More than 80 percent of Americans text regularly, making it the fastest and easiest way to communicate, according to Pew Research. Yet only a fraction of advisory firms currently use texting to communicate with their clients.
Most will adopt the default position that compliance is to blame, but it’s no longer a ready excuse for their Luddite tendencies.
CRM provider Redtail Technology has launched Redtail Speak, a compliance-approved communication platform that enables advisors to text with clients, directly in the Redtail CRM.
“Speak allows advisors to provide a higher level of service to their clients while remaining compliant with all federal rules and regulations, including FINRA’s new regulatory notice which states that all text messaging conversations must be recorded,” according to the California-based company. “Every conversation, message and document is fully searchable and automatically archived, recorded daily and shared with the advisor’s email surveillance provider, offering advisors a safe, compliance-approved way to communicate with their clients.”
Redtail Speak is “completely customizable “to fit the needs of every advisor and client, aligning with the communication preferences from a range of generations.
Advisors send a message through Speak to a client’s mobile number, and when the client replies via text, the message appears on Speak.
Speak also has built-in customizable preferences for notifications, messages, invitations, out of office replies and the area code of the phone number that clients will be texting.
“If advisors are already texting their clients, chances are they’re doing it out of compliance, and if they aren’t, they’re missing out on a huge opportunity,” said Redtail Technology CEO Brian McLaughlin. “Today, people have come to expect real-time communication, and Speak’s revolutionary software enables advisors to meet those needs.”
Advisors and all dedicated team members will be notified when they receive a new message from their respective client or team members.
“This empowers advisors to communicate directly with colleagues, without ever leaving Redtail’s CRM. Speak also facilitates a more collaborative environment by providing team members with access to the same communication thread, eliminating bottlenecks. Ultimately, this decreases advisors’ business costs, increases efficiencies and provides advisors with a higher-level of service as they get more time to focus on their clients.”
Speak is currently integrated with Orion Advisor Services and Riskalyze, and Redtail will continue to announce new integration partners quarterly.
