By John C. Drachman

Will money managers soon be showing their customers more love?

According to D. Bruce Johnston, due to pressures from outside the industry, most notably from banks, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Loud and clear: customers want attention

“As the customer service benchmark is being raised outside of the industry, money managers too will find themselves held to a higher standard by investors and advisors,” added the president of DBJ Associates.

Banks have raised customer service bar

Johnston sees part of the pressure coming from the rise of mobile technology, especially  iPads, which “are conditioning people to expect instant access to information 24/7.”

According to Johnston, such initiatives are not unknown in investment distribution. “It’s something asset managers have been trying to teach through value-add programs — to be more sensitive to the clients’ needs,” he said in a recent Hannah Glover article for Ignites. “It’s time for asset managers to apply the same standards to both advisors and investors,” he added.

Johnston, co-author of Introduction to Social Media with R. Jeffrey Young of Huntington Asset Services, added that “As firms study and adapt to the new world of enhanced customer service, they should not overlook creative and cost-efficient solutions that are close at hand.”

Johnston concluded that social media blogs and networks offer financial marketers a convenient and inexpensive way to provide more service-oriented communications to customers.