Financial services consultancy firm The Lang Cat has published its Answering the Call report on platform service.
Its research for the white paper revealed that 71% of advisers believe it’s impossible to judge a provider’s service before experiencing it.
More than half (51%) also said that they were “unclear on the value of service awards and ratings”.
Steve Nelson, The Lang Cat insight director, said: “Service means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s almost intangible due to its subjectivity. So, why do we in financial services so frequently combine a plethora of service-related activities into a single rating or award?
“The solution to this vast ambiguity is multi-faceted. We need a set of agreed, well-defined, measurable data points to compare service providers against. This is going to need significant thought and widespread buy-in to get it right. Servicing is the biggest driver of choice and the biggest source of frustration. It’s imperative we do better.”
Jonny Black, chief commercial and strategy officer at Abrdn, sponsor of the paper, added: “Service is this big thing, but it has such a complex and varied definition. It’s not something you can describe in a sentence − it means different things to different people. When you get service right, it can radically improve the ability for advisers to deliver for their clients.
“When you get service wrong, it ripples everywhere – the pain is disproportionate. That’s why it’s vital that as an industry, we engage to drive constant improvements in the service being delivered, and in transparency and measurement.”
