Sharyn Baker

Australian financial advisers surveyed for BT’s annual Adviser Sentiment Index 2024 have ranked customer service in the top three most important attributes for selecting a platform provider.^[1]

According to the more than 200 advisers who participated in the survey, only safety or security, and trustworthiness are more important than service.

“The Adviser Sentiment Index reflects the feedback we regularly receive from advisers and their clients,” said Sharyn Baker, Head of Service and Operations, BT. “What’s remarkable about this year’s findings is that the attributes that advisers value the most are the less tangible elements of the user experience. Safety, trustworthiness, and customer service rank above other attributes related to products and price. At a time when there are heightened geo-political tensions and market uncertainty, these experiential elements of service are leading advisers’ decision-making.”

BT has recently made a number of tech-enabled customer service enhancements, including a re-engineered pension refresh process.^[2]

“Our service philosophy is based on people taking the lead, with technology enabling improved performance to achieve customer satisfaction,” said Ms Baker. “Financial advice and investing are human activities, and clients’ financial decisions are often driven by emotion and logic. The right advice depends on each client’s circumstances, so human judgment is essential. This goes to the core of the value of advice, the trust that clients place on advisers.”

“As a platform provider, we know that advisers are placing their trust in our people, not just the technology, so we listen to feedback and learn where we can improve to deliver value and maintain a competitive edge,” Ms Baker added.

BT closely monitors adviser sentiment through its annual survey, the BT Adviser Sentiment Index. Survey participants use a range of wealth management platforms, including BT Panorama. The BT Adviser Sentiment Index indicates advisers (over 90% of those surveyed) want to work with wealth management brands that are ‘safe and secure’ and ‘trustworthy and honest’. Customer service ranks third, with the older cohort of advisers (50+ years of age) placing more emphasis on this attribute, relative to younger advisers (under 50 years) (93% vs 85%).

Pension refresh

Based on advisers’ feedback, BT has updated the process for implementing a pension refresh on BT Panorama. Launched in May 2024, the simplified process requires advisers to complete only one form, saving up to 30 minutes per request compared to the previous process. To date, over 1,200 advisers and their support staff have used the new process.

Around $136 billion in Funds Under Administration and 345,500 customer accounts are on BT’s platforms, with 27% of these in pension phase.^[3] A pension refresh strategy is implemented by advisers for clients who are looking to transfer their wealth from superannuation to pension in a tax-effective way, including those who are selling their primary residence and making ‘downsizer’ contributions into super.

Ms Baker said: “We consulted with advisers and their support teams on how we could improve our service delivery on the high volumes of pension refresh requests we receive. Advisers tell us that their service experience is far better than before, since we re-engineered the process.”

In addition, other platform enhancements such as the service request tracker and digital consents are becoming the norm for advisers on BT Panorama, with the majority having used these tools in the 12 months to June 2024. Digital consent data can now be fed into advisers’ connected XPlan software daily. It can also be requested by email or SMS. These changes have been designed to create efficiency for advisers and their support teams.

Service achievements

The BT Contact Centre receives over 20,000 phone contacts a month with an average speed of answer for each call of less than 30 seconds. BT won a Customer Service Institute of Australia award last year and is a finalist again this year.

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Notes:
[1] BT Adviser Sentiment Index: https://www.bt.com.au/professional/knowledge-centre/business-resources/business-development/bt-adviser-sentiment-index-2024.html
[2] More information on enhancements: https://www.bt.com.au/service.html#:~:text=Pension%20refresh%20made%20easy&text=For%20the%20majority%20of%20pension,to%2030%20minutes%20per%20request
[3] As of 30 June 2024.

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