In my previous post, I explained the characteristics of a good operations team using the OPTIC acronym, which stands for:

Ownership

Purpose

Timeliness

Investigate

Consistency

Knowing these traits is helpful, but how does an RIA firm instill them in its operations team?

The answer is simple: Your operations team is part of your company culture, so it should work the same way your firm does.

I know this isn’t a groundbreaking insight. But thinking about it a little deeper will help you identify which OPTIC characteristic will be the most beneficial to your firm. For instances, maybe you’re operations team is doing great with investigate and curiosity. But your firm is regularly introducing new tools or processes before the existing ones are mastered. In this case, consistency might need to be a focus. Or perhaps you’re just stacking new tools and processes without adjusting or removing the existing ones. Then you may want to work on purpose. On the flip side, what if your firm is incredibly consistent and has done things the same way for years without examining them? Your tools and processes were probably fine for the past 10 years, but are they good for the next five? Maybe … maybe not. In this instance, your team needs to work on the investigate component of OPTIC and regularly assess their effectiveness now and in the future.

Implementing OPTIC Into Your Operations

While the OPTIC characteristics each firm needs to focus on vary, it’s still important to understand each one and, when necessary, instill them in operations team.

The first two characteristics, ownership and purpose, are the cornerstones of the OPTIC approach. Ownership requires someone to take charge of the firm’s reporting data. This responsibility is an integral part of the job function and firm overall – not just something that needs to be done. For instance, ownership should be defined for updating and maintaining data in all your various systems, including your CRM and financial planning software. It’s essential to define the data that needs to be tracked and assign responsibility for it so that everyone knows who’s in charge of it.

Purpose is the next critical characteristic. Most firms have plans and projections. These goals inform how operations will function and the choices they’ll make to support the business. It may be that your firm decides to hire a dedicated person, or a combo client service/ops person, at a certain client level. When hiring, you have two choices: you can hire early, or you can hire late. I highly recommend hiring early to avoid negative impacts on your firm’s growth.

Once you have an ops person, involve them in the operations goal-setting process. This will help them develop into a leadership role and think more strategically. One way to do this is to allow them to handle your firm’s reporting system contract. When the contract is up for renewal, ask them to evaluate the existing system and lead the search for a new one, if needed. Understanding the purpose behind what they’re doing will help inform the criteria they use and make better decisions. It can also help promote the investigation and curiosity aspect of the role.

Timeliness and consistency are related, and you can do similar things to develop them. A good exercise for improving both is to ask your ops person or team to document a process. It can be a quarterly report, client onboarding or meeting preparation process – as long as it’s specific and repeatable. The details for each step do not need to be super detailed – a high-level overview is fine.

This exercise will help identify potential bottlenecks and improvements and ensures that everyone understands what goes into a specific process. It provides an outline of the work that needs to be done for the task, and the time needed to accomplish it. Documenting the process means there will be consistency each time it’s done, which will improve timeliness. It also gives ops a chance to identify areas where exceptions are made for specific clients – and whether it’s being consistent with what it’s delivering.

While it might not seem like a big deal, offering a client an exception can throw off service delivery for the rest of the firm’s clients. I understand the reason for exceptions – everyone wants their clients to feel valued and heard. But making those exceptions, can take away from what you’re doing for other clients. This is where mistakes are most likely to be made and missed. Providing great service to all clients by treating them the same avoids these issues and allows your firm to scale more effectively.

Investigation can be developed in multiple ways. Encourage your ops person or team to ask why and normalize not having all the answers. Create space for them to learn by trial and error by focusing on the process of discovery rather than just results. This can be as simple as blocking out time on a calendar for long-term or strategic thinking. Encourage them to critically examine their assumptions and the status quo. Leverage their interests by having them start with a task or project that they’re really interested in and build out from there.

The Benefits of OPTIC Ops

An OPTIC ops team or individual has your back and is working to reliably deliver your client experience, so you can focus on being an advisor. In addition, having standardized processes allows you to be more efficient in serving your clients. You know that every client is getting the same high quality service as you grow. Operational excellence also helps to keep things running smoothly. Ops can look down the road, know what’s coming and prepare your firm for the future. Plus, you’ll have more engaged and interested ops team that’s more likely to stick around for the long term because they feel valued! Your clients will benefit from a communicative, high functioning team, and your firm will benefit from a variety of different perspectives.

Is your wealth management firm interested in starting or building its operations team? Contact me for an introductory consultation.