The making of the Client Behavior Benchmark

The making of the Client Behavior Benchmark

Bringing behavioral science to investment client experience

Here’s a story asset managers can be proud of – a breakthrough in how the industry leverages behavioral science to improve investment client experience (CX). This innovation, the Client Behavior Benchmark, allows firms to tap into valuable client behavior data that’s already in their systems. If your firm isn’t part of the benchmark yet, now is the time to join. Take control of your client data, uncover powerful insights, and drive better engagement.

A decision to be part of the solution

Institutional investors – such as pension funds and insurance companies – play a crucial role in securing long-term financial stability for societies. Globally, these institutions manage an estimated $30.5 trillion in assets. [1]

Since much of these assets are delegated to external managers, client experience (CX) is critical to successful relationships. However, in 2019, Accomplish research revealed a troubling reality: negative client experience indicators were double the positive ones.

What was causing this? Asset managers were unintentionally distracting clients from their core tasks by:

  • Failing to fully understand client needs.
  • Providing inconsistent updates, forcing clients to chase information.
  • Encountering data issues in reports and invoices.

Further investigation uncovered an even bigger problem: 77% of asset managers lacked a coherent, end-to-end CX strategy.

At Accomplish, we knew something had to change. So we decided to focus exclusively on helping asset managers improve their client experience – because when firms get CX right, institutional and intermediary clients can perform their vital functions more effectively.

The turning point: “we need to do this regularly, but we need data”

In July 2019, we convened a closed-door discussion with the Heads of CX from 10 major asset management firms.

For two hours, they vented about the challenges they faced. Then, a representative from a top 5 asset manager made a game-changing statement:

“We need to do this regularly, but we need data.”

That moment sparked an industry-wide initiative.

The solution: a quarterly forum dedicated to researching CX for asset managers

The group agreed to launch a quarterly CX Forum – a collaborative space where asset managers could define their biggest CX challenges and shape the research agenda.

How it would work:

  • Asset managers would set the research priorities.
  • Accomplish conduct the research and chair and administer the group (pro bono).
  • The collective goal: improve client experiences, driven by data.

As the forum grew – from 10 firms to 34 in just 12 months – we began uncovering the core obstacles holding asset managers back.

What was holding asset managers back?

Through a series of studies, we identified three major industry-wide barriers:

  • Lack of a common language and definition – without standardized CX metrics, firms struggled to measure success consistently.
  • Lack of data about CX – most firms relied on anecdotal client feedback instead of behavioral data.
  • Unclear benchmark for ‘good’ CX – without comparative data, firms didn’t know whether their CX efforts were effective.

Our next step? Finding a better way to measure client experience – one based on data, not opinion.

From client feedback to client behavior: a data-driven breakthrough

By mid-2020, the CX Forum had explored several approaches, including:

Then, in July 2020, a defining moment occurred.

As we reviewed the limitations of client feedback, someone asked:

“If what clients say won’t give us the data we need, how about we measure what they do?”

Bringing behavioral science to investment client experience – a lockdown project

Through the winter of 2020/21, a sub-group of firms from the forum collaborated with Accomplish to design the benchmark.

Key questions we tackled:

  • What specific client behaviors should we measure?
  • How do we ensure consistency across different firms?
  • What data framework and quality controls are needed?

To govern the project, we established a self-governing User Group that continues to guide the benchmark today.

By Q2 2021, we had developed:

  • A taxonomy of 23 client behaviors, covering key moments across the institutional journey – consultant relations, web engagement, sales, onboarding, reporting, and more.
  • A data ingestion framework with quality controls to ensure accuracy.
  • A pilot test using live data from EMEA, which confirmed that 82% of the metrics were viable.

By September 2021, we had achieved something groundbreaking: the first-ever application of behavioral science to investment client experience.

The Client Behavior Benchmark – survival of the fittest

Since then, the benchmark has continued to evolve.

What’s changed in the last two years?

  • We refined and expanded the set of client behaviors to ~30 metrics.
  • We terminated non-performing metrics and archived constants.
  • We expanded the benchmark to the Americas and APAC.
  • We built a multi-year time series to reveal long-term trends.

Today, the benchmark categorizes client behaviors into:

  • Leading indicators → Behaviors that involve a gift of time (e.g., engaging with content, attending events).
  • Lagging indicators → Behaviors that involve a transfer of money (e.g., making investments, signing contracts).

Real-world impact: what firms are seeing

One global asset manager used the benchmark’s insights to increase webinar attendance by 20% (a gift of time), which then translated into a 15% rise in RFP success rate, feeding more qualified opportunities into its sales conversion process (a transfer of money).

And the best part? Firms that joined during the MVP stage remain our clients to this day.

In 2022/23, the number of firms in the Client Behavior Benchmark doubled – and we’re excited to welcome more in 2023/24.

Ready to take control of your cx data?

The Client Behavior Benchmark gives asset managers the data they need to enhance client experience, improve engagement, and gain a competitive edge.

Firms in the benchmark are already gaining a competitive edge. Don’t get left behind—join today!

[1] In 2022, Institutional Investor reported that 31% of global AUM was institutional and, in 2023, BCG reported global AUM was $98.3tn. So, we can broadly estimate the size of the global institutional market at $30.5tn.

Picture of Adam Grainger

Adam Grainger

Behavioral analytics | Business intelligence | Asset management

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