Piecing an all rounded view for financial advisers

Designed for tablet app • Research • User testing

Feature highlights

  1. Centralised client database

  2. for a single source of truth

  1. Mass send emails automatically

  2. to specific client groups

  1. Single platform

  2. for all client related activities

  1. Notifications

  2. on clients’ upcoming birthdays and policy renewals

Preview of experience

Background

Adviser Customer Experience (ACE) is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool for Financial Advisers (FAs). It was built from a combination of new and existing features from multiple in-house standalone apps.

The strategy is to create an omni channel experience to allow FAs from all three distribution channels - Singlife, Affinity and PIAS to access a one-stop single app.

This would increase efficiency, reduce administrative works and empower FAs to focus on building long-term relationships with their clients.

  • My role

  • UX Designer (worked alongside with a Senior UX Designer)

    Responsible for research, conceptualisation, design for Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and ensure design is implemented as per intended.

  • Project team

  • Business Owners, Business Analyst, UX Designers, Front End Developer

  • Timeline

  • May 2020 - May 2021

  • Tools

  • Sketch, Invision, Zeplin, Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, WebEx

Problem

There are multiple in-house standalone apps (with different login credentials) for FAs to store clients' information, perform financial planning and client servicing.

Sentiments of FAs gathered over time attested to the demand of a single robust tool to aid efficiency for better client engagement.

How might we leverage on existing features and also introduce useful features, to value add and empower the FAs?

Areas of focus

Click on the respective cards for details

Making ideas come to live

Ideate, Prototype, Develop

Understanding users and their needs

Background

To build the tool for users, we need to know their day to day journey and experiences to gain a deeper understanding of their behaviours and the reasons why they do what they do.

Method

💬

User interview

We interviewed 6 participants of different ranks (via Webex), with varied years of experience in the company to understand:

• What’s the typical journey from start to sales closure with clients
‍
• What are the challenges FAs faced in order to engage clients better in this journey
‍
• How does having a CRM tool helps with this and what are the most critical features

🔎

Summary of findings

Most FAs felt the most important aspect of their job is building relationships with clients.

However, they spend a large amount of time doing administrative and data entry rather than focusing on bringing value added services to their clients.

😫

Biggest pain points faced

• Lack of a centralised client database
• Excessive administrative work and data entry          
• Utilisation of physical papers for policy signing                  

✏️

Rank of tools and features

We’ve also asked them to rank a list of CRM tools and features based on a concise list from the competitor research done.

1.

Centralise client database (Most important)
A place where FA can store and search for clients’ information.

2.

Notifications and reminders
To remind FAs on important notice such as client’s birthday or premium due date.

3.

Mail function
To allow mass email through mail merge.

4.

e-Card
Sending of e-Cards during client’s birthday, festive seasons and more.

5.

Calendar
Single view of all appointments, reminders and important dates.

6.

e-Biz card
Electronic business card.

Finding out the missing gaps

Background

There are 2 popular application tools within Singapore’s financial advisory industry that are well used by many FAs.

Having a better understanding of their competitive edge and how they fair against existing in-house features would help better inform the approach we take when building the tool.

Methods

  • 🔎

    Competitor research
    • List of all competitors and in-house functions.                   
    • Highlight competitors’ selling points

  • 📑

    Feature comparison and heuristics evaluation
    • List out competitors’ merits based on similar functionalities (identified in competitor research).

Competitor research

Competitors’ selling points
Auto recommending suitable products based on client's information.
‍
Adding video conferencing and generating a video conference link upon saving an event, especially useful during the Circuit Breaker period.
Sending messages/Whatsapp to inform clients when emails are sent to them.
Duplicating calendar events to save time from entering similar details.
Providing useful tips, such as actions to improve sales value, to enhance the experience, especially for new FAs in guiding them on the next steps.
Customising table columns for flexibility, impacting the experience on smaller devices.‍
Revoking access based on logged-in device history, particularly useful when FAs use a device that does not belong to them (similar to Whatsapp Web).

Feature comparison and heuristics evaluation

Feature comparison
Heuristics evalution

Making ideas coming to live

Background

After doing research and with a better understanding of the users, we came up with the Information Architecture (IA) and concept designs.

They were validated with developers to ensure there were no technical limitations from both front and back end.

Considerations

  • ⏱️

    Tight timeline
    Due to last minute changes in timeline, validations with users on designs would be done after MVP is released.

  • 🔀

    Combination of existing and new features
    For a quicker workaround, existing features are retained in its original interface. And new features need to be designed similarly for consistency.

  • 🚧

    Framework limitations
    To adhere to Aviva standards, screens are designed with available components. Thus the interface takes close resemblance to existing in-house apps.

Information Architecture

Included features

Based on the tools ranked by the FAs during the interview, the top 4 are incorporated into the app.

Feature 1

Centralised client database

A single source of truth with a search function for easier finding of clients’ information.

Feature 2

Notifications and reminders

Reminders for FAs on clients’ policy renewal, birthdays and anniversary.

Feature 3

Mass and automatically send email

Inform, remind and greet clients on different occasions such as policy renewal, birthdays and anniversary.

Feature 4

eCard for occasions/festive seasons

eCard template for easy sending to clients

End

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