Hyper-personalisation: the next frontier?

Twenty years ago, the best way to deliver a personalised service to your clients was to actually get personal. You’d find out what they do for a living, learn the names of their kids and make sure their preferred type of coffee was waiting for them when they arrived at your office. 

Today, technology enables the most effective and beneficial service, says Finura Group director Peter Worn . Advancing the way we can connect and communicate through things like hyper-personalisation, which uses data, analytics, AI and automation to deliver a custom and targeted client experience. 

While the level of detail and automation is dependent on the sophistication of technology available, at its core hyper-personalisation is about using technology to deep-dive into client behaviours, preferences, goals and life stages at a granular level to deliver better client outcomes. 

“Using emerging AI tools to provide more on-demand advice and personalised content is the path forward,” Worn says. 

But it's not just about finding ever-more-efficient ways to inundate clients with endless strategies and products, he adds: “Hyper-personalisation, while a powerful concept, often becomes ensnared in its own buzzword trap, potentially leading to confusion rather than clarity. 

“At its heart, the key to scaling advice should be to simplify, not complicate, the path to achieving one's financial goals. It's about making the complex simple and personal, as well as understanding and anticipating their needs to offer meaningful, targeted advice.” 

With such a granular picture of your client’s wants and needs, your service can take on a bespoke edge in a number of ways: the advice you give, how you deliver it and even in how you engage with each individual client. 

So how do you deliver a personalised experience that’s both realistic and efficient?

1: Start on solid ground

To balance efficiency and personalisation, Worn says firms need to standardise the technology and processes that happen behind the scenes. 

“The best customer experiences look seamless to the outside observer,” Worn explains, “without making the customer even think about how it is delivered.” To achieve this, you need all your ducks in a row: your systems and processes, database management and automated client touchpoints.

2: Get segmented

Create segments within your client base and develop a “needs profile” for each segment. This is less about focusing on how much a client is willing to pay for your service or how much they have to invest and more about their needs at their lifestage. Worn says you can then make decisions regarding technology and communications channels based on these profiles. 

3: Find easy opportunities for targeting 

To anticipate customer needs and build solutions proactively requires “a very deep level of insight,” Worn says.

While this might seem like a daunting prospect – especially given that, as per our recent client engagement report, only 35% of practices retain sufficient data points to build meaningful client relationships – Worn says not every element needs to be customised to a granular level. He recommends that advice practices conduct experiments to identify the areas that matter most to their clients. 

Business Health partner Tony Stephens demonstrates the merits of this approach with an anecdote: he recalls an email he received from his financial adviser saying, "If you’re a low-risk investor, I might have an investment opportunity for you.” 

“The email didn’t address me individually,” he says, but the micro-targeted communications to a group still engaged him and captured his attention. 

4: Look for blind spots

Kim Payne , a business mentor for professionals, says many financial advisers overlook opportunities for personalisation during “blindspots” – such as those periods between client meetings “when not much is happening”. 

The 24 hours after a meeting is key, she says, as you can send an email acknowledging that you’ve shared a lot of information and outline what they can expect next: “From an experience point of view, [that email can] reinforce to your clients that working with you is the right decision.” 

The competitive edge

Ultimately, it’s possible to efficiently deliver hyper-personal advice if you keep your focus firmly on your client. And according to Worn, this client-focused approach is giving advice businesses a competitive edge in today’s market.

“We’re seeing a trend of advice firms who specialise in key demographics,” he says, “We expect to see this trend continuing. There are riches in niches.”