Adviser technology firm Hearsay Social has updated its proposition to help IFAs get the most of their multi-channel communications and stay on the right side of the regulator.
The social enterprise platform has added email and text messaging products to help advisers engage with existing and potential clients across social media, their own websites and now personalised messages.
Clara Shih, Hearsay Social’s chief executive and founder, explained that firms increasingly have to adapt to “omnichannel customers”, while addressing the “productivity pressure” from robo-advice options, direct-to-consumer sites and regulatory change.
She pointed to recent data from Forrester Research, which found that European online adults who have insurance policies spend, on average, just over 13 hours a week actively online.
“In less than a year, our platform will have grown from a single social business application to a full predictive omnichannel suite with four powerful solutions: Hearsay Social, Hearsay Sites, Hearsay Mail and Hearsay Messages.”
In April, the firm’s vice-president of legal and compliance Yasmin Zarabi responded to the Financial Conduct Authority’s guidance on using social media, claiming that few advisers were fully conversant with the new channels.
She pointed to research carried out by Hearsay Social last year, which found that while 58 per cent of UK financial advisers used social channels for business, only 25 per cent stated their employer had a policy governing its use.
Hearsay’s Predictive Content Library recommends pre-approved, compliant content based on client interests and interactions for advisers to share on social media, their own mobile-optimised websites and via one-to-one emails.
The new Hearsay Mail application will enable advisers to quickly customise and send one-to-one personalised emails to their contacts.
It also will provide a single view of each contact that shows which emails were sent, opened or clicked, informing what content to suggest for future emails.
Meanwhile, the Hearsay Messages application will let advisers to exchange texts, set appointments and send reminder messages to their contacts using the same compliance functionality as the rest of the suite.
Additionally, corporate compliance teams will be able to supervise and prevent potentially inappropriate texts between advisors and customers.
peter.walker@ft.com
