Technology plays an essential role in the financial services industry. Whether you’re an investment advisor, banking executive, tax preparer, insurance agent, or accountant, you likely use various software systems, applications, and communication platforms each workday. Technology enables your industry to grow, but it also contributes to the competition within.
If you want to get ahead in the financial services industry, you need the best technology available to you and your employees—Salesforce’s financial services cloud. With its innovative wealth management system, ironclad security measures, and customizable features, Salesforce can streamline your operations and give you the tools you need to grow.
Not sure if the financial services cloud is the right choice for your business? Keep reading to learn the top five signs that your business needs Salesforce.
What Is Salesforce Financial Services Cloud?
The financial services cloud is a fully customizable, cloud-based application integrated into the Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) platform. After consulting leading businesses in the financial services sector, Salesforce developed the application as an all-in-one wealth management, customer service, and business growth tool.
How To Use Salesforce for Wealth Management
Financial institutions can use the financial services cloud to:
- Create profiles for individual customers
- Enter and analyze critical information
- View relationships between individuals
- Automate and track tasks, such as policy renewals, document creation, and account review meetings
- Consolidate multiple data points from separate sources
- Predict future client outcomes
- Access intelligent recommendations for next steps, such as following up or suggesting a new product
- Track potential customers
Depending on the type of business you own, you can customize the financial services cloud to fit your needs. For example, you might need extra capabilities to manage deposits, withdrawals, and other account actions if you’re in the banking industry. Financial advisors may need more client and sales-centric features. With help from a certified Salesforce consultant, you can easily transform your financial services cloud into the perfect wealth management application for your business.
5 Signs You Need Salesforce CRM for the Financial Services Industry
Here are the top five signs that you should invest in the Salesforce financial services cloud.
1. Your Current Technology Is Disjointed
Do you have to open three different applications to find every piece of information you need for a client meeting? When audit season comes around, does your team have to scramble to find relevant documents? If your data is currently scattered in different places, you need a consolidated solution.
With Salesforce, you can easily access every critical piece of data from one platform. It’s easy to enter and update information in the CRM system, and you can also integrate data from other sources. For example, if you’re not ready to give up your existing accounting platform, you don’t have to—you can connect your old platform with Salesforce to create a seamless transition. Plus, you can also easily link your email and Google productivity apps to Salesforce.
Your financial accounts are full of sensitive information, and you need a way to keep that information organized if you want to operate smoothly. Salesforce categorizes your data and makes it easily accessible to the employees who need it.
2. You Want To Streamline Financial Services Tasks
When you’re juggling an expansive book of business, it’s easy for minor tasks to fall through the cracks. If you fail to track and automate each project step, you risk forgetting about your quarterly client meeting or your new client’s policy change. While one missed meeting may not seem like a huge deal in the grand scheme of your business, it could cost you a valuable client relationship.
With Salesforce, you can create an actionable task for every policy change, trade, quarterly review meeting, sales appointment, real estate closing, tax document, or any other project. Then, designated administrators can assign those tasks to different members of your team and track completion. Until an employee completes a task, it won’t leave your workflow, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked.
3. You’re Worried About Data Security and Compliance
The financial services sector is subject to strict data security standards. Your financial services company is most likely subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires companies to protect consumers’ privacy and disclose their information sharing practices. Additionally, you may have to comply with additional industry-specific standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
Regardless of the regulations that federal and state agencies require you to follow, it is always a good practice to protect your sensitive data. A data breach could ruin your reputation as a trustworthy financial services provider and lead to costly client lawsuits. If you want to prevent a potentially devastating cyberattack, avoid steep fines, and protect your clients’ privacy, you need to store your data in a system with strong security measures.
Because Salesforce developed the financial services cloud specifically for your industry, they included multiple compliance features and stringent security measures. For example, you can prevent accidental data breaches by restricting users’ access to private information. Placing employees in permission tiers ensures that only essential team members with extensive security training can view sensitive data.
The financial services cloud also includes Salesforce Shield, which adds an extra layer of security. Salesforce Shield contains three key security features:
- Platform Encryption: To help you comply with security standards and keep your data out of unauthorized hands, Salesforce allows you to encrypt confidential information. Your key employees can control who is able to access the encrypted data.
- Event Monitoring: Using Salesforce’s Real-Time Event Monitoring system, you can see who is currently viewing confidential information at any given time and where they are. If you notice an unusual volume of activity or a user in a suspicious location, you can immediately mitigate the threat.
- Field Audit Trail: The Salesforce Field Audit Trail gives you a current overview of your data and tracks your information from the past 10 years. This feature lets you see how your business has changed over time, pull documents for audits, maintain regulatory compliance, and provide excellent customer service.
As a cloud-based system, Salesforce keeps your information secure by storing it across multiple data center locations. You don’t have to worry about guarding an on-premises server room or backing up your data—Salesforce handles safe data storage on your behalf.
4. You Want To Improve Customer Relationships
Salesforce consolidates your customer data into an easily accessible profile, allowing you to see where their account currently stands. When your customers call with a question about their latest transaction, you don’t have to dig through your email and several data management systems to confirm its current status. Instead, you can type your customer’s name into Salesforce, click on their profile, and get the answers you need from one place.
Salesforce also lets you track your clients’ major events, such as buying a house, getting married, having a child, or expanding their business. You can use this information to gain a better understanding of your clients’ financial needs and concerns. The more you know about your clients, the stronger your relationship will be.
In addition to automating client tasks and displaying real-time analytics, Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recommend actions. The AI can determine which clients might increase their assets, find relationships between current customers and potential leads, and suggest measures that could strengthen strained client relationships.
5. You Need a Better Way To Boost Productivity
You can’t afford to waste time in the financial services industry. If your client is waiting for you to approve a loan before they can submit an offer for a new home, a day’s delay could cause them to lose out to another buyer. Similarly, your client could suffer an uncovered property loss if you fail to swiftly process a change to their insurance policy. Your employees are less likely to slip up and jeopardize a client relationship when operating at peak productivity.
With Salesforce, you can customize your applications and processes to fit your business and enhance productivity. Instead of tweaking data and editing reports created by a generic software system, you can get exactly what you need from the financial services cloud without any extra effort. Additionally, even if your employees are spread out across different locations—your office, their homes, airport lobbies, coffee shops, or anywhere with an internet connection—they can still complete their work.
The Salesforce financial services cloud also gives your employees an overview of their upcoming projects, allowing them to determine which projects are high priority. Your team members can start each day with a clear plan and focus on their most urgent tasks.
Need Help Adopting Cloud Computing in the Banking and Financial Services Industry?
If you recognize any of the above five signs, it may be time to switch from your current system to Salesforce’s financial services cloud. However, switching to a cloud-based system like Salesforce can be a daunting task. How can you ensure that your current data safely migrates to the cloud? What if your employees don’t know how to use Salesforce?
You don’t have to navigate the transition to Salesforce alone. Whether you’re already an avid user and need help implementing the financial services cloud or you’re new to the world of cloud computing, Abstrakt Cloud Solutions can make the transition effortless.
Our Salesforce experts can guide you through the implementation process and educate your employees on their new system. From there, we offer ongoing managed services and custom application development to fit your company’s needs. We know from experience that Salesforce is the best CRM for the financial services industry, and we want to help you make the most of your technology.
Get in touch today to learn more about our Salesforce solutions for the financial services industry.
