Why relationship managers must embrace the hybrid approach

It’s not just about giving advice but also using the right tools.

Relationship managers aren’t just expected to give advice nowadays. They also have to be experts in digital trends and use technology in order to provide clients with swift, accurate investment advice whilst still retaining that human touch.

Speaking at the Comarch User Group 2024 conference, Bank of Ayudhya’s Passanee Udompanich highlighted the need for relationship managers (RMs) to embrace the hybrid approach.

“Even though digital has become more popular, human skill [or] human touch is still a key element in dealing with wealthy clients, especially high net worth clients,” Udompanich, who is Bank of Ayudhya’s executive vice president for investment product management, told attendees of the conference, which took place on 5 June at the Palace Under The Rams, at Krakow, Poland.

“[RMs] need to be able to blend technology with personalized interaction, and it is very crucial for them to know how to scan the client preference and expectation in order for them to cater the service level– mix of digital and personalized services– to make them happy,” she added.

Transform
Udompanich looked back at the ways the role of RMs have transformed, using her experiences as a former RM twenty years ago.

Banks in Asia, especially, reportedly require RMs to prioritise three areas: digital agency, hybrid approach, and skill development.

“RMs need to understand digital trends, learn how to use digital tools and platforms, and also use them to improve efficiency in interacting with the clients,” Udompanich said.

Bank of Ayudhya, for their part, upgraded their wealth management system in 2019 through a partnership with Comarch. But having the right tools is just one step.

“Technology makes investment decisions more accurate and faster. RMs as an individual or human cannot compete with AI generated advice,” she noted.

Instead, RMs need to focus on developing their human skills, which technology cannot do. 

High net worth clients, for example, still prefer interacting face-to-face.

One important area is behavioral coaching, according to Udompanich. Even with a digital platform [and] digital information, clients make emotional decisions. 

“The role of RMs to guide, to coach their clients to stay disciplined, especially when that is money volatility, particularly like in 2022 when everything was going down south,” she recalled. 

“They [clientes] need to stay disciplined, and they need to focus on that investment objective and accuracy. We invest a lot in terms of system organization and also varieties of training to ensure that our people can achieve these training priorities,” she added.

Meeting expectations
Ultimately what matters is that wealth management firms meet clients differing expectations.

High net worth clients, for example, typically prefer face-to-face interaction with their advisor, with digital tools used to to support the transactions or for reporting, Udompanich observed. In contrast, mass market clients are more comfortable with using digital platforms so long as it provides sufficient information and investment advice.

Ensuring that the platform is user friendly, especially for transactional banking channels, is key to keep clients happy, she added.

Wealth management firms should also sufficiently address issues around security and data.

“Clients are more concerned about their data, the personal data linkage or fraudulent activities, and that's why they expect their banks to have an emphasis on cyber security measures to help ensure that their data are being protected,” Udompanich said.

The last expectation, she said, revolves around innovation.

“Banks are not competing amongst themselves any longer. They compete with FinTech companies. Apart from standard, normal or typical wealth management services, clients expect to have FinTech-like innovative products or digital platforms with fancy features,” she said.

“This is very challenging for banks whose core banking systems are pretty odd or even obsolete, and also connect with so many legacy applications which are very hard to modify,” Udompanich added.

“Client expectations are very dynamic. For the bankers to survive in this competitive environment, we need to move fast and adapt even faster,” she said.