In our conversations with advisers, platform usability and the user experience is becoming an increasingly prominent area of focus. Arguably, alongside charges, it’s the next platform battleground. And once platforms have cleared the hurdle of upgrading the core platform technology and finalised MiFID II preparations, they will be freer to focus on the user experience.
Usability is a theme that runs through Platforum’s conference next week. Mark Till, Aegon’s Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer is delivering the opening keynote address on how platforms must evolve, culminating in our adviser panel discussion on ‘the hallmarks of the perfect platform.’
And rightly so, adviser and platforms alike acknowledge the power of excellent UX. Indeed, many platforms lament that most or all of their change budgets have been diverted to comply with new regulations rather than to delivering better customer experience.
When advisers tell us their top 5 musts of the perfect platform, 55% place usability in their top 5. This quarter, a higher percentage of advisers see usability as the top must rather than investment choices. As investment choice increasingly becomes a hygiene factor, advisers are turning their attention to usability.
In our recent UK Adviser Platform Guide we assessed how well platforms were doing on usability by going to advisers to understand where platforms should be focussing their efforts to really improve the user experience. So we put the platforms through their paces by road testing them to get a better measure of usability and functionality. In addition to demos from the platforms we sat behind advisers in their offices and watched them use the platforms.
The message loud and clear from advisers is that platforms need to get the basics right. And for advisers and paraplanners getting the basics right means improving functionality in these core areas:
- Client onboarding
- Model portfolio functionality
- Adviser/platform charges
- Signatures
- Payments
Advisers expect technology to help them to build efficient scalable businesses and improving usability has an important part to play.
When platforms get it right, it’s a powerful partnership:
“They are easy to do business with. The systems from the point of quoting to getting them set up online is very straightforward and for both me and the client. The clients that I do put through are very happy with the service so that’s why I keep using them.” Financial adviser
We expect to see major strides being made by platforms on user experience in the second half of 2018. But many haven’t been standing still, even if they are in the middle of upgrading their technology. Mark Till’s focus at Aegon, which he will cover in his keynote presentation at our conference next week, echoes the pleas we hear from advisers that platforms must get the basics right. Aegon is focussing on trying to reduce the number of steps in each process to the minimum – making some of the basic tasks on platform such as client onboarding simpler and faster to complete.
Mark tells us “We’re excited about these simple but powerful enhancements. We’re confident they strike the right balance between delivering an interface that still feels familiar and is instantly easy to use but that can also help future-proof a business – providing the advanced functionality that can help the day-to-day activities of advisers flow effortlessly.
We intend to keep investing in our UX, responding to user feedback and innovating further where it can add genuine benefits for advisers and their clients – but never, making change just for change’s sake, because the very best design often is not about deciding what to add but what to leave out.
By doing the basics really well, we hope to help keep the core business of administering portfolios perfectly simple. And in these complex times, we figure that’s the best way to keep everyone happy.”
You can hear more from Mark on this topic at the Platforum 2017 conference, 10th October etc.venues St Pauls. We will also share some of the findings from our usability testing.
There is still time to register. You can register for the conference here