Full Service Brokerage Firm Conducts User Interviews to Develop New Client Strategy
Situation:
At the peak of the Great Recession, a major national bank purchased one of the many troubled wealth management companies. As the firm worked to merge its new acquisition with its existing investment banking arm, the company wanted to better understand the ways in which clients interact with full service brokerage firms, both in terms of its competitors as well as its own subsidiaries. In particular, the firm wanted to explore the following questions:
- How are financial planning and retirement advice-related services presented to clients?
- Which investment products are made available to clients?
- How do clients perceive the pricing and fees associated with financial products?
- How often do clients interact with their financial advisor and what methods of communication do they use?
Approach:
To meet our client's objectives, my company agreed to conduct user interviews with clients of nine different full service brokerage firms, including their own. To start, we first worked to develop a questionnaire that would be used to guide our conversations with study participants. After completing an initial draft, we met with the key stakeholders to get their feedback before we finalized the document. Click here to view a copy of the questionnaire.
Once the questionnaire was complete, we recruited individuals who matched the profile requested by the client firm. In total, we met with 23 individuals across the competitor set, conducting a minimum of two interviews per firm.
Deliverable:
I compiled findings from the sessions into a 66 page report. In addition to a detailed review of the individual participant interviews, the report also contained high-level findings, key recommendations to help guide the firm's strategy going forward, and an analysis of the three different segments of clients - passive investors, collaborative investors and self-reliant investors - that came out of our research.