A JERSEY-BASED software company has developed a “unique feature” designed to support communication between financial services teams and their clients.
ClientWindow’s new feature allows clients to send and receive messages on their usual WhatsApp app on their smartphones while the financial services team they are communicating with send and receive messages on their normal email platform.
This is designed to support “seamless communication between teams and clients”, while enabling firms to meet regulatory and data retention requirements.
The ClientWindow platform was originally designed and launched by chartered accountants David Moehle and Tim Zeale, who are both partners at Jersey-based PKF bba.
They launched the service after recognising the “difficulty professionals and financial services organisations have with communicating with their clients”.
“Private clients have come to expect personal, instant communications from their preferred messaging app, usually WhatsApp,” explained Mr Moehle. “However, professionals across financial services have the dilemma that using WhatsApp for client communications does not meet regulatory data retention obligations, and neither does it allow the broader teams within those organisations to easily read, reply to and action messages in those chat messages, as, historically, they have been stored in WhatsApp on individual phones.
“ClientWindow aims to solve these problems and our new feature is a game-changer. It allows financial services firms to use their email as usual, while clients use WhatsApp as usual, and ClientWindow works unobtrusively in the background to keep communications seamless and compliant.”
Mr Zeale added: “According to the Financial Conduct Authority, using messaging services, such as WhatsApp, on their own creates significant compliance risks. Regulators have also acted against firms and individuals for misconduct involving the use of unmonitored or encrypted communication apps.
“However, recent figures and evidence suggests that WhatsApp use is widespread, but the correct surveillance and retention of these messages is not. ClientWindow solves this problem by acting not only as a tool for excellent client communication but also as a compliance safeguard. The implementation of email integration provides an even more seamless method of communication for those professional services firms.”
