How to Determine Where to Invest: AX or CX

Pop quiz! Which matters more for the success of your bank: Advisor Experience (AX) or Client Experience (CX)? In other words, which one would move the needle more for your bank if you invested in making it better?

Answer: It depends. Yes, that’s a bummer of an answer, but we’ll explain.

Should Your Bank Invest in AX or CX?

Where you invest your time, energy and money depends on which area of your company needs the most help, so let’s look at a few of the most important parts of your business and how each is affected by AX and CX.

Customer Satisfaction

This one’s a no-brainer, right? Of course you’d invest in CX to improve customer satisfaction. Right?!

Well, not so fast. Customer satisfaction is an amalgamation of several components, and most of them depend on your team doing their job well. 

If your people can open accounts quickly, use your systems to present clear information to answer client questions and 

In other words: The best way to improve customer satisfaction is to have a team that operates so efficiently and effectively that your customers hardly notice them. The way to do that is with an AX that gives your advisors access to all client information and is free of silos. 

Winner: AX

Employee Satisfaction & Retention

OK, the key to improving customer satisfaction turned out to be AX, so the key to employee satisfaction must be CX, right? Not quite. 

Just 48% of advisors say the core technology they use to do their jobs is “very valuable.” If the core technology you used on a day-to-day basis to do the basic functions of your job didn’t even qualify as “valuable” to you, how long do you think you’d stay at that job?

It’s kind of like if you were a writer and you only had a typewriter to do your job, but you knew that other writers were using laptops. It wouldn’t take too long before you’d start wondering how you could get a job that provides you with a laptop. 

As Manish Dave, Senior VP of Advisor Recruiting at Ameriprise, said in a recent CNBC op-ed on why advisors are leaving their firms: “​​Advisors should expect their firm to provide mobile-forward, integrated and secure systems that drive client satisfaction and practice efficiency.”

Winner: AX

Profitability

Ultimately, what would you say drives profitability at your bank? Is it the customers, or the advisors who draw in and retain the customers? This one’s kind of a no-brainer, but still worth a second look.

One of the banks that uses Wealth Access recently had an advisor with a client had sold a house and then, without telling his advisor, deposited a bunch of the proceeds from that sale in his checking account. The customer wasn’t hiding the money from his advisor, he just didn’t think to mention it. 

One of the core functions of Wealth Access is that your team can access all information on every client in one place, so the advisor was able to see this big pile of money in a non-interest bearing account. Without the customer even reaching out, the advisor was able to be proactive and help the client invest that money, thus increasing the bank’s AUM – and profitability.

Winner: AX

So What’s It Gonna Be?

We could go on and on like this all day. Efficiency, growth, effectiveness – so many of your bank’s core metrics depend on giving your team the tools they need to perform at an optimal level. 

To be clear: CX is an absolutely essential and foundational piece of customer satisfaction. If you focus on AX to the exclusion of CX, then your clients will be left with an incomplete solution for their financial needs. 

That being said, the first step of building any revolutionary new experience begins with equipping your people first.

A Great AX Begins with a Great Partner

The AX your team implements needs to be holistic, clean and integrated across your entire organization. Building a system like that takes time, planning and a partner who has a proven track record of helping other banks do the same thing.

At Wealth Access, we’ve helped banks of all sizes deliver AX and CX systems that connect and deliver the experience that you’ve been waiting for. Want to talk about how we could help you? Click here to schedule a demo today.