Client Onboarding: Turn Obligation Into Opportunity

What's your onboarding process?

Like every other interaction with business these days, customers expect client onboarding and new account opening to be fast, efficient, and easy. Traditionally, onboarding in financial services has been a paper-based process not known for its efficiency. We’ve all had an experience that went something like this: “I need to ask you some questions … Sorry, I need that information again to fill out another form … And another form … Now please sign here … and here … and here … Now, hang on while I get you a photocopy …”

Assuming no errors and all the right forms, processing and account opening could happen within a few days. Any missing information meant another visit with the firm and another delay. And, unfortunately, it’s easy to miss a form or check the wrong box when complex compliance requirements like Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering come into play.

As financial services firms strategize on initiatives to ease the struggle of client onboarding, savvy firms are realizing they can not only provide the streamlined experience customers expect but actually benefit from the interaction.

First, you need to digitize onboarding …

Customers want their firm of choice to leverage any information they already have to anticipate their needs and streamline onboarding. Chances are, by the time onboarding occurs, firms already have enough information on file to know or anticipate a client’s needs and goals and to make recommendations. So why not use business process management and that information to select the right forms and prefill them?

A digital solution that delivers business process management capabilities integrated with CRM and back office data sources can pre-populate forms with any existing information, dynamically select the right forms in accordance with the data input, validate data input on the spot, leverage e-signature technology to obtain signatures, and submit forms into an approval workflow. It can also synchronize any new information with back office systems to ensure everyone is working from complete, up-to-date information. No need to repeat information, guess at the correct forms, or wait for days for approval.

It doesn’t get faster, more efficient and easier than that. What more could your customers ask for?

… then you need to enhance it

But wait! What if you could take advantage of the onboarding meeting to gain the extra information you need to uncover new opportunities? Information about extended family, interests, and more … information that can be used throughout the relationship to:

• Increase share of wallet and household
• Deliver intelligent, proactive service
• Develop trust and goodwill with the client
• Foster warm leads and referrals
• Improve the effectiveness of marketing and customer loyalty campaigns

In today’s digital world, face-to-face interactions are few and far between. Onboarding is an excellent time to gather additional information and, with the digital process minimizing the amount of information you need to collect, it’s easy to slip in a few extra questions without impacting efficiency.

By combining business process management’s automation with integrated CRM in a digital solution, firms can improve the customer experience, comply with regulatory requirements, and enrich the customer profile to increase share of wallet well into the future.

To learn more about NexJ’s digital client onboarding solution, check out our Client Onboarding page or send a message. We’d love to hear from you.