This week we sat down with Simon Bullock, Partner of Mulberry Bow and user of Qwil.
Tell us a little bit about your business?
Mulberry Bow LLP is a boutique financial planning practice with Chartered status, based in the City of London. We are independent of all financial institutions and meet clients exclusively through personal recommendation.
Can you tell us more about the approach you have with your clients?
We like to say that we sit on the same side of the table as our clients. We take time to understand what is important for our clients, how finances are structured and what they want money to ‘do’ for them before building a considered, well informed financial plan.
How does technology fit in your highly personalised strategy?
Security of information and efficiency (enabling us to spend more time talking to clients, thinking about their position/options) are big drivers for us when we think about technology.
What are the challenges of using technology with your clients?
It's becoming challenging for all firms to communicate with clients, prospects and strategic partners in a secure and convenient way. We've not had any issues to date, but we hear about phishing, hacking, identity theft & fraud – mostly on email. Plus, apps like WhatsApp, while great for personal communications, are starting to 'creep' into the professional environment, which is problematic for reasons I won't go into here. That is where Qwil comes in.
What attracted you to Qwil?
We've worked with the team at Qwil on the development for over a year making sure the app works exactly as needed. It's built specifically for use by financial institutions and meets high standards for the way that your information is managed and controlled. The data included within the chat is only visible by us and clients can only see 'their' chats. We can also easily download a transcript and save it to our CRM, storing the audit trail.
How do you use it in practice?
We've now adopted it as integral part of our proposition to our clients. We invite a prospect from the first meeting with them, receiving their consent via the app to continue the conversation, conduct the on-boarding process and from then, the day-to-day interaction. Qwil is also used as an internal communication tool and has led to a significant reduction in email exchanges.
What would you say to your peers?
Check it out people, it might not seem that big a deal, but trust us - it's a game-changer. If you want an intro, let us know.