Investing in the age of AI

With the UK fintech marketplace brimming with options, a lack of choice is hardly a challenge for financial advisory firms. We can all piece together a tech stack that ticks the boxes and matches the quirks of our business. A quick look across platforms usually delivers enough of those reassuring “yes, it does that” moments, even if the solution is not absolutely perfect.

What’s easier to overlook, however, is customer service. In an increasingly crowded fintech landscape, I would question if great customer service is becoming a critical differentiator.

As world-famous management consultant Peter F. Drucker observed back in 1954, “A company’s primary responsibility is to serve its customers.” Fast-forward to today, and we see how prescient that advice remains. A 2015 UK study found that 63% of customers had walked away from a brand over poor service. By 2025, research shows over half would leave even a favourite brand after one or two bad experiences. And if you make them repeat themselves? Seventy-three percent would reconsider the relationship. Capgemini’s global study drives the point home: 81% of consumers will pay more for a better experience.

So what if customer service wasn’t just an expected feature, but the leading differentiator? What if in financial services, the CRM provider that wins isn’t the one with the most bells and whistles but the one delivering the best experience?

Enter Plannr Technologies: a CRM engineered for financial advisers

Plannr isn’t just another CRM. It was conceived through a collaborative design process, shaped with feedback from around 70 advice firms during development. Its creators, Gareth Thompson and Nick Harper, describe it as “a product for the profession, built by the profession.”

Plannr is a CRM that reflects the real-world needs of advisers, using a completely modern API-first construction to solve the problems the incumbent CRM systems are still burdened with.

Their collaborative ethos plays out in its development cadence too, with over 100 enhancements released every month, meaning the product is constantly evolving based directly on feedback given and user needs. 

As Calum, IFA - Excaliber Associates, put it:

“Been pushing for the company to trial Plannr CRM, after the horrors of trying to use another archaic CRM in the 21st century. Got my teeth into it today and all I can say is, wow. Incredibly impressed with how intuitive it is… 2–3 hours, and an admin and I have cracked it. Tried to level with our previous provider many times, but it was like meeting a brick wall. A beast that is too big, with too many unnecessary parts.”

Why service stands out

CRM “support” often means slow replies, ticket queues, and boilerplate answers. Plannr decided to flip that narrative and make great service a core philosophy. Live chat is built into the desktop app, staffed by real people who know the product, and who respond fast. Behind the scenes, they call it The Plannr Way, and have a clearly documented ethos for anyone that contacts the company, no matter what they need.

As Calum noted:

“I’m amazed with their responsiveness alone. Have a question? A convenient live chat in the corner. Want an integration? The API is open source and they listen to users, even if it takes a little time… Try getting answers for something on the other CRMs in the market, use the community if you can find it or wait weeks for an email response, and good luck changing anything. I promise you I’m not a sales rep, just very impressed.”

Emma New, founder of Rose FP Solutions - outsourced administrators, echoed that sentiment:

“Completely agree. I use various different back office processing systems and CRMs and they are by far more responsive. Their thing is to build something for advisers and how they want it. Which is great.”

Live chat performance: Plannr’s service promise

Plannr Live Chat Performance

• Median response time: 1m 45s
• Teammate CX score: 84.7%
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): 96.9%

Those stats aren’t marketing gloss; they reflect real, consistent performance. In an industry where “live chat” can mean 15 to 30 minutes of waiting, Plannr’s sub-two-minute median is exceptional. And the high CX and CSAT scores show that it’s not just fast replies, but also a commitment to solving problems effectively.

Why fast, quality live chat matters

Speed is vital because advisers often operate under time-sensitive pressures: onboarding a client before a market window closes, preparing a review ahead of a meeting, or needing urgent help before submitting documentation. In those moments, waiting even 10 minutes for a response can derail workflows.

Plannr’s team not only responds quickly, but they resolve queries without endless back-and-forth. An adviser might need help pulling a complex report, adjusting a workflow, or integrating with a provider feed and they can get an answer in under two minutes without leaving their workspace; a human rep is able to access their CRM site to see the problem in real time, make any suggestions or deliver solutions, and access the underlying code to identify if any fixes are required.

The company’s Teammate CX score of 84.7% reflects not just speed but quality, the team are rated on their ability to understand context, give clear solutions, and leave the customer better informed. The 96.9% CSAT score is a direct endorsement from users, showing that nearly every advice professional who interacts with Plannr’s live chat leaves satisfied.

In a world where sometimes there aren’t enough people to go around, Plannr have engaged the use of AI bots to source help from their knowledge bank of articles and help guides, to provide the answers to customers' basic questions. 70% of consumers believe there is a clear gap between companies that leverage AI effectively in customer service and those that don’t. Nearly 8 in 10 consumers say AI bots are helpful for simple issues. Where the query surpasses a simple ‘how does this work?’ question, a real person is standing by to chip in with advanced guidance and support.

The result? Service as a proposition, not a footnote

By merging functionality, integrations, simplicity, team responsiveness, and a genuine desire to build what works, Plannr positions customer service as its central proposition.

Plannr’s whole approach, intuitive software, fast human support, and regular client updates, makes service an integral part of the product, not an afterthought. That creates a smoother experience for advisers, which ultimately means better service for their clients.

If CRM providers took the same service-first approach, the winners would be the ones who make onboarding effortless, solve problems fast, and give advisers complete confidence in the tools they’re using. In a world where customers expect more and switching is easy, service isn’t optional - it becomes the leading differentiator.

Plannr proves that when CRM stops being “just software” and starts being a service proposition, everything changes.

Get in touch:

plannrcrm.com