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How financial advisors can seamlessly integrate email into their CRM

Think about it for a minute, how much does your business rely on email communication? 

Email has become such an important method of business communication. It’s accessible, fast, cheap and private - plus, it can be easily replicated and stored. 

I’ve actually had an email account since I was in college. But the norm these days is that elementary-aged kids are using email to communicate with teachers and collaborate with friends on class projects.  

According to statistics more than half of the global population now uses email - 4.3 billion people have active email accounts. 

Since building strong relationships is a core element of providing financial advice, a financial advisor Client Relationship Management (CRM) system should support email functionality. 

It’s no wonder that financial advisors are thrilled with AdvisorEngine CRM's latest integration with Office 365. 

AdvisorEngine CRM’s Office 365 integration

I had the chance to catch up with our Product Manager in charge of this integration, Arden Birdwell, and she described why this integration is so important, “Using the new email management piece, advisors can manage all aspects of their email within AdvisorEngine - no need to toggle between the CRM and Microsoft Outlook.”

Birdwell continued, “With this integration, you can automatically capture your email in both AdvisorEngine CRM and Outlook - this includes all received, sent, reply, reply all and forwarded emails.” Here are just some of the features: 

  • Seamlessly sync contacts between Office 365 and AdvisorEngine CRM 

  • Sync calendar events between Office 365 Calendar and AdvisorEngine CRM

  • Manage Emails within AdvisorEngine CRM in the new Email Management Workspace and from one record or action to another

  • Capture or route emails from email addresses that are not on a record

  • Remove captured email from an action or a record

  • Click the action ID or record ID from a recorded email to directly open the corresponding action or record 

Feedback from early integration users

Before rolling out this integration, we were able to test the market. I am pleased to say that we received a lot of positive feedback from our early users.

Diane Gaines, from Petersen Hastings Investment Management, reported that this integration delivered, “increased efficiency, fewer clicks, more visibility, quicker turn-around.” Who wouldn’t want increased efficiency?  

“Things seem more seamless.” Michael Sicuranza of Affinity Wealth Management LLC said. That was the goal of this project, to make things for financial advisory firms more seamless and efficient.

The ability to two-way sync your contacts, calendar and email provides those key data points necessary for success. 

Tips before enabling integration

Birdwell also provided some important tips to successfully launch the integration, “Any user that previously used the Junxure Outlook add-in should uninstall the add-in through the operating system prior to enabling the Office 365 integration.” 

To ensure your data is kept clean and consistent, Birdwell recommends that you set a unique tag such as “ContactSync” to your records imported from Outlook. This makes it easy to find them and ensures all necessary data points are accurately filled. And to eliminate duplicate data when initially setting up your contact sync, begin from a separate, empty folder. 

Next steps

Schedule a demo today to find out how to add this Office 365 integration to your technology stack.

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This blog is sponsored by AdvisorEngine Inc. The information, data and opinions in this commentary are as of the publication date, unless otherwise noted, and subject to change. This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered a recommendation to use AdvisorEngine or deemed to be a specific offer to sell or provide, or a specific invitation to apply for, any financial product, instrument or service that may be mentioned. Information does not constitute a recommendation of any investment strategy, is not intended as investment advice and does not take into account all the circumstances of each investor. Opinions and forecasts discussed are those of the author, do not necessarily reflect the views of AdvisorEngine and are subject to change without notice. AdvisorEngine makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made and will not be liable for any errors, omissions or representations. As a technology company, AdvisorEngine provides access to award-winning tools and will be compensated for providing such access. AdvisorEngine does not provide broker-dealer, custodian, investment advice or related investment services.

Kathy Crowley

Kathy Crowley

With over 10 years of experience in software sales and FinTech, Kathy spends her days sharing the incredible value of AdvisorEngine CRM with advisory firms. You may have seen her at conferences at the AdvisorEngine booth or recognize her voice from webinars. Having past experience as a CRM administrator, Kathy knows the important decision that your firm is making when choosing a CRM and is driven to ensure you have all the information you need. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to helping firms recognize the need for a CRM and how our solution can be the best choice for them.

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