Financial services companies have, like many other businesses, used Salesforce to build and nurture valuable, lasting relationships with their customers for years. Since 2016, though, Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud has helped financial service companies serve their customers better by providing a dedicated solution that wholly supports their needs.
As such, it offers a range of intuitive features and a dedicated data model that helps advisors and businesses capture their customers’ information and needs more effectively. But who should use the Financial Services Cloud, and which features make it a better option than the standard Sales Cloud? In this post, we’ll look at these questions!
What Is Salesforce Financial Services Cloud?
If you’re running a financial services company, you’ll typically use Salesforce Financial Services Cloud instead of Sales Cloud, like many other businesses. This is because Financial Services Cloud is a CRM or Customer Relationship Management tool designed specifically for financial services businesses.
As such, the platform offers an extensive range of features aimed at helping financial services businesses serve their customers better by delivering stellar customer experiences while at the same time giving them valuable insights.
Who Should Use Financial Services Cloud?
We’ll look at Financial Cloud’s extensive range of features in more detail later in this post. But first, let’s consider who should use the platform. As you might expect, you’ll find Financial Services Cloud being used across several different areas of the financial services industry. The most prevalent of these are:
- Banking
- Lending
- Insurance
- Wealth management
Keep in mind, however, that any business offering financial services to its customers will benefit from using the tool.
Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud for Banking
Financial Services Cloud helps banks understand their customers and their unique needs better. The software allows them to track and visualize customer relationships and financial information. This, in turn, provides more context about every customer and their needs and expectations.
This additional context helps banks engage with their customers more effectively and offer exactly what they want. For example, by keeping track of a customer’s financial information, banks can see when a customer’s position changes and can then offer products and accounts uniquely suited to that customer.
Lending
For lending companies, Financial Services Cloud offers several benefits. For example, it gives them valuable insights into their business and customer behavior. These insights help them forecast customer behavior, make better decisions, and, ultimately, serve their customers better.
In addition, Financial Services Cloud provides these lending businesses with a complete view of every customer. All customer documents, accounts, relationships, and loan applications are in one place, so you can easily streamline your processes.
Insurance
Financial Services Cloud makes it simpler for every insurance company to know everything there is to know about every policyholder. In other words, the platform gives them a complete view of every customer, including:
- What they’ve insured
- Their claims
- Their family’s claims
- Policy details
And more!
Also, with the insights that Financial Services Cloud provides, insurance agents will have the tools necessary to make the proper recommendations to their customers based on their unique needs. For example, with all the information about every customer at their fingertips, insurance agents will see when a customer’s risk profile changes. They can follow up with the customer and offer them an appropriate product that will likely reduce their insurance costs.
This, in turn, increases customer satisfaction. Ultimately, this means that insurance companies will improve the customer journey for every policyholder and serve their changing needs better.
Wealth Management
Financial Services Cloud gives wealth management companies the tools to advise their clients better and help them achieve their financial goals. For instance, Financial Services Cloud allows agents to visualize a customer’s account information, goals, interactions, relationships, and engagements.
Thanks to artificial intelligence, wealth management companies using Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud will be able to personalize every engagement with their customers and recommend products based on every customer’s unique needs. Apart from this, having access to all customer information in one place makes advisors more productive.
Financial Service Cloud’s Key Features
Now that we’ve seen what companies typically use Financial Services Cloud, let’s look at the dedicated features you’ll access when you start using Salesforce’s Financial Service Cloud.
Financial Services Data Model
One of the major features that you’ll find in the Financial Services Cloud is its unique data model. Because the relationships with customers in financial services are so complex, Financial Services Cloud implements a data model incorporating industry-specific objects, permission sets, and user interfaces. At the core of this data model lies the Person Account or the Individual Account.
Both these models allow you to create a record from Salesforce’s account tab, but they store data on both the account and contact tabs. They do this in different ways, so which one you use depends on your business’s needs and the other financial services software you use that you’d like Salesforce to integrate with.
Relationship Builder and Mapping
With Financial Services Cloud, you can build and map relationships between the different members of a household. You can also map relationships to people outside the household, such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Apart from this, you’ll also be able to map external stakeholders like lawyers and financial advisors to the household.
Ultimately, this allows you to better understand the relationship between every person in a household. In turn, this offers several benefits. For example, by understanding the relationship, you’ll serve every household member better. Also, you’ll get referrals from household members a lot easier. Combined, this allows you to grow your business more effectively.
Business Milestones
We’ve already mentioned how Financial Services Cloud gives you a complete view of your customers. This includes the ability to capture and visualize important life events and business milestones. For example, when a couple’s child is born, their financial services needs change and evolve.
Likewise, a growing business that launches a new product might need new or different financial solutions. Capturing these events allows financial services businesses to create more personalized campaigns and engagements and recommend the appropriate products based on their customers’ requirements.
Financial Accounts and Roll-Ups
You’ve already seen how Financial Services Cloud allows you to map the members of a household and even external stakeholders. The platform will also give you deeper insights into every person’s financial accounts, including bank and investment accounts, insurance policies, and more.
By having a complete view of every customer’s portfolio or financial accounts and assets, advisors can better uncover new opportunities, make recommendations and formulate investment plans for their customers.
Referrals Made Easy with Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud
We’ve mentioned how mapping household members’ relationships helps you get more referrals. In addition to this, the platform also provides AI-backed referral scoring and routing. These allow you to gather qualified referrals into your referral pipeline. In your pipeline, you can ensure effective communication, which, in turn, allows you to improve your customer experience and build stronger relationships.
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Financial Service Cloud offers a range of three dashboards that provide valuable insights into your business and your customers. These dashboards help a financial service company make better, data-driven decisions. If the pre-made dashboards don’t suit your unique requirements, you can customize them or even create custom dashboards to give you the insights you need for reporting and analytics.
Action Plans, Document Tracking, and Approvals
Financial Services Cloud offers a range of features that simplify document collection. You’ll always have all the relevant documents for every customer. You can also create customized approval workflows and track customers’ approval statuses. You’ll get templates for tracking documents and tasks that help you manage customer engagements effectively.
AppExchange
Finally, another prominent feature of Salesforce Financial Services Cloud is that, like other Salesforce products, you’ll get access to AppExchange. It’s an app store where you can find applications to extend the capabilities of the Salesforce platform. Keep in mind, however, that not all apps on the AppExchange will integrate with Financial Services Cloud.
Implement the Right Solution for Your Financial Services Business Now
While the standard Salesforce Sales Cloud can be an effective tool for any business, Financial Services Cloud is a better option for financial services. With features such as a unique data model, visibility into relationships and stakeholders, and plenty of templates, the Financial Services Cloud is the perfect dedicated solution for financial service businesses.
If your book of business is growing, don’t let it stagnate. Instead, use Salesforce’s Financial Service Cloud and further boost your growth!
