The Client Service Trifecta: Family Office Software Client Support, Education, and Training

Using Client Service as a Mechanism to Qualify Family Office Technology Providers

Capabilities and tools, code and databases, reports and more reports.

When it comes to family office technology evaluations, these tend to be the topics that dominate most conversations. And for good reason: These topics are, no doubt, core to selecting a solution that will work for your family office.

But a technology solution that merely works for your family office is a far cry from a technology solution that enhances your family office. Your family office software should extend beyond functionality and reporting. Ideally, an investment of this magnitude should support the growth and strategy of the family, generation over generation.

In our experience, the key to finding a dependable technology partner with a staying power equal to the family wealth itself is to look beyond the product or service and evaluate the whole of the firm’s client service approach.

It’s no secret that at SEI Family Office Services, we routinely cite the importance of client service as a key consideration when choosing a family office software provider.

[Read 5 Questions to Help You Evaluate Your Technology Firm’s Client Service Team]

As a 20-year veteran in the family office solution space, we deeply value our client relationships and have gone to great efforts to refine our client service model over the years. And while it’s easy to equate client service with call centers and issue resolution, we take a far more personal approach to client service, focusing on three key areas that allow us to connect with our clients: Client support, client education, and client training.

If you are in the process of evaluating family office software providers, here’s what we recommend looking for in each of these three areas:

Client Support

Oftentimes, the most common face of client service is client support. In the traditional sense of client support, this is the real human answering the phone, replying to your email, or triaging your support ticket. In a more modern sense, it could equate to chatbots, automated voice systems, or robotic process automation (RPA).

When evaluating your technology provider’s client support capabilities, consider the following:

• Support hours and availability
• Location of support staff
• Types of support channels (i.e. phone, email, online support portal, etc.)
• Experience and/or qualifications of support staff
• Self-service support capabilities

Client Education

Client education can come in a variety of forms, from knowledge bases, setup guides, and product release notes to step-by-step process and policy documentation. A key pillar in any client service model, education is fundamental to giving clients the tools they need to successfully operate a wealthtech solution. But perhaps more notably, this facet of client service puts clients in the driver’s seat, allowing them to acquire the knowledge and skills they need so that they can become self-sufficient within the application.

When evaluating your technology provider’s client education capabilities, consider the following:

• Availability of online, self-service product documentation
• Communication strategy related to product enhancements, upgrades, and announcements
• Creation of thorough process documentation and/or best practices for critical operations
• Access to how-to guides, tutorials, and setup manuals
• Opportunity to join peer networks and/or forums for best practices, tips, and tricks

Client Training

Ongoing client training is critical to maximizing your family office’s technology investment. Training represents the tipping point from becoming self-sufficient to proficient in an application and often covers more advanced features and functions of the technology. At SEI Family Office Services, we offer a variety of training opportunities including ad hoc client-specific trainings, recorded tutorials, live group trainings, and our pinnacle training event exclusively for our family office clients: SEI’s IMMERSION User Conference.

When evaluating your technology provider’s client training capabilities, consider the following:

• Availability of dedicated, in-house training staff
• In-person and/or virtual group training opportunities
• One-on-one custom training opportunities
• Access to user conferences, regional user groups, or client communities
• Accreditation of training content

By checking the boxes in these three areas of client service, your family office can feel more confident in not only the technology you’ve selected, but the people, processes, and documentation that will support you going forward. More importantly, these areas—even more so than the software itself—will define how you engage, connect, and grow with your technology partner for years to come.

Learn more about how SEI Family Office Services builds lasting relationships and connects with our family office and financial institution clients through education, support, and training in our mini ebook, Our Commitment to Exceptional Client Service.