Marketing consultant company SapientNitro has launched BT Financial Group’s adviser ratings site, Adviser View: a new online public adviser register that shows client satisfaction ratings and advisers’ qualifications.
This site helps BT lead the way in a new era of financial advice by providing consumers new ways of accessing information about financial advisers.
BTFG’s focus on the professionalism of its planners put it in a good position to be a leader in making financial advice more transparent to consumers. They enlisted SapientNitro to help them create a breakthrough solution to reveal more about their organization, their commitment to customers, and the listed advisers in a bid to be even more transparent and accountable. Using a mobile first methodology the agency developed a responsive crowd sourced ratings site on financial advisors. Customers accessed the site on mobile, tablets and the web to provide their feedback and verbatims on their adviser experience.
Marcos Kurowski, SapientNitro managing director Australia explains, “The Australian financial services industry is in a state of flux and consumers are looking for more reasons to trust advice and to seek out a financial adviser. Despite a high level of professionalism in the industry, high levels of regulatory change and consumer scrutiny have turned the spotlight on the ability of the industry to be relevant to more Australians.
“But the truth is, consumers need financial advice more now than ever. With dramatic demographic change taking place in the next decade, more Australians have to consider the issue of longevity and facing the possibility of outliving their finances.”
Mark Murray, chief marketing officer, BT Financial Group said, “Customers are looking for help when it comes to finding a financial adviser and this is what Adviser View does. It is a tool our customers can use to help them find a qualified, experienced financial planner. Customers can search by location or by a planner’s name and they will find a planner that meets the high ethical and professional standards of the BT Financial Group Advice network. It is simple, but this really means something to our customers and it means a lot to us.
“It is the game changer in our industry that puts customer needs first and empowers them to take control of the financial advice experience. To help customers find a financial planner they can trust and who will help them manage their finances both now and into the future, means our customers will have a brighter future and we can move closer to delivering our goal of more advice to more Australians.”
Kurowski added, “With the Advisor View site we created for BT Financial Group, they’re now first to market with a crowd sourced ratings solution – think TripAdvisor but for financial advice. The site aims to set a new benchmark for the financial advice industry by making financial advice client-driven. It gives all Australians the power to search, share and compare financial advisers in a major initiative by BT that focuses on improving the client experience, adviser professionalism and creates unprecedented transparency when choosing a financial advisor.”
The site is especially suited to anyone searching for a financial advisor, who may be sceptical about the quality of advice they have previously received.
The online advice register’s success will be measured by the number of ratings given by users, the unique visitors to, and leads generated from the site. SapientNitro has been working with BTFG for two years and began their relationship by redesigning the BT.com.au site.
Adviser View, accessible via www.btadviserview.com.au includes:
- Advisers’ education, qualifications, specialities and current license. All qualifications are verified by independent verification agency, First Advantage
- The ability for clients to rate their advice experience based on four questions. Responses will be shown on the register as a one-to-five star rating against each question for each adviser
- Functionality to search for advisers by name, postcode and speciality
- Free-text section for clients to provide qualitative feedback about their adviser.
Adviser View will link to the ASIC register once it is operational.
Aligned advisers in the Securitor, BT Select and BT Licensee dealer groups (who are not directly employed by the Westpac Group) will also reflect BT’s new ‘Advice Commitment’ (which details the service and standards clients should expect from their advisers) in time:
- Aligned advisers will be on Adviser View within weeks
- Aligned advisers will require the proposed minimum qualification (Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning, or the equivalent) by the end of 2016
- Aligned advisers will be required to hold either a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Fellow Charted Financial Practitioner (FChFP) or Masters of Financial Planning (MoFP) by 2019.