How Financial Services Firms Leverage Specialised Third-Party Partners to Optimise CRM Data for Strategic Success

Published on by Mayukha Perera

In today's data-driven world, CRM platforms have become indispensable for financial services firms; they help manage client interactions and also function as tools that can be used to gain valuable insights from CRM data that drive strategic decision-making of C-level executives. By analysing client, account, and interaction data stored in CRM systems, financial services firms can enhance and personalise customer experiences, optimise operational efficiencies, enhance risk management, boost profitability, and even use customer relationship management data for regulatory reporting requirements such as MiFID II.

While CRM platforms offer significant potential, banks and sell-side firms face several challenges in fully leveraging the data to arrive at insightful CRM analytics.

• Data silos and integration: Many firms tend to continue to store different components of customer relationship management data, such as client and account information, contact details, and client interaction, in separate systems. Some could also be maintaining publication, readership stats, and revenue data in separate systems, making it very challenging to get a complete and unified view of client information without having to spend considerable time reconciling CRM data between the various systems.

• Gaps in data quality: Banks that do not have a centralised department or point of contact (PoC) to manage the administration of CRM platforms inevitably face a number of challenges in CRM data quality; inaccuracies, incompleteness, non-streamlined data, and duplicates are some of the common issues that result in flawed insights.

• In-house resource constraints and cultural resistance: Convincing in-house sales and research analysts to follow due processes to ensure CRM data quality on a CRM platform would not only create resistance but would also result in a waste of valuable analyst time (spent on administrative and mundane tasks) that could otherwise be spent on building better client relationships.

• Lack of tech know-how: Some firms may lack the tech know-how of tools such as Python, SQL, Tableau, and PowerBI that help increase efficiencies and accuracies of CRM data optimisation for decision-making. This could pose a disadvantage when considering firms leveraging the support of specialist outsourcing partners that bring the required tech know-how to produce powerful insights using customer relationship management data.

• Legacy systems and methods: While most firms have moved to sophisticated CRM platforms such as Salesforce, Singletrack, Dynamics, and DealCloud, some still use legacy and outdated systems or old-school Excel sheets to maintain CRM data. Such firms are unable to realise the full potential of customer relationship management data due to the limitations of these outdated platforms.

How Acuity Knowledge Partners can help

We have multiple years of experience in offering tailored solutions to overcome the abovementioned challenges so banks and sell-side firms can optimise CRM data to its full potential:

Implementing CRM platforms and data migration:

• CRM recommendations based on client requirements – we assist in recommending the most suited CRM platform to migrate to, based on client objectives, team size, end use, etc.

• Deploying business analysts, CRM administrators, and developers as required for the implementation and migration of customer relationship management data from legacy platforms to the platform of choice (Salesforce, Singletrack, Dynamics, etc.).

• End-to-end implementation including finalising data fields, module integration, system integration, validations, business logic and links, and workflow processes

• Workflow process documentation to ensure business continuity

Streamlining CRM data through de-duplication and bulk cleansing:

• De-duplication of accounts, contacts and client activity

• Deploying tech tools such as Python and SQL to expedite the streamlining process, bulk-cleansing, and de-duplication of CRM data.

• Bridging data gaps of accounts and contacts and ensuring completeness of customer relationship management data captured on the platform.

• Ensuring thorough and unique CRM data is captured on the platform

• Ensuring data security

Ongoing CRM administration and maintenance:

• Central PoC for onboarding, contact and account edits, client interaction logs, etc., to ensure that only thorough, complete, and unique CRM data is entered into the platform.

• Coordinating with analysts and developers to ensure CRM data

• Training users and introducing customised training material and templates as required to improve customer relationship management data quality.

• Increasing bandwidth of onshore sales and research analysts by taking over the administrative responsibility for client onboarding, offboarding, updating client interactions, meeting notes, etc.

• Workflow process documentation

CRM data analytics and business intelligence for C-level executives’ decision-making:

• Compiling, automating reports required by COO/HoR for decision-making, meeting MiFID II requirements (commission, readability stats, KPI trackers, consumption reports, trading data, etc.)

• Automating reports with the use of Python, SQL, advanced Excel, etc., to derive actionable insights from CRM data.

• Data visualisation with the use of Tableau, PowerBI, etc., for even more meaningful insights from customer relationship management data.

• Automating custom broker-vote reports to track account performance

Conclusion

Client interaction data stored on CRM platforms is a powerful asset for financial services firms. By leveraging CRM data, banks can make informed decisions that enhance customer experiences, mitigate risks, and drive growth. As technology continues to evolve, the role of CRM systems in banking will only become more critical, enabling institutions to stay agile and competitive in an increasingly digital world. The key to success lies in leveraging customer relationship management data responsibly and innovatively, ensuring that every decision is rooted in a deep understanding of customers' needs and behaviours.

However, factors such as ensuring the quality of CRM data, the ability to integrate customer relationship management data with other ERP platforms, ensuring data security, and lack of onshore bandwidth remain challenges for financial firms. Leveraging the support of an expert outsourcing partner such as Acuity Knowledge Partners that brings the required tech know-how, experience, and expertise could help overcome these challenges, increasing the ability to use valuable insights from CRM data for strategic decisions.

Sources:

• How to Break Down Data Barriers: Optimizing Your CRM

• CRM in Banking: Top Implementation Challenges and Solutions

• CRM in Banking: Best Practices, Implementation & Challenges

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