Virtual Expectations

Clients’ expectations have changed. And that is in part explained, and fueled by, technology. In a Jan. 29 session of the NTSA 30th Anniversary Summit in Tampa, FL, Lincoln Investment Vice President of Branch Development Tom Lakatos offered his insights on this development.

Lakatos was definitive. “If you don’t engage with clients electronically, you are an outlier,” he declared. Clients live on their cell phones, he said, noting, “we’re in a race to keep up. “If you tell me they’re not responding to your phone calls and to your email, why wouldn’t you text them?” he asked.

But employing technology is not just a matter of catching up. “Technology has leveled the playing field. It has made competition much more difficult,” said Lakatos.

Lakatos is aggressive in applying technology in his operations. His whole operation is remote, employing a variety of apps and other electronic tools. He told attendees that they employ a “technologically sophisticated model” that is designed to meet people where they are in the use of technology.

In the course of doing business in such a way, Lakatos says, there are some non-negotiables. One is use of video. It’s better to see the client, Lakatos said, calling use of video technology “the difference maker.” Video technology keeps electronic transactions from supplanting relationships, he said.

Another non-negotiable is holding virtual quarterly meetings; to do so, he reported, they use the “Go to Meeting” app with a video feature. It helps in establishing a relationship of trust, he explained.

That trust can be heightened through electronic functions such as locking screens together, Lakatos said, which allows one to walk a client through online paperwork as if one were looking over a document face to face over a conference table.

Lakatos’ use of technology entails more than holding virtual meetings and face-to-face communication; it also encompasses the financial transactions they discuss. “The truth is, financial planning has changed,” he said, telling attendees that his office uses e-money.

Technology is also a means to increase clients’ investment in their own financial planning and to make them ore invested in it. Low retirement account balances are the result of bad decisions and bad planning, he said; technology can help in changing that. And, he added, they can communicate a sense of urgency to their clients through technology as well.

“Technology will change your life if you let it,” Lakatos said.