March 17, 2021
“I really think Ayoa can be a game-changer for our industry” – Case study with financial advisors, Klaraos
For something which makes the world go round, money can sometimes have a bad reputation. Despite this, it is valued by everyone in some way or another. Klaraos – a financial advising and planning firm based in the US – therefore makes it their priority to discover what money means to every one of their clients so they can maximise its potential for them.
To do so, they adopted Ayoa to transform the coldness and hardness of cash into a more family-friendly, customer-orientated and engaging experience. We caught up with Gabby Gallegos, Financial Advisor Rep for Klaraos, who is responsible for all of Klaraos’ existing client relationships and that of prospective ones, to hear about how Ayoa is making it easier than ever for her company to put their clients first:
“Our adoption of Ayoa was very cliche – I searched for ‘the most client-friendly financial advisor mind mapping software’ into Google and there appeared Ayoa. Considering our commitment to our clients, Ayoa was therefore instantly on my list of pieces of software to test out.
During the testing stage of Ayoa, I tried to keep not only our company’s perspective in mind but also that of our customers. Being part of the financial world, which admittedly can sometimes be very dry, grey and bland, any way to be accommodating to clients is really important. Whilst testing Ayoa it was impossible to miss its colourfulness and engaging nature which I was sure would be very welcomed by our clients; too often with software, the only colour which is shown is red (think the squiggly line for spell-check) – a colour you really don’t want to see when concerned with finances!
My intuition therefore told me that Ayoa was a platform we could use with clients in order to form a better relationship with them. This has been achieved by Ayoa making us more productive for our clients and ensuring good ideas aimed at helping them aren’t going to waste. In this respect, I really think Ayoa can be a game-changer for our industry because it means everything we do internally, from the conceptual all the way through to working directly with our customers, is improved.
Capturing ideas and turning them into action
For instance, our internal discussions now frequently result in a mind map being created to store all of our ideas. We do this because it puts it into a format which is easy for all of us to see and understand how our new ideas relate to each other, our existing processes and other factors we need to consider. Storing our knowledge in mind maps means that we are able to more effectively think about what needs to happen after our discussions to turn the ideas which we want to run with into tangible actions.
With Ayoa having task and project management built in it is really helpful at this stage, not least because of the Task Bar which enables us to continue viewing our mind map whilst turning elements of it into actions which will form our new processes. Without Ayoa’s mind maps allowing us to collect and dissect our ideas, the processes which are innovating our company would never have been possible and likely would have gone to waste.
Supporting our clients
Our daily processes as a company are equally important because these are what we now do day-in-day-out with our clients. Our clients are also supported by Ayoa because we have been able to produce our own Gantt Timeline templates which remind us every step of the way what needs to be done in order to properly support them and their assets. This can be during our onboarding process for prospective clients or producing and securely delivering client financial reports every quarter. No longer does anyone need to be reminded of their responsibilities – Ayoa does it for us, freeing up time for other activities.
The production and actioning of our processes are therefore made possible and lighter by Ayoa, but when it really shines is when we interact with our clients. We use Ayoa with our clients in numerous scenarios from initial discovery meetings to our regular meetings with them, but with it always being there, an obvious effect which it has had is relaxing our clients. It sounds an odd thing to highlight but when money is involved, for many so too is stress. However, Ayoa’s format makes everything clear to them. Whether it be us adding sticky notes to a digital whiteboard in Ayoa as we discover what money means to them and where their values about it come from; us producing and updating colourful mind maps of their assets; or us scheduling actions for ourselves directly from their personal mind map as we talk with them (all of which they can see as we work on), Ayoa enables our clients to know they are being properly cared for.
Even during this time of working remotely it has seen our clients feel involved thanks to Ayoa’s video integration, plus screen-sharing capabilities and how we can add clients to their relevant resources within Ayoa. This is undoubtedly a bonus to clients but also quite beautiful from my perspective considering my role of wanting to ensure that our clients feel supported.
Connecting our internal team
Although we primarily found Ayoa to allow us to better support our clients, it has already done so much more than that. For starters, a really noticeable impact which Ayoa has had for our whole team is how it has connected us. The multiple ways to communicate with each other in Ayoa, whether it be via board chats, the comments section on branches and tasks, or even video calls, means we are able to keep each other informed really well without any confusion – to the extent that our colleagues in other parts of the world now feel closer than ever because we are all using the same piece of software.
As a company, we feel that we are now all working with each other a lot better but this is probably also due to the flexibility Ayoa offers each of us as individuals. I was a bit sceptical at first but Ayoa’s folders aren’t shared; rather everyone can sort their files in their own way. This sounded like it would cause a muddle; however, it has meant everyone can organise things in a way which makes sense to them, having an equally positive impact on the whole team. Whilst folders in Ayoa can be personally sorted, resources can still be shared with others, yet here too, every individual is catered for by being able to see them in a style which works best for them. In our company, there are a lot of different working styles – I’m very neat and structured so prefer Ayoa’s workflow view for instance, but my boss is much more visual so really appreciates being able to see the same content and work on it at the same time whilst in Ayoa’s canvas mode or even as a mind map.
Overall, the cohesion Ayoa has brought to our work has invariably benefited both our clients and our company as a whole. We all love the software but to sum it up in one sentence: Ayoa is remarkably helpful with the completion of every single company process, organisation, and is user-friendly for everyone (both clients and colleagues).”
Ayoa aims to help make communication across teams and client relationships a seamless process, giving you one dynamic workspace to collaborate, capture ideas and turn these into action. Discover more about how Ayoa can help you with your client management and how financial advisors can use Ayoa to help support their client discovery and financial planning processes.
Ross McGee
Ross studied English Literature at Cardiff University, enjoying the rich diversity of perspectives and experiences which texts presented to be analysed. Graduation took him into a marketing role where consideration of various interpretations and drivers could be continued. Today his interest in understanding different standpoints has turned into a passion for supporting neurodiversity - a catalyst for alternative, creative thinking and societal breakthroughs.