Collaborative technology and the advent of new service offerings in the era of COVID-19

When Chris Ridd sat down to speak with Andy Fenton of Fenton Financial to discuss how he and his advisory business are coping, the conversation spanned several topics including  technology, Instagram TV, client communication and a summary of how he’s been managing his client’s finances amid this crisis. 

Andy begins by telling Chris how busy Fenton Financial was prior to the market shock of COVID-19. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t working harder than I’ve ever worked before.” commented Andy, as he went on to explain that when the markets first crashed he rushed to put together communications for his clients, when another shock hit the market. 

Andy felt the situation was evolving so quickly that the only way to get ahead was to get on top of it. He decided to do this by developing a cohervice series of platforms that communicated directly with his clients, giving them valuable peace-of-mind and updates. This approach was made up of Instagram TV, Zoom for webinars and meetings, live video streaming and Facebook groups, as Andy felt that he needed to go to where people were already communicating, not bringing them somewhere new to communicate. 

“Client’s were wondering what was going on, what legislation was in place, what did the stimulus’ mean, so we needed to give practical and calm guidance.” Andy and his team developed their own contingency plan for their business, figuring out what their 5 stages of planning were and voicing that to their clients so they could prepare their own businesses with similar planning. 

For the past two years Andy has been developing a new service that’s a membership-based platform which will give access to DIY services, act as a single source of truth for all financial data and provide collaborative technologies so that clients can be guided through it at all times. 

“We’re going into that space now where it’s how you use technology partners that communicate with other technologies, it’s about how you bring them together and I honestly believe whoever does that really well will start to own big niches in the market.”

You can watch the full episode here