied types of content to ensure high knowledge retention and training completion rates. Mix in personalized manuals, in-person training, and rich media like videos to keep users engaged. This practice will provide your staff with a wealth of information while also showing your dedication to this new solution.

Training programs are very personal to each organization, but here are some subjects that are common enough to be present in all of them:

Overview of the integration and how to utilize it
Launching a workflow from the CRM
Updating client information
Data management

This type of integration often involves data migration and complex ties between forms. Questions and mistakes are bound to happen, and you should have a dedicated support resource to fix these issues, whether in-house or through your vendor.

Make sure you hold comprehensive training sessions as the integration is being rolled out, with frequent refreshers as new features or regulations are introduced. Ongoing support shouldn’t just be helpdesk-based; it should encourage the user to tackle their own issues through FAQs and knowledge bases.

It goes without saying that integrating CRM with your digital onboarding should be part of a larger initiative focused on creating a culture of digital transformation. To ensure maximum efficiency, hold scheduled review sessions and encourage employees to provide feedback on the platform.

Mako’s CRM Integrations

Mako Fintech integrates with the most popular wealth management CRMs in order to offer the most flexible digital onboarding experience possible to the market. Here are the tasks you can execute with CRMs connected to Mako:

Data sync between clients on Salesforce/Dynamics and Mako
Creating new or updated records in the CRM when data is entered by a user in a Mako workflow
Creating new records in Mako when a record is created or updated in the CRM
Clicking a link in the CRM to launch a Mako workflow for a specific investor
Updating the CRM with links to completed, signed onboarding forms produced by Mako
Updating the CRM with custodian account opening status from Mako’s straight-through processing APIs

Not sure if Mako supports your preferred CRM? While Mako natively supports Salesforce and Dynamics, many commonly used CRMs in the wealth space are actually based on one of those systems (such as SS&C Salentica, Infinite Investment Systems’s Melody CRM, and Practifi), and we’re constantly adding new CRM support like HubSpot.

Driving Revenue Growth Through Onboarding

Integrating fintech solutions with existing CRM systems is not just a technological upgrade; it is a strategic move that enhances client relationship management and operational efficiency in wealth management.

This integration leads to improved client onboarding, enhanced reporting capabilities, and a unified source of truth, ultimately driving revenue growth and better client service.

This integration positions wealth management officesto thrive in a competitive market by staying ahead of technological trends and meeting the evolving needs of their clients.

Embracing fintech integration is a proactive approach that not only streamlines operations but also strengthens the overall strategic foundation of wealth management firms, leading to sustained growth and success in the industry.

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Technology and Efficiency in Wealth Management

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So in my view an appropriately diversified portfolio should have enough exposure to different asset classes, that its able to withstand a wide range of market disruptions. Usually, it’s some kind of negative or positive event… they’ll affect different asset classes differently. So by having your eggs in different baskets you’ll be well insulated from major risk. For example, there’s some kind of change in the housing market… both by having some exposure to it, you won’t miss out on the opportunity to make money. But if it’s something negative, you’re also not going to lose all your money if all of it were in the housing market for example. So at a high level, a properly diversified portfolio should grow in a growing market and yet not be at risk of major losses in a declining market.
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You asked also about an efficiently diversified portfolio, and I would say that that’s a portfolio that achieves those goals with a minimum of different positions. There’s a lot of good reasons to have fewer positions in your portfolio. Being less complex means a portfolio is easier to rebalance and administer. Every time part of your portfolio goes up or down, you're going to need to rebalance it a little to make sure that it stays with the right allocations and the fewer positions you have, the easier it is to do that..the less trading fees you incur doing that.
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There is a tradeoff between being completely diversified and being efficiently diversified. If you were completely diversified then you’d have a proportional segment of absolutely everything you could invest in under the sun, like shares of palm oil futures or something like that. I don’t think everyone should have palm oil futures in their portfolio but I’m not a wealth manager. I think it comes down to your portfolio and how large it is (probably the Canada Pension Plan has a proportion of palm oil futures in it). You’re going to have to talk to your advisor and choose a degree of complexity that’s right for your portfolio.
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CN: Let’s just take a step back - what does a typical portfolio look like and has that changed over time?
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RB: Yeah, so I'm not entirely sure what a typical portfolio looks like these days because it's actually changed quite a lot over time. I think common wisdom used to be that the classic balanced portfolio was 60% public stocks and 40% bonds. These days that's ancient history. Most would say that the bond allocation should be a lot lower these days in this age of unprecedented low-interest rates. These days it’s the stock portfolio that’s been driving a lot of the growth. I think a well-diversified portfolio in the modern era should absolutely include exposure to all kinds of alternative assets (that aren't even really that alternative but still kind of fall out of that traditional bucket). So you know I mentioned real estate, private companies, maybe for example commodities or other types of investments. So I think that there are a lot of things that you can invest in and your advisor can guide you on what’s appropriate for you.
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CN: Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Talking about alternative investments, we’ve heard a lot this year about ESGs, impact investing, alternative investments… do you think there’s more of an appetite today for these types of investments than in the last ten years?
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RB: Yeah that’s a topic that’s close to my heart having previously started an impact investment company. It’s definitely been a gigantic increase in interest. I think when I started my previous company we were speaking to large wealth managers and having them say “we’re barely getting a grip on early ideas.” Like not including gun manufacturers or tobacco companies, and now these same companies are launching impact portfolios and marketing this aggressively. So there’s definitely been a seat change, it’s a real industry, and there’s a lot of studies out there and data showing that ESG or impact investing can equal or outperform non-impact investments. So I think it’s a huge part of the market these days. That said, one of the things that’s driving it is people’s interest in it. I think that one of the stories of the investment industry has been the personalization of it. People’s portfolios are being tailored to their own needs and circumstances. Impact investing is definitely a piece of that. People are environmentalists, but an institution is not an environmentalist. It doesn’t live and breathe the impact on the environment the way an individual does. The person who is active in the David Suzuki Foundation for example is going to be active as an impact investor and it’s appropriate for them to be.

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That’s a great question. I think there's a lot of advantages and you gain a lot with an automated platform. For me, it's a lot easier to manage. I have some of my money in one of these platforms and I barely think about it. It's being rebalanced all the time. The costs are much lower in terms of expense ratio for the same kind of rebalancing. Again you're missing a lot with that, but on just the mechanical portfolio rebalancing you're getting a great deal there. I would say that two other advantages are up-to-the-minute reporting, so you always have that login where you can see your position, see how your portfolio is doing historically. And finally, this is an advantage for me and anyone who doesn't love doing taxes, but typically they’ll take care of your tax forms for you, and end up with much simpler tax forms, so it kind of works out what your cost basis was and how much you have to report.
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CN: So let's talk about the other side of the coin then...what are the risks of not having a seasoned professional managing your money?
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RB: I wouldn’t exactly phrase the question that way. You know it's more what’s the benefits of having a real wealth manager? Some of the clients of robo advisory firms may not even be aware that they're missing out. A wealth manager isn't just balancing your stocks and bonds, that's kind of the very lowest mechanical level of what you get out of the wealth manager. Really they're your advisor on your life. Intimately intertwined with you because you're thinking about retirement planning, on planning for college for your kids, when is the right time to buy a house, and when should you get life insurance, for example. An advisor can help you with all of those decisions and they can connect you with service providers like a mortgage broker when you may be in need of one. So I think that you get a lot of value out of having one of these advisers, particularly when you get to a stage in life when these kinds of services are more about the long-term and your life circumstances are far more critical.
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CN: There are clearly pros and cons and two sides of the story depending on who you're asking. Like you said, what stage of their life they’re in ...but do you think the platforms that we’re seeing emerging like to Qtrade, Wealthsimple, and all the rest will ever become status quo?
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RB: Yeah, I do actually. I think that similarly to how you know we’re using online platforms to automate everything for us (I can’t think of the last time I used to travel for example), everything you’re going to be trying to do with your money is going to be automated, and it’s going to be appropriate to be handled by one of these one of these platforms. In particular, for most people at an early stage in their lives that have few assets to manage, not a lot of complexity, not a very extended personal family circumstance, it’s gonna make a lot of sense to have a low fee robo worry about it. But at some point their life circumstances are going to get more complex and you’re gonna get married, or maybe you’re not, or you may have other objectives that you may want some advice on and at that point it may make sense to either supplement the robo advisory portion of your portfolio, or graduate to a more holistic wealth management view.
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CN: Thank you so much Raph, these answers were great. It’s always insightful chatting with you so thanks for sharing those answers with us today.
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RB: It’s my pleasure.

Mako Fintech Team

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